Pros

Cons

• Europe-wide network
• This PPC search engine is present in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland.
• Mixture of search and content deals on search engines, ISPs and destination sites
• Distribution partners vary by country. Includes Lycos Europe (channels & directory), Netscape, DogPile and InfoSpace
• Signup costs recently reduced with two packages available, self or full service
• Keyword research tools for each territory
• Helpful client services
• Merger with FindWhat leading to further innovations

• Traffic levels vary by country
• Quality of traffic varies by sector; for some businesses traffic is very good, for others poor
• Have to signup individually for each country
• Distribution networks has lost some well-known engines over the last 12 months
• Backend is outdate compared to Google, Overture and Mirago
• Sometimes hard to manage campaigns or budgets using systems
• Autobid tool not free

Recommendation

"Recommended" - Although MIVA (formerly Espotting) lost Yahoo! Europe to Overture in 2003, there is still good traffic to be had from this pioneering engine. The distribution network is a mixture of second tier search engines, ISPs and destination sites, incorporating search results and contextual deals. These include leading sites in vertical channels (e.g. LastMinute.com in travel) that can offer high quality traffic for some advertisers.

Completion of the company's merger with FindWhat in Q3 of 2004 should lead to new innovations. FindWhat-Espotting's independent ownership (on the NASDAQ) may mean the combined company wins high profile partners as search engines and ISPs look to stop using the PPC results of competitors Yahoo! (Overture) and Google.

MIVA (formerly Espotting) is definitely worth trying for your campaigns in Europe.

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