Dealing w/ the New Overture

Transcription

$64.00
The Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook
© 2006
By Mona Elesseily
Contents are the intellectual property of the author and Page Zero Media.
Do not distribute without permission.
Mona Elesseily, Page Zero Media
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media.................................... 5
Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................. 7
Why advertise on Y!SM?............................................................................... 8
Reach - The #1 Consideration in Online Ad Buying........................................... 8
Y!SM is Different from Other PPC Search Engines. ........................................... 9
Y!SM Distribution Network ................................................................... 9
User Demographics............................................................................ 9
Some Advertisers Can Achieve Better ROI on Y!SM...................................... 10
Leverage Efforts from Other PPC Campaigns................................................. 11
Rising Advertising Prices: Is it Possible to Achieve a Healthy ROI?............................12
Why Rising PPC Prices?.......................................................................... 12
Large Corporations with Large Advertising Budgets..................................... 12
Bidding Wars.................................................................................. 13
Inexperienced Advertisers Inadvertently Driving Up Costs............................. 15
Bid Gaps........................................................................................ 21
Chapter 2: Big Algorithmic Changes at Y!SM: 2004 (& 2006?)................................. 22
Advanced Match Feature (AM)...................................................................... 22
AM and Sponsored Search....................................................................... 22
How Advanced Match Listings Are Displayed ............................................ 24
Advanced Match and Premium Partners .................................................. 25
How to Change the Advanced Match Setting (for existing accounts)................. 25
Budgeting Feature................................................................................... 28
Enhanced Tracking URLs (now called Easy Track) .............................................. 29
Why Use Easy Track ............................................................................. 30
Compatibility with Top 3rd Party Analytics Systems............................................ 30
Conversion Tracking ............................................................................. 32
Conversion Counter: Y!SM’s In-House Conversion Tracking Tool ..................... 32
Bid Management.................................................................................. 34
Search Optimizer: Y!SM’s In-House Bid and Metric Management Tool................ 35
Other User Interface Changes...................................................................... 37
Add Listings Tab.................................................................................. 37
New Category Feature ...................................................................... 37
New Default Option Headlines.............................................................. 37
New Bid Projections.......................................................................... 37
Preview Ad Copy in Both Formats on Yahoo! ........................................... 38
Manage Sponsored Search Tab.................................................................. 38
Category Maximum Bid Price............................................................... 39
Chapter 3: Cost-Effective Y!SM Campaigns ....................................................... 41
Keyword Mining/Discovery - A Different Process in Y!SM...................................... 41
Match Driver (Keyword Stemming)............................................................. 41
How to Deal with Match Driver ............................................................ 43
Strict Editorial Review .......................................................................... 43
Editorial Review Process .................................................................... 43
Listing Guidelines ............................................................................ 44
How to Deal with Editorial Review ........................................................ 47
Keyword Discovery Strategies for Y!SM........................................................... 48
Focus on ‘Tail’ Terms ........................................................................... 48
Expand Category (Campaign) Breadth ........................................................ 50
Finding the Right Keywords..................................................................... 50
Can’t I Just Use Y!SM’s Keyword Tool? ................................................... 51
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Other Y!SM Campaign Considerations............................................................. 52
Positioning Strategy.............................................................................. 52
Text Creative ..................................................................................... 53
Broad Term Tips ................................................................................. 54
Offers.............................................................................................. 54
Landing Pages..................................................................................... 55
Timely Y!SM Tune-Up: KlinQ.com ................................................................. 57
Chapter 4: Tools and Strategies to Help: Reporting Tools ..................................... 59
Y!SM Reports ......................................................................................... 59
Keyword Summary Report....................................................................... 59
How to Use Keyword Summary Report.................................................... 60
Why Use the Keyword Summary Report .................................................. 60
Category Summary Report...................................................................... 61
How to Use the Category Summary Report .............................................. 61
Why Use the Category Summary Report................................................... 61
URL Activity Report ............................................................................. 62
How to Use the URL Activity Report ...................................................... 62
Why Use the URL Activity Report .......................................................... 63
Keyword Activity Detail Report ................................................................ 63
Tracking for Doofuses................................................................................ 67
Chapter 5: Y!SM Service Tiers and the Ambassador Program.................................. 68
Y!SM Services ......................................................................................... 68
Service Eligibility .................................................................................... 68
Different Levels of Service in Y!SM ........................................................... 68
New Advertisers .............................................................................. 68
Premier Account.............................................................................. 68
Gold Account ................................................................................. 69
Platinum Service Tier ....................................................................... 69
Diamond Service Tier........................................................................ 70
Ambassador Program (Precision Match)....................................................... 72
Sponsored Search Ambassador ............................................................. 72
Sponsored Search Certified Ambassador ................................................. 72
Strategic Provider............................................................................ 73
Advantages of Dealing with a Search Advertising Agency.................................. 73
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting – What Do I Do??..................................................... 75
Y!SM Troubleshooting................................................................................ 75
Low Click Index .................................................................................. 75
Recently Removed Folder .................................................................. 76
Ways to Get Out of LCI ...................................................................... 77
No Impressions ................................................................................... 77
Why Can’t I Get the Data I Requested from the DTC....................................... 77
“New Term” ...................................................................................... 77
Duplicate Ads..................................................................................... 78
Chapter 7: Products and Services .................................................................. 79
Y!SM Products......................................................................................... 79
Sponsored Search .................................................................................... 79
Content Match ................................................................................... 79
Content vs. Regular Y!SM.................................................................... 81
Recommendations for Y!SM Content Match .............................................. 82
Y!SM New Small Publisher Product (Y!Q)..................................................... 82
Local Sponsored Search ......................................................................... 83
Local Sponsored Search Commentary ..................................................... 86
International Y!SM Accounts.................................................................... 87
Y!SM Canada................................................................................... 87
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International Commentary.................................................................. 87
Product Submit .................................................................................. 88
Search Submit (formerly Site Match) ......................................................... 88
Search Submit Express....................................................................... 88
Search Submit Pro ........................................................................... 89
Travel Submit..................................................................................... 90
Directory Submit ................................................................................. 90
Appendix: The Differences between Y!SM and Google.......................................... 92
Match Types........................................................................................... 92
Y!SM’s Standard Match vs. Google’s Exact Match........................................... 92
Y!SM’s Advanced Match vs. Google’s Phrase Match and Broad Match.................... 92
Match Type Implementation in Google and Y!SM............................................ 92
Overall Campaign Considerations.................................................................. 92
New Ad Submission................................................................................... 93
Modification of Ads.................................................................................. 93
User Interface........................................................................................ 94
Ad Syndication Options ............................................................................. 95
Y!SM’s Leading Affiliate Partners.............................................................. 95
Yahoo!.............................................................................................. 95
MSN ................................................................................................ 95
Keyword Research Tools ............................................................................ 97
Customer Service .................................................................................... 97
Executive Summary ................................................................................... 98
About Page Zero Media............................................................................... 101
About Mona Elesseily............................................................................... 101
Who is Andrew Goodman?......................................................................... 101
Page Zero Contact Information................................................................... 102
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Foreword by Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero
Media
Whether they end up hiring us or not, nearly every marketer I talk to nowadays gives me the
rundown on their spending habits in various Internet marketing channels, and an overview
of the frustrations they face -- often, the reason they’ve called us at Page Zero in the first
place.
The story is usually pretty consistent. Although they face many challenges, what seems to
stand out in so many of these narratives is their regret in having had to dial back their
spend on the Yahoo! Search Marketing (in particular, sponsored listings and content match)
channel. The reasons. 1. Confusion and inconvenience. 2. Deteriorating performance. Many
such advertisers tell us that they’ve been spending next to nothing for six months or more
on Yahoo! Search Marketing (Y!SM), while continuing to spend steadily in other channels
such as Google AdWords.
This common complaint dovetails well with what I’ve learned from Mona Elesseily’s detailed
research on the Y!SM platform over the last two years. As general editor of this report, I
didn’t expect to find much that would surprise me. Part of that complacency on my part, of
course, is that I am pretty familiar with how all the paid search platforms work, and am
kept up to date on clients’ account performance, mainly on their AdWords and Y!SM spends.
But I’ll tell you: as I read some sections of this report, my eyeballs nearly fell out of my
head. The challenges you face as a Y!SM advertiser are even more varied and potentially
costly than you may realize. I wonder if Yahoo’s top management realizes how dissatisfied
their advertisers are.
If you’ve been away from your Y!SM account for awhile, you might forget how unpleasant it
is to perform the most basic of tasks. It’s not just you. Some of this stuff is absolutely
brutal! Recently, I glanced at one the accounts Mona manages -- I am managing its AdWords
counterpart, and like to compare performance from time to time. I noticed that over the
past week, a certain category had generated an unexpectedly large spend. Nothing unusual
so far. Clicking on the category, I brought up the keyword list. But no individual keyword
was showing a high spend. Strange! I clicked on page 2 of the keyword list. Again, small
spend amounts only. Where was that single keyword I expected to find that had racked up
hundreds of dollars in spending in a week? Ha! Then I noticed the problem! Although I’d
switched over to the “last week” in the general report, once I drilled down to the category
level, the good old Overture interface put me back to “today”. Aaarrrgh! Overture strikes
again! How many other advertisers must be wasting funds because they have trouble getting
basic reporting from this interface?
It’s our hope that this constructive contribution to knowledge in the search marketing space
will provide you with information that will lower your risk as an advertiser, and produce an
improved ROI for you (with work) over time. We could have given this a catchy name like
the Totally Unauthorized Y!SM Handbook, but as many of you do, we consider Overture (aka
Y!SM) to be an important business relationship, and one we expect to continue paying
dividends for a long time to come. This material is completely independent, and written on
behalf of our clients and readers. We don’t expect it to be quoted in the Y!SM client
newsletter anytime soon! But at the same time, Yahoo! is the second-best paid search
platform and a true pioneer on many fronts. We salute them for their accomplishments.
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We also know that eventually the Y!SM platform will get an overhaul, and things will
improve for advertisers. We’ll be watching closely to see which shortcomings have been
rectified, and which haven’t.
We believe that highlighting shortcomings of Y!SM and warning advertisers about the most
inadvisable practices will lead to an increase on overall spending in this channel, because
advertisers will gain the knowledge they need to move from uncertainty towards mastery.
Unfortunately, receiving one-sidedly bullish advice from Yahoo! directly may not cut it for
you. You need unbiased analysis. Turning around broken campaigns might mean a short term
drop in your Y!SM spend, but in the end, new confidence in the channel that could result in
you spending more. So, in response to this Handbook we expect Yahoo! to send us flowers…
eventually.
While I’m highlighting the bright side of things, I do want to stress that I personally think
highly of Yahoo as a company. I’m an avid user of many of its features and a reader of much
content while logged in as a Yahoo user. I am particularly impressed by the company’s
strides in search technology. I truly hope that their CFO’s recent statement that Yahoo is
content with being #2 in search is merely a head-fake. Try, Yahoo, try! The world needs a
competitive #2 in search.
Like many search marketers, I appreciate the sincerity of Yahoo’s initiatives to share
information with site owners, through things like organic search index “weather reports”
and through the Site Explorer feature (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com) that
consolidates several information points about page indexing and site status into a handy
interface.
It’s not going to be easy for many advertisers to work around the hurdles currently facing
them in the Overture (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) keyword auction. But with careful
attention to this fast-changing environment, and with the help of specific techniques Mona
describes in this Handbook, it can be done. Read on.
Please take note of the chapter structure. If some of the background material (Chapter 1,
for example) isn’t of immediate use to your campaign, do skim ahead to chapters that
discuss issues like matching options, bidding, editorial policy, and so on.
As with my Google AdWords Handbook, there will be future updates to this document, and
Mona will also endeavor to contribute articles to the Page Zero Advisor newsletter that you
receive free as a buyer of our reports.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Yahoo! Search Marketing was the “original” pay-per-click search engine. It began life as
GoTo.com back in 1996 (though it had no customers to speak of until 1998, coincidentally
also the year of Google’s founding) when the concept of paid search was unproven. It fought
through early scepticism to ink deals with companies like MSN and AOL. As compared with
banner ads, whose fortunes declined when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, the paid
search auction proved to be highly measurable and effective advertising channel. GoTo’s
concept began to catch on. (It changed its name to Overture in 2001.) Advertisers entered
into bidding wars to pay for placement near search results for valuable keywords on sites
like AOL Search.
The model was so successful that Google essentially copied it when it released its secondgeneration AdWords Select program in February, 2002. Google continues to thrive as a result
of the paid search auction; it currently generates 97% of its annual revenues from paid
search. Google some time ago surpassed Yahoo as the Internet’s leading search and
advertising sales company. Yahoo remains a solid second.
The value of Overture’s platform and advertiser base was high enough that Yahoo! decided
it needed to own it, and acquired Overture in 2003. More recently, the name Overture was
dropped in favour of the Yahoo! name. From an untested idea to a generator of billions of
dollars worth of annual ad revenue inside of seven years. GoTo.com -- now called Yahoo!
Search Marketing -- has reached young adulthood. It’s this revenue source that is largely
responsible for Yahoo’s turnaround as a profitable and growing Internet search and content
company.
Given Y!SM’s importance to the Internet economy, it’s a scandal that so few marketers
seem to understand how it works.
Yahoo! Search Marketing (Y!SM) is a vital component of many online marketers’ toolkits
today. Yet due to outdated assumptions, the complexity of Y!SM’s rules, and growing
competition, many of these advertisers are playing the game incorrectly.
Collectively, they’re wasting tens of millions of dollars because they’re not aware of the
pitfalls of the platform that seem to lead inevitably to mistakes. Advertisers, in my
experience, have often responded to poor Y!SM performance by drastically scaling back
their campaigns.
So should you be using it at all? YES! Y!SM, despite its quirks, is nearly unparalleled as a
targeted source of customer acquisition in a wide variety of industry categories.
The idea of optimizing a Google AdWords campaign is fairly widespread amongst marketers
today. In part this is because of Google’s high profile. But in addition, speakers like Page
Zero’s Andrew Goodman have often taught seminars on how to unravel the ever-changing
AdWords puzzle. Many readers have absorbed Andrew’s specific advice from the Google
AdWords Handbook (an ebook first published in March 2002 and still going through updates)
and his recent Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, Sept. 2005).
Surprisingly, though, no one has yet written a detailed how-to that focuses exclusively on
Y!SM. Beyond the company’s official materials and the odd upbeat article by an outside
consultant, the pickings have been slim for Y!SM advertisers who want to get beyond the
official advice and really dig deep to explore ways of tweaking and shaping a campaign
towards profitability… even when it seems like many forces are conspiring against this
outcome.
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To fill the void, I’ve created the Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook. In it you’ll find
detailed information on Y!SM’s many features, including explanations of how (and why) they
differ from similar features and offerings from Google. In addition, I conclude some
subsections with specific action items, so you understand exactly what action is warranted
at your end in response to the Y!SM features and quirks I describe. These action items are
compiled in an executive summary near the end of the Handbook.
The research for this Handbook was extensive and stretched over 24 months. It was based
on close observation of, and note-taking on, the evolving Y!SM platform; plus, direct
experiences working for clients as a strategist responsible for Y!SM campaigns at Page Zero
Media, for dozens of clients from the Fortune 500 down to small retailers. Information from
fellow marketers and Y!SM staff has also been helpful in honing the material. Finally, in
keeping with traditional publishing practices, we drew on the insights of technical readers
to double-check the material for accuracy and plausibility. I take responsibility for any
remaining errors and omissions herein. For the sake of consistency, I use the first person
singular throughout the book. In some cases, the “I” implies “we,” in cases where “we” at
Page Zero Media have collectively learned from or advised clients.
Why advertise on Y!SM?
As a business owner or marketing executive, there are many priorities competing for your
attention. You need to be as clear as possible on what promotional channels are most likely
to bear fruit for your business. And you don’t have time to waste experimenting with
“everything under the sun.” So why Y!SM?
Reach - The #1 Consideration in Online Ad Buying
Esoteric reasoning aside, most advertisers seeking targeted search advertising need to find a
network or service that offers sufficient volume to make it worth their while. Studies on
search market share by agencies such as comScore Networks and NetRatings continue to
show that Google enjoys a monthly “share of Internet searches” at approximately 47% in
most major markets. Yahoo! is generally seen to be second, at around 22%.1 Give or take a
few percentage points, and depending on the subject matter of the search, either Google or
Overture (whoops, I mean Y!SM) will almost always be your “best bet” for search
advertising. Most of the time it makes sense to run campaigns on both.
There is a significant dropoff after these two in terms of reach and “quality of reach,” but
probably MSN Search (which will be phasing in its own paid search platform and phasing out
its partnership with Y!SM) and Miva are the next players in line for a mention. MSN Search
generally weighs in at a monthly search market share of around 12% (solidly in third place)2,
although a recent Hitwise study puts them as low as 5.5%.
Not all metrics or ratings agencies rank the leading search properties in the same way.
Hitwise, a respected source of online data that uses a broader sample size (server log data
from hundreds of thousands of websites) than comScore’s and Netratings’ “panel-based”
methodologies, reported that Google had increased its share significantly in the one-year
period leading up to July, 2005. For the U.S., Google’s share came in at 59.2%; Yahoo came
in at 28.8%, and MSN Search, in spite of all the hoopla about the Microsoft threat in the
search industry, fell well behind in third place at 5.5%. The others, Ask Jeeves and AOL
1
2
Nielsen/NetRatings, July 21 2005. http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_050721.pdf
Ibid.
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Search, dropped even farther off the average user’s radar screen. The report did, however,
note that Yahoo maintained a lead over Google in the diverse and growing category that is
becoming known as “local search.”3
Searchers tend to use more than one search engine when seeking products, services or
information. Nielsen/NetRatings found that few searchers exclusively used one of the top
three search engines: “58 percent of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other
top two search engines, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search…”.4 Advertisers could miss out on
valuable eyeballs if they choose to advertise with a single search engine. The report also
mentions that even though Google’s market share is dominant today, there’s significant
opportunity for competitors to grow their share.
Y!SM is Different from Other PPC Search Engines.
There are, however, some other interesting reasons to be particularly attracted to Y!SM.
The platform has unique features, and depending on the search subject matter, the user
base might be different.
Y!SM Distribution Network
Advertisements that appear on Y!SM are distributed through Y!SM’s exclusive network.
Here’s a list of portals and web properties that comprise the Y!SM network:
The portals: MSN (phasing out), Yahoo!, AltaVista, Infoseek, Terra Lycos
The browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape
Meta search: CNET, InfoSpace (Excite, Dogpile, MetaCrawler & WebCrawler)
The ISPs: BellSouth, Juno, NetZero
Google has a different network that includes web properties such as AOL, Ask Jeeves,
Teoma, EarthLink, iwon, Go.com, About.com, Infospace, Netscape, etc… In advertising on
Y!SM (or Google), ads will be distributed to different networks of web portals and
properties.
User Demographics
According to the major metrics agencies, there are slight demographic differences between
Google and Y!SM. A recent Hitwise study claims that Y!SM has slightly more female users at
50.2% 5, although data from Y!SM claims that approximately 57% of their users are male
(57.7% on the dot com site and 57.3% on the network). The report claims that male users
make up 53.6% of Google’s audience.
The report also claims that Y!SM has a higher proportion of searchers between the ages of
18 and 34. Data from Y!SM suggests that 60% of searchers are 13 to 29 (the largest group age
group is 21 to 24 at 17.9%) and an additional 14.1% of searchers are 35 to 44 years old. This
indicates the Y!SM audience is slightly younger than Hitwise suggests.
3
4
5
“Google Hegemony Grows, Yahoo Rules Local Realm,” MarketingVox.com, August 12, 2005.
Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search, http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_050228.pdf
“The Online Search Report,” Hitwise, August 17, 2005.
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The Hitwise study claims that MSN has the highest proportion of users over 55. According to
Y!SM, the over 55 groups accounts for 5.6% of traffic on the dot com site and 5% on the Y!SM
network.
Audience segments will naturally overlap when using the major search engines. Marketing
success will stem from finding the correct mix of search engines (and other marketing
mediums) rather than from choosing one PPC search engine over another.
For additional depth on this subject, consult Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2005-2006,
by MarketingSherpa. Here, they review a pile of data, including data from
Nielsen/Netratings’ “Megapanel” for June 2005. The Netratings study breaks down
household searches by income on each major search engine. The similarities are greater
than the differences. Yahoo and Ask Jeeves lead all in the proportion of searchers from the
$25,000-49,999 household income bracket, which may be a good one for many retailers.
Google has a significant lead over Yahoo in the $100,000+ annual household income bracket.
MSN searchers run second to Google in income; they’re often “empty nesters” with
disposable income. This latter demographic may follow through more seriously on lifestyle
(eg. travel) and home improvement searches. These kinds of trends become fairly obvious
as you get more experienced with the responses to your particular campaigns.
All in all, the slight differences in demographics aren’t enough to dictate your strategy
today because Google and Yahoo have such a commanding overall lead in search usage.
While these two leaders look unbeatable today, it’s trends like the aging population with
new needs and increasing amounts of disposable income that might derail their leadership
when you least expect it.
Some Advertisers Can Achieve Better ROI on Y!SM.
Some advertisers achieve better ROI numbers using Y!SM than they do with Google AdWords.
A more in-depth study would be required to provide definitive information, and these
provisional observations depend on more advertisers optimizing their campaigns on both
platforms (which isn’t yet happening). Provisionally speaking, there are several general
reasons for the fact that some advertisers realize a stronger ROI on Y!SM. They are as
follows.
First, Yahoo! has been around longer and has an established brand and user base. Searchers
may be more inclined to deal with a company they know. That being said, Yahoo
traditionally ignored search (preferring to contract it to third parties until recently), so the
attachment to Yahoo’s brand is as an information service and “hub” rather than as a search
engine per se.
The Y!SM system tends to induce the advertiser to write a specific ad for each search
phrase. This increases the odds the advertiser will send visitors to the most appropriate
landing page on their site (for specific keywords). Generally, conversions increase if visitors
are sent to a specific page rather than a broad page like the homepage, at least in many
retail categories.
Furthermore, additional characters in Y!SM the ad copy may help with Y!SM conversions.
Longer ad copy allows advertisers to effectively target messages to consumers and
specifically describe what services/products are sold. Visitors have a good idea of what
they’ll get from the company before they visit a landing page.
In my research, I’ve found that specific products and services produce better costs per
acquisition (CPAs) on Y!SM than on other PPC search engines (Google), but it is indeed
difficult to generalize.
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One-time purchases can be more profitable on Y!SM. First sales typically cost more than
subsequent sales, so on-site conversion rates must be higher. Conversion rates depend on
your brand and your site design, among other factors. But the aforementioned
concentration of retail-oriented searchers in the low-middle income bracket may lead to
higher conversion rates from clicks to sales on Y!SM in many retail categories. This can
offset the daunting initial costs of acquiring a new customer, and make Y!SM appear less
risky to retailers, especially those who are not counting on repeat business.
Google, by contrast, shines particularly in the area of high-ticket, high-consideration
purchases. Business-to-business queries lead to executive decisions six months down the
road, or more. But it’s important not to generalize. To reiterate, although Google and
Yahoo will perform differently for you, you’ll probably want to use both.
Consider your industry segment. On Y!SM, several industries have proven very successful in
driving clicks and conversions. This information is obviously important to advertisers when
choosing where to spend advertising dollars. The following section will give you ideas on
where to start or improve Y!SM advertising efforts.
Yahoo promotes itself as a “life engine” focusing on lifestyle issues and lifestyle oriented
branding throughout its network. As such, housewares and clothing will do relatively well,
especially for larger firms.
Success can lead to complacency, however. I’ve talked to Y!SM advertisers who have been
“instinctive” players in this realm and who say things like “I’m really good at Overture
[Y!SM].” Not knowing why you “do well” probably means you’re not taking enough care in
tracking your campaigns or understanding how the system works. In essence, those who “do
well” instinctively can do even better if they work at measuring their success.
Leverage Efforts from Other PPC Campaigns
One excellent reason to use Y!SM is that the cost of launching a campaign is often lower if
you’re simply “porting” information from an existing, successful campaign on Google
AdWords. The process will cost your company less time and money, since the research and
testing will already have been done to some extent. Note: I said “less time and money,” not
“no time and free.” The differences with Y!SM performance, and the headaches of
managing the platform, means that you need to be a skilled operator to do this well. It’s
not a “quick port” (like, say, moving your address book from Yahoo! Mail to GMail).
Here are the steps you can take for a successful “port” of your AdWords campaign to Y!SM:

Start with your best-performing Google AdWords keywords as measured by ROI or
cost per lead.

Add tail terms (lots). These are lower volume terms that tend to convert a higher
rate. More information on this is contained in Chapter 4 called Keyword Discovery: A
Different Process in Y!SM.

Modify AdWords headlines and descriptions to the longer character limit permitted
in Y!SM.

If applicable, use a bulk upload spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet, advertisers can
upload 6000 terms at a time (this is not recommended). For faster processing (and
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to prevent the DTC from timing out), upload in 1000 word batches. If you have a
Y!SM representative, you may be able to send over one spreadsheet and have them
break it into batches.
Rising Advertising Prices: Is it Possible to Achieve a Healthy
ROI?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to maximize the Y!SM opportunity. To truly achieve
success with Y!SM, marketers needs to develop and closely monitor a deliberate strategy.
Here are some obstacles in dealing with Y!SM:
Why Rising PPC Prices?
Today, to get good ad positioning, you’ll need to pay more. PPC advertising costs have
significantly increased over the past few years. iProspect’s Fredrick Marckini observes: “In
the past year or so, [iProspect has] noticed increases as high as 400 percent in the average
position-one bid price in some online marketplaces. In some cases, campaigns that started
in November 2003 with average bids of $1 were at $4 by August 2004”.6
Today, several trends are driving up the cost of PPC advertising:
Large Corporations with Large Advertising Budgets
With large advertising budgets, big companies can drive up the costs of PPC advertising.
Unlike smaller companies, many large companies don’t have an immediate need for positive
ROI on advertising initiatives. In fact, expensive strategies such as brand awareness or
customer acquisition (an emphasis on the lifetime value of a client) may not produce
tangible results for many months or years. The situation is worsened if companies are
dissuaded by their agencies from tracking ROI long term (or at all). Without fully
understanding the cost of their online investments, a few larger companies will continue to
dedicate large amounts of money to online initiatives. This is rational for them at some
level. With the size of traditional advertising budgets, the strategy for some of the largest
corporations is one of trying to achieve “ubiquity” and “mindshare”. To do so with search
marketing is relatively inexpensive, even if you overbid. That being said, we do see more
units of large companies tracking their campaigns more carefully.
As online adverting budgets increase, large advertising budgets will continue to be deployed
by the most deep-pocketed search marketers. According to a new five-year forecast by
Forrester Research, online advertising and marketing spending will grow from $11 billion in
2004 to $26 billion by 2010, and will make up 8 percent of total advertising budgets.7 In
2004, companies dedicated 5 percent of overall budgets to online marketing initiatives.
Search marketing will account for about half of these expenditures. Other research shows
that online advertising could make up 8% of all advertising by 2008. (I tend to think this is a
conservative estimate.) Search is expected to make up half that number. Costs aren’t going
to go down, so you’re going to have to get creative and systematic if you want to survive on
Y!SM.
6
7
“PPC Advertising Connects to Conversion Rate”, ClickZ, May 16 2005.
“Study: Online Ad Budgets to Swell to $26 Billion by 2010”, ClickZNews, May 3 2005.
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Bidding Wars
Bidding wars are commonplace on Y!SM. As competitor bids are visible, it’s easy to see how
some advertisers get carried away during the bidding process. Here’s an example:
Advertiser A bids $0.50. Advertiser B bids $0.51. Advertiser C bids $0.52. This happens a few
times and prices go through the roof. Eventually, these advertisers may run out of cash.
What this routine entails, all too often, is that advertisers are either bidding “far too much”
or “zero.” Neither is anywhere close to optimal. Unfortunately, there may be an influx of
advertisers who are more than willing to come in and continue to drive up PPC costs, at
least at first.
Advertisers usually outbid each when they don’t fully understand their costs of acquiring
new clients.
Here’s a screen shot of a bidding war that has caused several advertisers to leapfrog one
another above $7.00, when in fact they’d enjoy the same relative positions if they
immediately dropped bids to $4.03. Further savings would occur if they could all agree to
bid no more than $3.05. The bulk of bidders are sensible; a few have “broken away from the
pack,” leaving a big gap in price that benefits no one but Yahoo!
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Figure 1: An ego-driven bid-war for second ad position.
! Action Item: Be sure to understand the cost of acquiring new clients before you start
bidding like crazy.
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Inexperienced Advertisers Inadvertently Driving Up Costs
Y!SM’s confusing interface can be problematic for inexperienced advertisers. Two particular
situations spring to mind: 1) using the listing on/off feature, and 2) changing keyword bids.
Listing On/Off Feature
The listing on/off feature in Y!SM is confusing. The interface gives users the option to select
“online” whether the listing is online or offline. Usually, the opposite option will display i.e.
if a term is on; the system will give the option to turn the term off (and vice versa). An
advertiser may assume their term is offline if they see the online option in the Y!SM
interface.
To make thing more confusing, the page where on/off changes are made doesn’t show if the
listing is on or off. You need to go to a different page to find this information (in Y!SM this is
very time consuming!)
Figure 2: Listings can sometimes be left in the “Online” position when the intent is
“Offline.”
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The same thing occurs at the category level with the category on/off feature.
Note: The listing on/off feature at a keyword level takes precedent over the listing on/off
feature at a category level (the keyword level trumps the category level).
! Action Item: Organize accounts into categories to make it easy to turn accounts on or off
at a category or listing level.
Changing Keyword Bids
Changing bids at a listing level can be tricky. In Y!SM, the system does not ask if you want to
save bid changes. You’ll need to click on “update bids” for changes to be accepted by the
system. This can be easily overlooked as the “update bids” button at the bottom of the bid
column is not directly below the bids. When you’re looking at lots of information on a page,
the update bids buttons are easy to miss.
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Figure 3: Sometimes advertisers think they’ve changed their bids, but then leave the
page without actually updating or saving those changes.
Bid changes at a category level are slightly easier (the category bid option is a new feature
in Y!SM). At this level, it’s harder to miss the update buttons as they’re located next to
every maximum bid box. The majority of bid changes will likely occur at the listing level.
It’s unlikely advertisers will assign the same bids to all terms in a category.
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Figure 4: The update bids feature at a category level
One has to be particularly careful with the bids associated with new listings. When adding a
new listing, the default bid is the top bid. If advertisers don’t change bid and click “update
bids” before proceeding, bids will be set for the #1 position (and the highest price) (Figure
4).
Note: new bids will be set for the #1 position even if a maximum bid is assigned at a
category level.
! Action item: Be sure to set individual bid prices for every keyword before submitting ads.
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Figure 5: During the ad submission process, set bids individually. This will prevent terms
from being placed in the #1 position.
The “bid to position” feature is also confusing.8 In Y!SM, “bid to position” allows you to
select positions 1 through 5 and place a ceiling on each bids at a category or listing level. If
you’ve used this feature and you want to make modifications, by default Y!SM will display
the bid associated with first position. The system will not display the price you’ve bid.
Again, you’ll need to go to a different screen to find this information.
! Action Item: Unless you’re willing to put in some extra legwork to ascertain what a certain
position will actually cost you, simply don’t use the Bid to Position feature.
Y!SM’s confusing interface brings up the issue of the use third-party bid management tools.
These are useful when dealing with Y!SM’s confusing (and slow) interface. The advantages
and disadvantages of using such tools are discussed in a later chapter.9
Match Driver
Match Driver is a tool that maps terms to phrases beyond the terms in your account (exact
match). It includes plural/singular combinations, common misspellings and matches
In Y!SM, there are two bid options “bid to position” and “set one max bid for all selected listings”.
The “set one max bid for all selected listings” allows advertisers to set a maximum bid for all listings
in an account. This can be done at either a category or an individual listing level.
9
For information on using third-party bid management tools, please see Chapter 2.
8
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involving words like “a”, “or”, “and”, “the”, etc… i.e. “buy new car” will be mapped to
“buy a new car”. Match Driver can also map to terms included in ad headlines and
descriptions even if terms are not bid on by the advertiser.10
If a mapped term is submitted to a Y!SM account, account holders will receive a
“duplication of results” message for either the term in the account or the new term. When
deciding which listing to delete, Y!SM takes into consideration bids and ad copy. Listings
with more prominent placement are usually selected over lower placed ads.
In other words, Match Driver is inflationary. It makes it harder for advertisers to get lesspopular “bargain” keywords accepted.
Top Position = Top Results?
This is an auction, people. That means you often cannot afford top position on the page.
Not if someone else is bidding $15.00/click on that position, and you can only be profitable
at $2.00. As a relatively experienced advertiser, you may already know this. But the sheer
volume of inexperienced or “unsophisticated”11 advertisers on Y!SM (even if their numbers
may be declining in percentage terms) is going to cause you headaches time and again.
! Action Item: Bid sensibly in a range you can afford rather than bidding high and relying on
a bid discounter to fill gaps. In addition, you may find yourself in a position to educate
direct competitors about the auction. If you happen to bump into such a person at a party,
ask them if they are tracking the ROI on a certain keyword, or casually mention that bid
prices are getting crazy because “some nut” is bidding $15 “because he doesn’t know what
he’s doing.” Unless you happen to work for Yahoo!, it is in your interest in all public
interactions that involve discussing your marketing campaigns to talk down the bid prices
needed to succeed. Hey, central bankers do it – it’s called jawboning. Use phrases like
“irrational exuberance” if necessary.
The “unsophisticated” advertiser may also not know that low volume terms tend to convert
better in lower ad positions. In a study by Atlas that examined the relationship between ad
positioning and conversions, conversions on low volume search phrases actually increased
with lower ad positions.12 Most notably, conversion rates increased in positions two through
seven (the range is between 105.22% and 110.72%). Conversely, the report showed
conversions on higher volume search ads actually decreased as ad rank decreased. For the
higher volume terms, conversions went from 100% in the first position to 57.71% in the tenth
position.
! Action Item: Include low volume terms in your account, as these terms contribute to
successful Y!SM marketing campaigns for bargain-conscious advertisers. High-volume terms
convert well from high (expensive) ad positions, but for unusual search phrases, it appears
that conversions are relatively strong in lower (less expensive) ad positions, according to
Atlas Research’s Young-Bean Song et al.. If you have the budget, on high-volume keywords,
test the ROI performance of an ad position of 1-2 (at a higher bid, obviously) for two weeks,
and follow this with a couple weeks in ad positions 4-6 or so, in order to compare the ROI
10
Match Driver is complicated and works differently for standard match and advanced match terms.
For more information on Match Driver, please see Chapter 3.
11
For detailed information see Nate Elliott, Niki Scevak, “Paid Search Through 2009,” Jupiter Research
study, August 6, 2004.
12
“The Atlas Rank Report II: How Search Engine Rank Impacts Conversions”,
www.atlassolutions.com/pdf/RankReportPart2.pdf.
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performance of high and middling ad positions for you on your core keywords. Change your
tracking code when you change your bid to facilitate tracking.
Note: if using Conversion Counter (Y!SM’s in house tracking tool) it will provide position and
conversion data you need to see where your best conversions occur. For this information,
you’ll need to run the keyword activity report.13 Import the information into EXCEL and with
some manipulation, you can see how positioning affects conversions.
Bid Gaps
Bid gaps (as we saw above) can be exacerbated by new advertisers. Take a look at the
following example:
2.52
2.49
0.88
0.87
To be sure, a bid of $2.49 in the above example will only cause the advertiser to pay $0.89,
because Y!SM’s technology will automatically discount your bid. The problem is, though,
this benefit may well be temporary. A new (possibly unsophisticated) bidder could suddenly
enter at $2.39, forcing you to pay $2.40. Or someone malicious, using a “punish” strategy,
could come under you at $2.48 on purpose, forcing you to pay $2.49. So it pays to look for
sensible entry points for your bid. Some third-party bid management software will suggest
such sensible entry points for you.
Fairly often, two or three unsophisticated advertisers will break away from the pack, as
seen in the examples above. They wind up forcing one another to pay double or triple what
everyone else is paying, rather than paying just a bit more for a higher ad position. But just
because your brother jumps in the lake, you don’t have to. If you’re patient, you’ll see
some of these brash advertisers come back to the pack, or even drop out of the auction
completely. If you’re lucky, a “reverse bidding war” might take place as everyone leapfrogs
in reverse trying to get their ad position down to 3 or lower. That won’t happen, though, if
you’re merrily leapfrogging upwards into 1st and 2nd spot!
Keep in mind, the bids in the console will not always be accurate. There’s a lag between
what the console reports and what the actual up to the minute bid is (sometimes the lag is
hours). Also, competitors who use automated bid management tool can change bids
frequently (most tools allow changes up to 24 times per day). Bids will likely change often if
you’re in a dynamic market and/or competitors are on the ball.
To find out what's happening in your particular industry, either (a) get a bid management
tool or (b) go in at different times of the day and examine bids and positions of different
competitors. Start by profiling the actions of your toughest competitor(s). Figure out your
competitors to find the best positions in your market space.
! Action Item: Don’t change bids until you have a good understanding of what’s going on in
your keyword space. Remember, it’s not a set it and forget it thing. With bid management
tools, advertisers in essence can 'hide' bids.
13
For more information on how to run this report (using conversion counter), please refer to chapter
4.
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Chapter 2: Big Algorithmic Changes at Y!SM: 2004 (&
2006?)
At Y!SM, updates occur periodically to upgrade technologies and enhance the performance
of the Direct Traffic Center (DTC). While some updates are fairly straightforward (web site
aesthetics), others are more complicated involving back end systems. A consistent platform
will enable Yahoo! to globally roll out new features and introduce a new DTC interface in
early-to-mid 2006. This is long overdue.
Let’s hope the current platform development team at Yahoo! understands the need for
speed. Many web applications today are taking advantage of a set of development
techniques that have come to be known as AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript + XML). As
marketers, we live in the interface whether we like it or not. Third party tools can’t replace
what’s inside the DTC itself. We cannot afford to wait five and ten seconds for pages to load
and reload when performing multiple operations. I’m not a programmer, but I do
expect/suspect that if AJAX is on Yahoo’s agenda, we’ll significant improvements in our
daily work routine.
Updates tend to cause disruptions for advertisers. For the larger updates, the Direct Traffic
Center -- the name for the Y!SM sponsored listings campaign interface (DTC) -- is taken
offline for two or three days. During this time, advertisers cannot make changes to accounts
including bid modifications and account on/off. Some advertisers have experienced
difficulties with the DTC immediately after updates.
A significant algorithmic change occurred in late 2004. This update included a significant
change in match typing (advanced match), a new budgeting feature, enhanced tracking
URLs, the addition of third party analytics compatibility features and several user interface
modifications. More detail follows.
It should be noted that Yahoo was given ample opportunity to speak with me directly
specifically about how these product features work. I specifically requested more
information on the inner workings of matching options. To date, I have received no
response, but have been referred through several representatives of the company who all
promised to get back to me shortly.
Advanced Match Feature (AM)
In this section, I’ll discuss the introduction of advanced match feature.
AM and Sponsored Search
Recently, Y!SM added Advanced Match (AM) as a match type to Y!SM. Phrase and broad
match were combined to form AM and standard match option has remained the same. AM is
a broader match option than standard match that allows advertisers broader coverage for
keyword phrases. More detailed information on AM is available in the sections below.
With the introduction of Advanced Match, Y!SM went from three match types (broad match,
phrase match and standard match) down to two. In response to Google’s introduction of
four matching types, Y!SM went through a couple of designs of similar features, and we can
expect Y!SM match types to continue evolving.
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At this time, Y!SM also updated two match type default features:

Advanced match is the new default match type. The old default match option was
standard match.

Advanced match and standard match bids are tied together. Now, changes made to
standard match bids are automatically applied to advanced match bids. Y!SM
removed the option to assign different bids to the different match types.
Note: Using the DTC, advertisers cannot opt out of advanced match before terms go
online.
Although it’s difficult to determine with any certainty, the change seems to have increased
the number of “tail terms” (low volume terms) which display advertising. The question is:
do advertisers understand how advanced match works? Are they fully aware that they are
getting advanced match with newly-added terms, especially given Overture’s legacy of
featuring exact match only?
On most queries, advertisers showing up on high-volume advanced match terms will quickly
move to shut down the term. For example, the nonsensical search “elephant shaped olives”
shows no advertisers, meaning that no advertisers are advanced-matching for the singleword term olives, or alternatively, that Y!SM is attempting to use smart linguistic guessing
to determine the likely commercial relevancy of such advanced-match terms. That I have to
speculate that it is “either no one is doing it or Y!SM is using a smart matching technique
that we don’t understand” is in itself vexing. There is very little transparency on the
question of why or how ads are served in relation to the keywords in advertisers’ accounts.
The mechanics of it have become at least as mysterious as Google AdWords, yet for some
reason Y!SM maintains a reputation for being “easy to understand.” Conclusion: many
advertisers only think they understand how Y!SM works. They do not understand advanced
match. Yahoo! appears to believe that as long as they tune their technology to generate
relevant leads to advertisers, advertisers will be pleased. Those I’ve talked to are not
pleased with such “trust us” answers. They want to understand how things work.
To provide some further examples, the nonsense query “magenta bulk olives” shows no
advertisers when I type it into Yahoo! Search. Meanwhile, queries like “pimento olives” and
“gourmet olives” do show plenty of advertising. But it’s not always clear how or why the ads
related to the latter are showing up. Sometimes, it seems to be caused by keywords that
appear in the advertiser’s ad text. Other times, it must be triggered by keywords in the
keyword list for the Y!SM account. That leaves an important question: how much are
advertisers paying for clicks that are triggered not by the keywords they placed in their
accounts, but by factors they don’t understand? Are they paying heavily for clicks that they
would only want to pay heavily for under conditions that were more fully transparent? In
other words, I might be willing to pay $2.00 for the phrase “gourmet olives,” but only $0.25
for the phrase “pimento olives.” What if my ad shows up under “pimento olives” anyway
due to some text I’ve placed in the ad copy, and I’m charged $2.00 because of a matching
technology I didn’t understand? I’m paying $2.00 for a term I really don’t think is worth
$2.00. Sorry to confuse you! But this is just to give you an idea of how little many
advertisers may be confused by match technologies currently employed by Overture, and
how the quality of clicks may vary wildly, making bidding less scientific than it could be.
In some ways, this system appears to be working as it is supposed to, insofar as weird
nonsense queries show fewer ads, and the system tries harder to “find” ads for related
highly commercial queries.
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On more common terms suggested by our technical reviewers, the system indeed worked a
bit better, though still inconsistently. Rumor has it that the first terms in a user query might
be more heavily weighted than second and third words. In addition, conversion data (based
on the fact that Y!SM offers ROI tracking tools to clients) and other back end data may be
used to anticipate the degree of “commercial intent” associated with various kinds of
searches. Thus Y!SM is trying to build a smart matching system that shows ads where it
makes sense to show them. At the same time, with few published rules and no direct
confirmation from Yahoo’s product people, advertisers are left with shamefully little to go
on. By way of illustration, a recent forum post about Google AdWords’ “expanded broad
matching” feature was by an advertiser who professed to be “mad as a hornet” because
he’d lost $10 on three clicks related to poorly-targeted ads triggered by the AdWords
matching technology. I can only imagine what insect he’d compare himself to if he
investigated his Y!SM performance.
It still seems that the “too much or not enough” syndrome is negatively impacting
advertisers. In some cases they don’t show up at all because the system just decides not to
show any ads. In other cases, they show up, and bid more than they would have approved if
they had been hypothetically asked directly about that specific matching situation. So, the
lack of transparency -- am I showing up because of match driver? advanced match? what’s
the difference? -- makes it difficult to manage a campaign with any precision. It’s difficult
to set goals (such as “go for high-volume, low-relevancy terms at a low bid”) and attach an
appropriate bid to them, since the matching technology seems to work behind the
advertiser’s back, invoking bids that are too high on some matches, and keeping ads from
showing up at all on others. The end result is very likely the inexplicably rising average
costs per click that are driving many of the savviest advertisers away.
How Advanced Match Listings Are Displayed
The advanced match feature is complex. Y!SM first tries to match queries to standard match
terms. It secondly attempts to match queries to advanced matched terms. Search results
are stacked - Y!SM displays standard match results above advanced match listings. Standard
match will always trump advanced match as these matches are considered more relevant.
Rightly so: advertisers understand that standard match means exact match; it’s in keeping
with how Overture evolved from its early days of allowing only standard (exact) matching.
In Y!SM, listings may appear for standard matched terms but may not trigger ads for
advanced matched terms. The reason is advanced match terms are subject to an additional
algorithm to determine if the query is close to advanced match terms. For advanced match
terms to appear, more often than not, the system seems to look to ensure that all or most
of the terms in the query match the advanced match term(s) in your account. For example,
advanced match results for “Apple IPod” could appear for queries like “Apple IPod carrying
cases”, “newest Apple IPod” and “Apple IPod Nano”, etc… With Advanced Match, words like
“in”, “and”, “the”, “because”, “this”, “that” and “there” are disregarded.
In some cases (even if queries and terms match), advanced match listings do not appear in
listings. In my tests, approximately 50 percent of advanced match searches appeared in
search results. In these tests, the advanced match feature was on and searches were
commercial in nature. Here’s an example. On Yahoo!, I tested the advanced match term
“cocktail strainer”. I tried eight three word variations like “get cocktail strainer”, “buy a
cocktail strainer”, “cheap cocktail strainer”, “purchase cocktail strainer”, etc… In this test,
the advanced match ad appeared 50 percent of the time. To be fair, the advanced matched
feature is still feeling its way around as far as understanding user intent goes, but what this
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does is leave money “on the table” for both advertisers and Yahoo! as it does not show ads
often enough, at any price. From a user standpoint, this means fewer ads, which is usually a
benefit. But not on highly commercial queries: on such queries, the ads should be offered as
an option as many users will consider them at least as relevant as “organic” results,
especially when they’re close to making a purchase.
It should be noted that Yahoo!’s search technologists (who are no doubt sharing and
collaborating with the Y!SM division) have been experimenting heavily with new approaches
to search relevancy. For example, they have a feature “in the lab” that allows the searcher
to specify whether their query is “shopping” or “research” related -- or somewhere in
between. This tweaks the regular “organic” results; it’s a basic type of search
personalization. Through such experiments, Yahoo! can no doubt learn more about the
commercial intent of searchers. It’s likely that what appears flawed today will be much
improved in 2-3 years.
As Y!SM technology improves, we should see more matches (impressions) from advanced
matching. Over time, advanced match algorithm should get better at recognizing longer
keyword phrases.
Currently, the advanced match is a good tool to pick up terms like “buy Apple IPod”, “get
Apple IPod”, “buying apple IPod”, and so on. The question is, though, what do you bid on
clicks subject to such uncertain matching which is “under development”? I believe many
advertisers would be stumped about that question if they had read the above section. They
might be better to go back to the relative safety of standard (exact) matching. The
disadvantage is the account will receive less traffic. Advertisers will need to ensure their
accounts have sufficient terms to offset the potential loss in traffic.
Advanced Match and Premium Partners
Advanced match results currently show on MSN and Yahoo! but the advanced match feature
is not as advanced as expected. From the tests I’ve run, on the premium partner sites,
advanced matched terms show approximately 60 percent of the time.
! Action Item: To prevent over-matching, advance match phrases that are three+ words in
length. Disable the feature for shorter keyword phrases at an account, category or listing
level. This, of course, depends on your goals. For broader coverage, stick with advanced
match if your ROI picture is favorable.
How to Change the Advanced Match Setting (for existing accounts)
The advanced match feature can be disabled at an account, category or listing level.
At an account level: Go to the accounts tab and then account set-up. Turn the advanced
match feature off here.
At a category level: Go to the sponsored search tab and select the individual category you
want to turn off. Click on match type button to make changes.
At a listing level: Select a listing and click the match type options button. In this screen,
the Advanced Match checkbox is located under the standard match column (it’s the green
checkmark under the grayed out checkmark in the standard column). Uncheck this box and
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you’ll be opted out of Advanced Match (Figure 6). Or, click on the individual listing and
unselect the green checkmark in the keyword detail screen (Figure 7).
Figure 6: Uncheck the green checkmark and to opt out of advanced match at a listing
level.
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Figure 7: Uncheck the green checkmark to opt out of advanced match at a listing level.
Note: New terms, by default, will always be advanced matched by Y!SM. This applies to
both new ads (in manage sponsored search tab then add listings) or copied ad (in managed
sponsored search then manage bids then edit listings).
Y!SM will undoubtedly continue to test various implementations of advanced match. The
company claims the feature simplifies account management because it doesn’t require a
large keyword list as was the case when only standard matching existed. Of course, broader
and more encompassing match types contribute to Y!SM’s bottom line, but as elsewhere (on
Google AdWords), advertisers would be happy to help Yahoo! make more money if they also
gained added positive-ROI exposure. For now, Advanced Match is troubling because it seems
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to hurt performance for many advertisers, and unlike the analogous feature on Google
AdWords, doesn’t seem to have predictable effects. I hope rumours that all matching on
Y!SM will be “advanced” in the future aren’t true. As advertisers, we want more control,
not less.
Those who really want to simplify search marketing can always turn advanced match on and
bid high -- of course, “simple” often simply translates into expensive. A little legwork in this
area can make advanced match less costly. Analyse statistics to identify converting
advanced match phrases. Then change all converting phrases to standard match.14
Budgeting Feature
In Y!SM, there are three payment options. Payments can be made by pre pay deposit, auto
billing and for larger clients, there’s a monthly invoice option. Currently, the default option
in Y!SM is pre pay deposit.
With the update, Y!SM added a new budgeting feature (in the money manager tab). To
enable it, accounts must be set to auto billing. Here are some of the auto billing features:

It allows advertisers to set a daily budget. If one day the account under/over
spends, the system will automatically make adjustments so that the account stays
within budget. This is based on a 30 day period and this period starts when a budget
is set or modified.

For terms to remain online, your account must have the prior 3 days of click charges
in the account. Each time the balance falls below this amount; your credit card will
be charged.

It has an impression smoothing feature to ensure that impressions are consistent
throughout the day.
The new budgeting feature has confused some advertisers. Here are some examples:

The calculation of the budget is confusing. It’s based on the monthly budget per
calendar month i.e. a budget of $100 per day is $3000 for the month (daily target x
30). Conceivably, if you start a campaign on 25th of a month, you could get charged
from the 1st to 25th in one day. Many advertisers have inadvertently run thru monthly
budgets in a few days.

To set a daily budget, the automatic fund refill feature needs to be enabled. You
can't return to manual refill (pre pay deposit) after choosing this budgeting option.
You’ll need to phone Y!SM to have this feature restored.

When your budget has run out for the day, the ad positions appear blank in the
'manage bids' tab.
! Action Item: Manually add funds to account until the bugs are worked out.
14
For more information on this Advanced Match strategy, please refer to Chapter 4.
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
If you select Non-Stop Traffic option, Yahoo disregards whatever values you show
listed as a daily budget or monthly budget. Rather than grey out the daily and
monthly budget data fields, they stay the same. This can cause serious problems if
you have content network enabled with some broad phrases that all of a sudden
show up a premier partners home page in the headlines (like CNN). You may see a
tremendous run-up in charges which may or may not be qualified traffic.
! Action Item: Do not select Non-Stop traffic if you must keep within strict daily or
monthly budgets.
Enhanced Tracking URLs (now called Easy Track)
Another new feature is enhanced tracking URLs (now called Easy Track). This feature allows
advertisers to identify traffic driven by Y!SM and its network by match type (content match,
advanced match and standard match), keyword and raw search query.
When this feature is enabled, tracking data is automatically generated and imported into
web server logs (provided by your web host). In these files, you’ll see the following
parameters (with corresponding information):

OVKEY will show the keyword (or phrase) you entered, i.e., used car

OVRAW will show the keyword (or phrase) a search user entered, i.e., Honda used
cars

OVMTC will show the Traffic Type used to match your keyword with the user's
keyword - Content, Standard, and Advanced.
Look for "source=Overture" in referrer field of your access logs. It will look something like
this:
?source=overture&overaw=Honda used cars&overkey=used car& overmtc= advanced
To enable this feature, go to the account tab and then account set up.
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Figure 8: Screen Shot of Account Set-Up Page
Why Use Easy Track
Use this feature to compare the number of hits to your site with the number of clicks you’re
charged for. Sometimes, there are discrepancies in these numbers i.e. more Y!SM click
charges than web site visitors (from Y!SM). Call Y!SM if you notice irregularities between log
file data and the charges in your account.
As the feature displays raw search query data, this tool can be a source of new keyword
ideas. Raw search query information is not available via regular Y!SM reporting.
For a more robust tracking tool, take a look Y!SM’s Search Optimizer. It builds off the Easy
Track product and provides more robust analytics (ROI based) and contains bid management
features.15
Compatibility with Top 3rd Party Analytics Systems
Furthermore, Y!SM is now compatible with third party analytics systems. However, the
analytics field, and the leading paid search vendors’ relationships with third-party analytics
solutions, is in rapid flux.
In particular, two key developments are worth grasping. First, Google recently made its
analytics package (Google Analytics, a relatively full-featured campaign analytics tracker
that is based on the recently-acquired Urchin platform) free, placing even more severe
downward pressure on pricing in the analytics software sector. Second, it’s rumored that
Yahoo’s relationship with key third-party analytics vendors is rocky. Even one of the leading
15
For more information on Search Optimizer, please see Chapter 2.
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firms in the field -- one which provides some of the most respected analytics tools and bid
management software in the industry -- told us they had great difficulty jumping through
hoops to become an authorized vendor with full access to the Y!SM Application Programming
Interface (API). Will Yahoo! continue to make it uncomfortable for all but a few partners, or
will they force advertisers to use their own tools? We’ll have to see.
So what seems to be happening is that tracking your Y!SM campaigns could prove to be a bit
of a minefield. If you’re running Y!SM, then you’re probably running Google AdWords. If so,
you probably want a solution that’s either accessing Google AdWords via the openlyavailable Google AdWords Application Program Interface (API), or you want to use Google
Analytics itself. Meanwhile, though, Yahoo is making it harder for third parties to access its
API, and hasn’t made its advanced tools free.
Your decision might come down to whether you are willing to pay Yahoo or one of its few
accredited third party solutions providers a premium to be able to track your Y!SM
campaigns seamlessly, or whether you’ll want to stick with the solution that is best for
tracking your Google campaign.
The most compelling choice should be one that allows you to track all your campaigns in a
single interface. Many of the leading packages, including Google Analytics, provide support
for just that.
Other vendors of note include Omniture, Webtrends, ConversionRuler, ClickTracks, Atlas
One point, Did-It Maestro, Decide DNA, and dozens of others. If you have a heavy-duty
campaign you’ll want one of the solutions that offers both bid management and ROI
tracking. Omniture, ClickTracks, and Atlas are among the leading vendors here.
At Page Zero, we expect to hack out basic bid management features and offer them free to
clients, thanks to the AdWords API. That won’t help you with Y!SM, however. But it’s worth
mentioning just to make it clear that you need to avoid overpaying if it’s really just a small
number of features you need. Bid management tends to be overpriced today, for example,
especially for those who need relatively simple management and scheduling.
If you use Yahoo or a Yahoo-approved tool in addition to the Google-approved or Google
tool, you’ll be using two analytics solutions where one would be easier. In addition, you will
probably find yourself restless if either or both of the solutions is costly.
There is no easy solution at this juncture. The facts as they stand are there on the table:
Google’s ability to deliver enormous computing power for free has allowed them to release
an analytics tool for free that would have cost you $1,500 or much more last year. And yes,
it will allow you to track Y!SM, banner, and other online campaigns too. You’ll need to
decide what exact solution to use. But not tracking is simply not an option. Clicks are too
expensive to fly blind.
This is really where hiring an SEM campaign management agency can save you real
headaches. Let a consultant help you navigate these decisions, and help you to analyze your
campaign data. Be wary of a consultant who will only talk about their own proprietary
analytics tool, or one who can’t give a good explanation for a particularly high price. To be
clear, third party analytics can be worth quite a premium if they’re good enough and help
you keep your data independent from the prying eyes of Google and Yahoo. But how much
of a premium? Be a savvy buyer.
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Conversion Tracking
Any company can manipulate code to retrieve conversion data on a third party system.
Currently, Y!SM is compatible with major companies like ClickTracks, Omniture,
AtlasOnePoint, WebSideStory, and more.
This isn’t the place to offer a full-scale discussion on the accuracy of conversion data. But
depending on your business, you will find the accuracy of your data is off by at least 15%,
and possibly much more. Some of the reasons for inaccuracy in tracking include: a high
number of phone orders; cookie deletion by some users; latent purchasing from different
computers; users’ browser settings blocking third-party cookies; and more.
Conversion data is a useful rough guide to campaign ROI performance. More than anything it
is a relative measure, telling you how one part of your Y!SM stacks up against another, and
how Y!SM stacks up against other online marketing channels you’re tracking.
There aren’t many very recent books on this subject to refer you to. Because the field
changes quickly, it’s probably worth attending vendor-neutral seminars on this topic, such
as Jim Sterne’s E-Metrics Summit, held several times a year. There are also several online
forums and an emerging Web Analytics Association, for those who wish to investigate more
deeply.
Conversion Counter: Y!SM’s In-House Conversion Tracking Tool
Conversion Counter is Y!SM’s free in- house conversion tracking tool. It allows advertisers to
track conversions, conversion rates and cost per conversions. Conversion counter allows
tracking at a keyword, category or account level (Figure 9 and 10).
Figure 9: Conversion data at an account level.
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Figure 10: Conversion data at keyword level.
The benefits of Conversion Counter:

It’s straightforward to implement. HTML code fromY!SM is simply pasted on your
web site.

The tool allows advertisers to track content match conversions (not only sponsored
search).
The disadvantages of Conversion Counter:

It can only track one type of conversion (sale). In contrast, Google’s basic tracker
can track three.

Your account information is accessible by the vendor. They can use information for
the benefit of their company (increase bid prices, etc…)

It does not allow advertisers to track other PPC campaigns.

The tool has been known to overstate conversions.
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As this tool has been known to overstate conversions, use this tool with caution. A good idea
is to install this tool in addition to an inexpensive tracking tool (like ConversionRuler) to test
the product’s accuracy.
Bid Management
Currently, all the major companies are compatible with Y!SM (Omniture, AtlasOnePoint,
WebSideStory, ClickTracks, and more.) There also seem to be dozens of less well known
Yahoo-approved bid management solutions, as well.
Access to Y!SM through the API is restricted and it seems that Yahoo! might negotiate
different deals with different vendors. While solutions like PPC Management complain of
being limited to a maximum of 24 daily bid changes, companies like Efficient Frontier seem
to imply that they can tackle an enormously complex campaign without choking. On further
analysis, though, Efficient Frontier doesn’t reveal much on their website about how the
system actually works. This leads one to suspect that most lower-cost bid management
solutions, and some manual approaches, could be just as efficient. It’s easy to get carried
away with the rocket science aura of bid management, but unless you have a $1 million/day
campaign, it’s unwarranted and infeasible.
PPC Bid Management’s case actually illustrates some of the absurdity that has crept into the
business of managing search campaigns. If you’re not satisfied with changing your bids up to
24 times a day, they promote an offer whereby you can hire their people to do it more
often. Anyone who is changing bids 24 times per day must have several thousand keywords.
Imagine the sweatshop type work involved in manually changing several thousand keyword
bids several times per day, with no automated helper to pitch in. Now ask yourself if that
same company can make effective decisions about your campaign.
Of course, it isn’t feasible or necessary to make bid adjustments that often, for 99.9% of
advertisers.
Finally, be aware that foolish use of bid management leads to bidding wars and misplaced
focus. Use it with care, and if your campaign is relatively small, consider manual, good old
human brain type approaches.
Search Optimizer: Y!SM’s In-House Bid and Metric Management Tool
Search Optimizer is Y!SM’s bid and campaign management tool. The tool is designed to
move the paid search management focus from simple bidding and costs per click to CPA
(cost per acquisition) and ROAS (return on ad spend). To use Search Optimizer, the Easy
Track feature needs to be enabled in your account.
The real perk with Search Optimizer is automation. With the tool, bid rules can be set in
one of three ways. ‘Constraints only’ consists of setting a maximum and minimum bid as
well as a maximum and minimum ad position. ‘CPA’ consists of setting a target CPA and a
maximum CPA. Based on this information, the tool will make specific bid recommendations.
‘ROAS’ consists of setting a target ROAS and a minimum ROAS i.e. $8 in profit (target ROAS)
for every $1 spent in advertising (minimum ROAS). For the ROAS setting, advertisers also
need to set minimum and maximum bid and position.
For all bid rules, the software will make recommendations based on bid, position, etc... The
tool can be set to auto accept all recommendations or users can opt to accept
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recommendations manually. This gives advertisers the ability to automate bidding strategies
(sponsored search) based on performance driven recommendations
Figure 11: A screen shot of Search Optimizers 'constraints only' bid rule.
Here are several Search Optimizer features:

Metrics can be tracked at account, category or search term level.

There’s a 90 day cookie to track latent conversions.

The tool has a day parting feature.

Tracking codes for Y!SM campaigns can be uploaded automatically. For non-Y!SM
campaigns, codes are implemented via the campaign builder spreadsheet.

The tool can track ad campaigns, affiliate, comparison, contextual, email, local,
paid inclusion, and paid placement across most all vendors.
Here are several unique features worth mentioning:
Search Optimizer can update bids as fast as every five mins. The update schedule depends
on keyword velocity. Velocity takes several factors such as volume into consideration. The
higher the keyword velocity, the faster the update schedule. Some bid management tools
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can update every 30 mins (Atlas OnePoint) but many others are only able to update at a
maximum of once per hour.
Another unique feature is Search Optimizer allows advertisers to track content match and
sponsored search (advanced match and standard match) results separately. Other bid
management products are unable to track these products separately.
Here are some general comments on Search Optimizer:

The interface is difficult to navigate (not intuitive)

The tool’s terminology is confusing. ‘Campaign name’ means category name and
‘creative name’ refers to the individual keywords in an account.

The tool tends to overstate conversions.

Can’t add keywords or money using the Search Optimizer interface. This needs to be
done through the DTC or via an account manager.

Data in this tool goes back 15 months.

Campaign statistics are not visible if listings are offline.
Here are some Search Optimizer tips:

Start with the ‘constraints only’setting (set min and max position and bids). Add
CPA info in one to three months (depends on search term volume) when the tool has
enough data to calculate the best possible CPA. It’s best to track CPA at a category
or listing level.

Tracking low volume terms may lead to bad choices as conversion rates can be close
to 100% or 0%. CPA on will be unclear until you’ve tracked for a period of time and
established statistical significance for these terms.
! Action Item: To generate significant data, track a bit longer than you might expect: 30-90
days is not an uncommon test period.

Search Optimizer is being offered for free to Platinum and Diamond clients.
! Action Item: Reconsider your costly bid manager tool. It looks like Yahoo! is offering this
tool free to some advertisers now, with plans to offer improved versions to all advertisers
down the road. Especially if you just need simple day-parting, third party tools seem like
poor value unless they’re part of a comprehensive service and software solution which adds
value for you.
Note: Search Optimizer is available without the bid management tool (analytics only). It’s
called Marketing Console. To get this, advertisers need to get the Search Optimizer product
and disable the bid management tool.
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Other User Interface Changes
There are several other changes in Y!SM. They involve the add listings tab and the manage
sponsored search tabs.
Add Listings Tab
Several modifications have been made to the add listings tab.
New Category Feature
When adding new listings (via the DTC), advertisers can now assign categories to individual
keywords. Before this change, categories were assigned after keyword phrases were
approved and appeared in the DTC.
! Action Item: Always have a categorization plan to organize your account in advance, and
always assign categories to keywords when adding new listings, for ease of use later.
New Default Option Headlines
When creating new ads, the new default option is to create separate headlines for each
keyword. Before, the system gave the user had a choice between creating individual
headings or using the same headings for all terms.
New Bid Projections
During the ad submission process (via the DTC), advertisers can now see projected ad
positions and costs of new keyword(s). Before, this feature was not available. Advertisers
could only see impression counts via the keyword research tool or keyword costs once
incurred.
Preview Ad Copy in Both Formats on Yahoo!
Another new feature is advertisers can preview ad copy in both formats on Yahoo!. This is
helpful as formats change based on bid position. There’s character counts per line that
guides ad copy.
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Figure 12: Advertisers can preview ad copy in both Yahoo! formats.
Manage Sponsored Search Tab
The new feature here is the manage categories pages comes up first (it used to be manage
bids page). This adds another step for the user (you need to click on the specific category
you want) but the benefit is faster load times.
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Figure 13: The Manage Categories page is the new default page in the Manage Sponsored
Search Tab.
Category Maximum Bid Price
Y!SM has added (in June 2005) a new feature to campaign management – a maximum bid
price for each category (similar to Google’s max CPC). Before, the only option was to adjust
every keyword bid individually.
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Figure 14: The new maximum bid price (category level).
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Chapter 3: Cost-Effective Y!SM Campaigns
If you’re an experienced account manager like I am, you probably know that there are
certain aspects of campaign management that really stand out when it comes to turning
around economic performance. This chapter may seem a little strange to you in that it
combines a variety of elements of campaign management – some directly related to ROI,
some not. But for me, this is really the nitty gritty on how to separate success from failure
in Y!SM. In other words, Chapter 3 is the money chapter! Read on.
Keyword Mining/Discovery - A Different Process in Y!SM
As paid search advertising has evolved, so has keyword research technique. The major PPC
vendors, Google and Yahoo, seem to want to make it easier on advertisers to increase
volume without too much keyword research effort. Studying the sources of success of
Yahoo! campaigns, though, I’ve learned that one key secret on Y!SM is not much different
from the key tactic that ruled in the original days of GoTo.com. Generally, advertisers need
more terms in accounts to achieve optimal results. Many longer phrases and geographic
qualifiers are not automatically added via Y!SM’s matching technology. On Google, you can
get away with using phrase match or broad match to cover the keyword universe (using one
and two word phrases to cover many possible longer phrases). By contrast, on Yahoo!, the
use of as many relevant three-word (and even longer) phrases as you can feasibly enter is
necessary to achieve optimal performance on this particular platform.
Essentially, there is no exact equivalent on Y!SM to the Google AdWords “phrase match”
option. The fact that Yahoo! does a poor job of documenting how their matching options
work means potential campaign inefficiency unless you put in extra keyword generation
work.
To complicate matters, it can be difficult to get keywords approved on Y!SM. The two main
reasons are Match Driver technology and Y!SM’s strict editorial review process and listing
guidelines.
Match Driver (Keyword Stemming)
Y!SM’s Match Driver is an algorithm that maps terms (both standard match and advanced
match) to phrases beyond the exact terms in an account. This includes matching ads to
common misspellings, plural/singular versions and terms with words like “a”, “and”, “the”,
“of”, and so on. The phrases “buy new car” and “buy a new car,” for example, are
considered the same and are mapped to each other. Match Driver includes an enhanced
mapping feature that maps relevant keywords contained in ad titles and descriptions to ads.
These terms do not have to be in your Y!SM account or explicitly bid on by you, necessarily,
to trigger your ad.
Advanced match terms are subjected to an additional mapping feature that casts a wider
net. It includes a broader range of relevant keywords like different verb tenses, more
complex word reordering, and variations. For example, “ford truck” would mapped to the
phrases “new ford truck”, “ford truck used”, “get a red ford truck” etc… Additionally,
advanced match terms are mapped to relevant web content on landing pages. Again, these
terms do not have to be in your Y!SM account or bid on by you.
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Sounds imprecise, doesn’t it? Recent (December 2005) promotional material emailed to
advertisers by Yahoo! dumbed it down as far as possible. It showed an illustration of two
pushbuttons. One for “standard” and the other for “MORE.” “MORE” is associated with
advanced match. The question is: more of what? Yahoo!’s matching technology decides on
your behalf. The idea is that enabling “MORE” is a way of allowing Yahoo! to do legwork on
your behalf, finding you terms that convert equally well to those in your current account.
But does that actually happen? It varies case by case.
It’s worth noting that both Yahoo! and Google have experienced controversy over their
matching methods. In November, 2003, Stefanie Olsen of CNET News.com published an
article about Google’s “tweaks” that had created confusion for some advertisers (“Google
tweaks upset customers,” November 14, 2003). One complaint revolved around the
introduction of “expanded broad matching” for broad-matched terms. According to the
CNET story, a broad-matched bid for the term “hotel” might show ads on related terms such
as “vacations.” In reality, the expanded broad matching was never that broad, but in the
early going it caused marked drops in account performance. Google immediately scaled
back the scope of the broad matching. In an interview with Page Zero shortly thereafter,
Salar Kamagar told us that Google planned to calibrate the new technology
“conservatively.” That has remained the case, even though it still doesn’t always work as
expected. Most importantly, Google advertisers can opt out of expanded matching by not
using the broad match syntax.
Had Google not scaled back the aggressiveness of their matching technology, advertiser
performance would have continued to suffer. By contrast, then, Yahoo’s approach to this
seems out of sync with advertisers’ concerns. Unlike Google, I sense that Yahoo never
backed down from their aggressive matching philosophy.
If mapped terms are submitted to Y!SM, account holders will receive a “duplication of
results” message. Either the new term or the existing term in the account will be declined.
Typically, listings with more prominent placement (higher bids) and more popular keywords
(generally more expensive terms) are selected over other listings. Ad copy is also taken into
consideration during the selection process.
Advanced match is aimed at advertisers who want to generate additional traffic. Y!SM
claims it will make ‘relevant’ matches. The phrase “diamond ring” will likely map to
phrases like “buy a diamond ring”, “diamond ring for a wedding”, “diamond and platinum
ring”, etc… It’s worth noting, ‘relevant matches’ is poorly defined by Y!SM. One way to deal
with possibility of unwanted matching, I stress, is to use “negative” or “excluded” terms.
Note: in Y!SM, the phrase “diamond ring” will never map to “diamond jewellery” as
“jewellery” is not included in the keyword phrase.
Match Driver technology is automatic and cannot be disabled. Y!SM’s logic is Match Driver
simplifies overall account management as it reduces the number of terms needed in
accounts. It also contributes to Yahoo’s bottom line, given that it helps Yahoo! show ads on
a broader range of phrases. Longer term, though, if advertiser performance and confidence
decrease, the lack of clarity in their matching policies could hurt Yahoo!.
Match Driver could be a sensible feature if it were more clearly documented.
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How to Deal with Match Driver
Here are some Match Driver tips:

Misspelled, slang or abbreviated terms that appear in Y!SM’s keyword generation
tool can be included in accounts. eg. Missisippi, scisors, etc…

Match Driver can create havoc, so watch your account performance closely, and
complain when unreasonable matching seems to be taking place. Terms that
shouldn’t trigger matches will nonetheless do so. For example, I had the term
“preapproved mortgage” in an account and the term was matched to the term
“mortgage.” This undocumented “feature” -- Match Driver isn’t supposed to match
your multiple-word keyphrases to single-word searches -- cost a client $3200 in two
days.16
! Action Item: Rip your hair out, and then ask for a refund, when Match Driver causes
unwanted spending by allowing your ad to be triggered by unfocused keyword searches you
don’t want to pay high CPC’s for.
To date, Match Driver has driven up the cost of terms and made many smart keyword bids
obsolete (or at least very expensive).
Unfortunately, short of using negative keywords, it’s not possible to opt out of Match Driver.
It’s built in, even to Y!SM’s so-called Standard Match. Most advertisers aren’t aware of this
loss of control.
Strict Editorial Review
In Y!SM, the editorial review process is stringent. New listings can take 5+ days to clear the
review process and can be declined for any number of reasons. Take a look at the
information below.
To contrast, on Google, new terms are automatically reviewed and live within 3 or 4 hours
(on Google.com). Once terms have been reviewed by Google’s editorial team (usually within
48 hours), they go live on partner sites. The differences between Yahoo and Google
shouldn’t be exaggerated on this front, though. Google’s new Quality Score formula might
involve a degree of editorial meddling along with algorithmic assessment of things like
“landing page quality.” We don’t know the exact balance.
Editorial Review Process
On Y!SM, the editorial review process is extensive. Depending on keyword search volume,
terms are routed to either automatic or manual review. Low volume terms (a retail item
like “snow gloves”) are generally reviewed automatically. High impact (trademarked terms,
adult content) and high volume terms are manually reviewed. Accounts are also manually
reviewed if many terms go to separate URLs. The automated spider is unable to detect the
relevancy of numerous landing pages. Additionally, accounts are reviewed manually when
terms are declined by the automated system.
16
For more information on how to catch increases in volume, please refer to Chapter 5 (Reporting).
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The automated review process checks for duplicate terms, editorial guidelines (explained
below) and the relevancy of keywords and landing page content. If the terms are fairly
straightforward, ads can be listed relatively quickly (as fast as 2 hours).
During the manual process, a human editor reviews the account. When an account is
reviewed manually, a volume check is added. This check eliminates words that don’t meet a
minimum volume requirement per month. This might be as high as 20 or as low as 5,
depending on current policy.
Generally, the review process takes 3 to 5 business days but may sometimes longer if there
are editorial delays.17
! Action Item: To improve chances of approval: mention the keyword in the filename/URL,
in the title, in a header and in the first sentence on the landing page.
Listing Guidelines
In general, Y!SM listing guidelines are stringent. It does not allow superlatives, capital
letters and punctuation such as “!”. It also has strict guidelines in areas like adult content,
prescription drugs, etc…18 Below, I’ve highlighted some of the common reasons listings are
declined.
Duplication of Results
An advertiser may list a given site under a keyword only once. This includes misspellings,
phrase variations and singular/plural variations. With Match Driver technology, these terms
are mapped to a primary term in the account. So “widgett” is mapped to “widgets.” All this
really does, of course, is bundle the less cost-effective variations with the more costeffective ones.
If these terms are submitted to an account, they’ll receive “duplication of results”
message. Yahoo! claims it needs to show breadth of results and does not want to provide a
redundant user experience.
Site Ownership
The duplication of ads is OK if sites identify themselves as affiliates. Resellers must clearly
show site ownership is different than the primary or parent company. On the Yahoo! results
page, DealCrawler (an affiliate of Expedia.com) displays a different URL than Expedia.com.
The company also indicates their affiliate relationship on their landing page.
Resellers cannot direct traffic to the primary company. If this occurs, Y!SM will decline the
site for a “site ownership” violation. In essence, this weeds out most lower-end affiliates
from trying to make a quick buck running CPC ads on Y!SM. Clearly, though, with some
17
6.
18
Platinum and Diamond Advertisers can get faster service. For more information, please see Chapter
For more information, please refer to Y!SM editorial guidelines:
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/relevancy.jhtml
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effort (as DealCrawler has done), it’s possible for affiliates and resellers to work around and
with Yahoo!’s editorial restrictions.
Figure 15: DealCrawler has a different URL than Expedia.com.
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Figure 16: DealCrawler clearly indicates they are an affiliate of Expedia in the upper
right hand corner of their landing page.
Obvious Path
Your URL listed in the search result must take the user to a page that is “obviously and
immediately relevant” to the specific keyword.
! Action Item: Be sure to select the most appropriate landing pages possible or terms may
be declined.
Content - Trademarks
Yahoo! limits adverting on trademarked terms. Only resellers, information sites (non
competitive) and comparison sites (competitive) can purchase trademarked terms.
Regardless of trademark, Y!SM does not allow for advertisers to bid on other companies’
(i.e. competitors’) URLs or company names.
Policy in this area is evolving. Note that there might be an opening for you if you operate
(for example) a consumer review or reseller site that makes “fair use” of trademark.
Consider lobbying Y!SM for your case, and consult relevant legal resources. There is a
common perception that Y!SM completely forbids the use of trademarked terms as
keywords. This is definitely not the case. But you’ll need to qualify to use them.
Unacceptable Content (data collection)
Y!SM will not accept listings for web sites whose primary purpose is the collection of
personally identifiable information to be used for consumer or promotional marketing, or
related purposes. They will also not accept listings for advertisers that link to or redirect to
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such sites. Because that is broadly the purpose of a large proportion of commercial sites, we
can only assume that there is some editorial leeway in this area. I certainly hope so, if
Yahoo! wants to maximize its ad revenues. The arbitrariness of this category is cause for
concern.
Prescription Drugs (Online Pharmacies)
Y!SM has strict rules about certification for prescription sites. To advertise in the US, a
company needs to be Square Trade Certified (an independent third-party that manages
Yahoo!'s qualification program). For non-prescription sites, there are no restrictions except
on products containing Ephedra. Consider all pharma-related campaigns as likely being
subject to review on a case-by-case basis.
Canadian companies can only advertise to the Canadian market and must disclose their
locations in titles and descriptions.
How to Deal with Editorial Review
At Y!SM, editorial mistakes occur. As listings are manually edited, there are sometimes
inconsistencies in the way guidelines are enforced. Also, human editors may not familiar
with the industries they review. I’ve had listings mistakenly declined for lack of content, or
trademark reasons. For example, the phrase “lower my bills” was declined as a
“trademarked term” but the phrase in the USPTO is lowermybills.com. Trademark law, in
particular, has a way of mesmerizing people --Yahoo editors and Google policy developers
being no exception. What if, for example, a large financial firm had trademarked the
common English phrase “Let’s talk”? Many other financial firms might like to use this as a
call to action because they know their market: high net worth prospects won’t commit
without a frank discussion with an adviser. So here, you might be forced into using the
stiffer-sounding “Let’s discuss” if you happen to be a direct competitor of the trademark
holder, or perhaps the less substantial phrase “let’s chat.” If you sell knitting needles,
though, you should appeal that the trademark doesn’t apply to your industry. Trademark
law isn’t intended to hijack the entire English language and prevent its fair commercial use
in every situation.
! Action Item: If listings have been mistakenly declined, resubmit via the DTC or appeal via
your Y!SM representative. There is no penalty for resubmitting terms and often, the same
listing will be approved by a different editor.
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Keyword Discovery Strategies for Y!SM
In general, you’ll need to include more keywords in your Y!SM account. In spite of Advanced
Match, account matching options are limited as many longer phrases and geographic
qualifiers are not added via the matching technology. You’ll need more keywords for the
same exposure you’d receive in other pay per click engines (namely Google).
Not only do you need to include many terms but you need to ensure you select the right
terms. Here are some suggestions on selecting effective keywords:
Focus on ‘Tail’ Terms
When building out keyword lists, focus on tail terms. Tail terms are generally longer phrases
that have lower volume and cost less. These terms tend to convert at a better rate than
core terms (shorter keyword phrases that cost more and have higher volume). A reason is
the longer query provides more information on buyer intent. For example, a search for “buy
a Sony televison” speaks more to what the user wants than a search for “television”.
Selecting longer keyword phrases can help advertisers “speak” directly to advertisers. Of
course, tail terms alone won’t lead to good conversions. Compelling ad copy and landing
pages are important factors in persuading visitors to make purchases.
Aim to get 50 to 70 percent of volume from tail terms (in unoptimized accounts, tail terms
can account for 20 to 30 percent of volume). If you gradually add terms to your account,
you’ll be surprised how quickly they accumulate.
Note: It can take time for terms to generate volume on Y!SM. It is not uncommon for terms
to take three weeks to a month to ramp up. In one account, volume increased dramatically
after the fourth month. This account is now returning $8 for every $1 spent in advertising.
Here’s an example of an account with many tail terms. In this account, I gradually built
volume up over four months.
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Figure 17: Tail terms in an account. Generally, these are low volume, low cost terms.
Here are some ideas to find tail terms:
19

Focus on synonyms and similar keywords. In the mortgage industry, try terms like
“mortgage approval”, “mortgage preapproval”, “mortgage pre approved”, etc… Try
adding misspellings (if possible), slang terms, shortened words and abbreviations.
Some of my best results have come from shortened words and slang. In an account
that sells domain names, I used a variety of different terms that relate to URLs like
dot com, dot ca, etc… Aim for phrases two or three words in length.

Focus on different keyword variations. A mortgage company bidding on “mortgage
loan refinance” could try also “mortgage refinance”. If certain keyword phrases are
expensive, shorter or slightly longer phases could prove to be less expensive. Try
adding the word “internet”, “online” or “com” to popular keyword phrases. An
example would be “internet mortgage loan” “online mortgage loan”.

Use high volume terms to find low volume variations. For example, if your high
converting term is “auto insurance” try variations like “auto insurance in LA”, “auto
insurance SUV”, etc…19

Add negative keywords to ensure you don’t target unsuitable phrases for your
product or service. Some common ones are: free, make your own, picture, pic etc…

There are dozens of free tools such as ‘keyword concatenators’ and ‘keyword
combination generators’. Search for these and review available options. There are
free tools available through some analytics and ROI tracking vendors, and some
experts and blogs publish lists of free tools. You don’t necessarily need to shell out
For more information on how to find terms, refer to chapter 4.
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hard cash to find good keyword tools, as many developers seem to be coming out
with free versions as promotional offers.
In general, make the keyword generation process fun. Make a game out of increasing tail
terms in an account. Set daily and weekly goals and commit to adding keywords
periodically. You’ll be amazed at how quickly keyword lists can grow.
Obviously, the type of tail term selected will vary depending on industry, type of item sold,
what type business you are in and the size and marketing objectives of your company. A
company like Hallmark will look at the keyword "birthday card" differently than a smaller
company. Many small companies cannot afford the prices for broad, popular, unfocused
terms. Companies like Hallmark, on the other hand, are willing to pay a premium for brand
impact, lifetime customer value, or simply market share. There is only so much screen real
estate, so big companies don’t mind paying for their share on popular keywords if it means
they crowd out potential competitors. If you’re that small competitor, the best strategy is
probably not to attempt to outgun them on these broad, popular words. You’ll lose. So, it’s
for the smaller company that extra keyword research may really pay off.
Note: Large bulk upload spreadsheets will cause the DTC to time out. To prevent this,
upload 1000 (or less) terms at a time.
Expand Category (Campaign) Breadth
Create numerous categories with many specific keywords. Include as many specific keyword
phrases as possible in each one. In an account that sells a commodity technology service, I
have many categories, such as “web site.” Each category has 100+ related terms.
Here are some campaign ideas:

Create categories that relate to every product. For example, a company that
advertises for “birthday presents” should also create categories for terms like “50th
birthday gift”, “mother gift”, “father gift”, etc.

Create a geographic term campaign (in the sponsored search product). In an
account that helps students find education information, I added many specific terms
related to programs in different geographic regions. These terms convert
phenomenally (5 to 15 percent) at less than 25 cents per click.

Create an additional campaign targeting your home state (in the sponsored search
product). While traffic will be significantly lower, the conversions should be
significantly higher.
Finding the Right Keywords
There are many ways to mine for keywords. Don’t just use keyword suggestion tools – you’ll
certainly miss valuable keywords! Here are some alternative keyword mining methods:

Examine log files. These are the terms people are actually searching for that ended
up clicking through to your site from a search engine listing. When selecting terms,
ensure exit rates are not high for your selected terms.
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
Look at competitor web sites. Comb meta tags and site content for keyword ideas.

Identify converting phrases from non-paid search results and buy the phrases on the
PPC search engines.

Do a search (in a search engine) and look at results. For more ideas, take at results
of several different search engines.

More specifically, on Google in particular, experiment with the “similar pages”
feature. Type a fairly generic/important query into Google Search, and click on
“similar pages” under the very first search result or under a search result that
intrigues you. This will probably give you ideas for sites that fall under the same
category. On those sites will probably appear additional keyword ideas. For
example, the top result for a search on “designer handbags” is called eluxury.com.
“Similar pages” to this include several company homepages that are in the same
market niche, and they might have different related keywords on site. Likewise, a
search for “Merrill Lynch” brings up ml.com, the financial firm’s home page.
“Similar” pages to this, interestingly, are not only other retail brokerage firms, but
top-tier retail brokerages. (Google only provides a short list of pages that are
“similar” enough to ml.com to warrant comment.) Google’s new keyword research
functionality seems to automate a similar process. The option for “site-related
research” results in Google visiting related sites and returning keyword suggestions
to you. The way that Google’s keyword tools are being designed seem to mimic the
suggestions for keyword research techniques that experts have been typically doing
by hand. Keep an eye on this technology.

Use Wordtracker’s keyword suggestion tool. This is useful to get ideas on how
people are search for particular products or services or within a particular industry.

Look at trade organizations or industry news sites. This is useful to get ideas on
industry specific keywords and phrases.

Use clustering search engines like clusty.com. Identify the phrases the tool thinks
are related to your search terms. In Clusty, you’ll see a list of related searches to
the left of the search results.

Ask customers, prospects, friends, and coworkers for ideas about what terms they
use to search for particular products and/or services.

Look in chapter 4 for keyword mining ideas using reports.
Here are some keyword mining best practices:

Max out on inexpensive keywords. They’re inexpensive if they convert and if they
don’t, they’re good for branding.

In Y!SM’s keyword suggestion tool, there are some common misspellings like
Mississippi. Terms that appear in the suggestion tool are not mapped to correctly
spelled terms. If possible, include common misspellings in your account.
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Can’t I Just Use Y!SM’s Keyword Tool?
There are two disadvantages to using strictly the Y!SM keyword suggestion tool. Firstly,
you’ll advertise on the same terms as everyone else. By using other tools, you’ll avoid
inflated prices (popular terms tend to be expensive) and the tedious task maintaining
bids/positions against people bidding on similar terms.
The second disadvantage is that the tool tends to overestimate word counts. The counts
might reflect artificial searches from bid management software, ranking monitors, and page
popularity analyzers. It also includes duplicate searches. If a person searches on Yahoo!,
MSN and AltaVista, Y!SM for the same term, Y!SM will register three searches. This may lead
advertisers to think keywords are more popular than they actually are.
Other Y!SM Campaign Considerations
In the sections below, I briefly discuss other factors that contribute to successful Y!SM
campaigns. Try the following tips in your campaigns. The following sections deal with
positioning strategy, text creative (ad copy), offers, and landing pages.
Positioning Strategy
Ad positioning is important. Naturally, different ad positions will yield different results. Try
different positions to see which tend to result in the highest conversion rates in your
particular case. Most of the time, higher ad positions don’t return a higher-than-expected
ROI. But there are rare cases when they pay off more than expected. Testing is key.
On the whole, you’ll need to decide whether your overall stance is aggressive or cautious.
You can’t have it both ways. For many companies, this strategy changes seasonally or based
on changing industry circumstances. Make sure your current bid strategy reflects your
company’s overall strategy. If you’ve expanded your sales staff, for example, it doesn’t
make sense to starve them for leads with an overly conservative bidding strategy.
As described below, try adjusting the positions of your best converting terms. Try to gain
the best positioning for top performing terms and drop to lower positions for all other
terms.
Here are some general positioning strategies:
For low volume terms: emphasize lower ad positions. I like positions 3 to 7. The positions
are less expensive than top spots and they still get you into some of Y!SM network sites. I
particularly like position number 4 because it appears in results at the bottom of the page
as well as in the top position of the paid listings on the right hand side on Yahoo! Search.
Position 5 has a similar benefit, as does 6.
For high volume terms: emphasize higher ad positions as these terms tend to convert
better in higher positions. For these terms, it’s worth it to pay a few extra cents - but don’t
go crazy. If you’re seeking credibility, there’s nothing that’ll do it faster for you than to be
listed in one of the top two ad positions. As many of our clients say, these “look expensive.”
It might not be affordable long term, but it can serve a purpose for you short term. Consider
“going for it” occasionally, and gauge the response carefully.
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End of month strategy: tight advertising budgets cause some advertisers to drop off.
Increase bids at the end of the month if there are opportunities to get better positioning at
cheaper prices.
As a general practice, don’t end bids with zeroes or fives. Advertisers who don’t do their
research tend to choose these numbers. Use numbers like 1.21, 1.23, 1.26, 1.27, etc… To a
certain extent, this may help you avoid competition for a particular position or price level. .
There is obviously much more gamesmanship that can be entered into with bids. Consider
whether some of it might actually cost you more than it helps, either in the time that it
takes, or in unexpected losses incurred by overcomplicating matters or triggering bidding
wars with irresponsible bids.
Text Creative
Text creative is important. Good ad copy will ultimately compel people to come to your site
and check out your product or service. With this in mind, advertisers should spend adequate
time creating compelling ads.
Here are some text creative best practices:
Make the ad a specific as possible to the product or service you’re selling. Naturally, include
keywords in headlines and descriptions as this increases relevancy (for the visitor) and
generally increases conversion ratios.
If the company is well known, include a company name in the title and/or description of the
ad.
Write benefit oriented ad copy and include a call to action (i.e. “buy now”, “order today”,
etc…). Here’s are examples of good and bad ad copy:
Bad Ad Copy:
Flasks & Bar Accessories
Get unique flasks, bar sets, wine openers and more. Great for gifts.
High quality & affordable. First time buyer – Save 15 percent. Order today.
https://www.uncommonlygifted.com
It’s very broad and should be separated into two separate ads, one for flasks and the other
for bar accessories.
Good Ad Copy
Wonderful Wine Openers & Accessories
Uncommonly Gifted carries wine openers so that you can entertain with sleek steel or soft
woods for a Zen effect. Find the perfect match to accent your taste. Order today.
https://www.uncommonlygifted.com
This is effective as it’s specific to wine and effectively paints a picture of the product in
your mind. Generally, lifestyle ad copy like this does well for lifestyle products so it’s worth
trying ad copy with flair. This is the widespread exception that proves the general rule that
plainer-spoken ad copy often does best in search advertising because it makes users feel as
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if they’re merely navigating to another trusted site. Ad copy should be appropriate in “feel”
to the industry category, so the user feels “catered to.” The latter ad performed 94 percent
better than the former one.
Broad Term Tips
If you target broad terms, tailor the title and description to specifically target people in the
wider audience who you want to buy your product or service. There is no cost to you if they
don’t click, and limited downside to low CTR, so definitely attempt to filter or prequalify
searchers with more specific or exclusive ad copy.
As an example, the broad term like “online mortgage” could use the following ad copy:
“Compare rates and receive up to four mortgage quotes by completing an easy online
application at [company name]. Bad Credit OK. Start saving today.”
Offers
Offers are important. They are one of the major features that differentiate similar products
and services. Generally, online shopper do their research so it’s a good idea to include well
thought out offers on your landing pages.
Here are some ideas:

Test different offers. I’ve seen conversion increase 4Xs from experiments with
different offers. Here are some offers to try: get a newsletter, something free
(ipod), save now, compare and save, compare the quality, get a free estimate, May
special, come to a webinar, receive a whitepaper, win $100, etc…

Test ads with and without product pricing. Also, test different prices as sometimes a
higher prices can yield better results. If you’re good at persuading customers to buy
a product with high margins -- on your site or on the phone -- then it’s a bad idea to
start talking price too early. Pricing in ads is a losing strategy more often than it is a
winning one, because it’s a conversation stopper. You want to start a profitable
conversation, not end it.

Carry the offer through to your landing page. If you offer a free product, make sure
the user is motivated to continue through the sales process with reference to the
offer.
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Figure 18: An example of a landing page with a compelling offer. (Why not also try
featuring this offer in your ad copy?)
Landing Pages
Create custom landing pages for your Y!SM campaign. Effective landing pages can
dramatically increase conversions. It’s not unusual to see conversions increase by 200% or
300% with minimal testing. Here are some ideas:

Create landing pages that are relevant to Y!SM ads.

Consider the page layout (not necessarily just copy length) as a testing variable.
There are no hard and fast rules: ensuring all the important information is above
the fold (a lead capture form, special offers) is considered a good idea, but
depending on the product and the user, it might not convert better. You need to
test several layouts.
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
For more impact, reiterate the primary benefit in a caption on the page.

Incorporate keywords into the headlines and text of the page. Use a strong benefit
oriented headline. Headlines can have an enormous impact on response rates.
Again, you don’t know unless you test.

Try a multiple offer landing page for multiple conversion opportunities. Try a layout
that offers an easy comparison grid of several products, or one that also offers a
“non-buy” option such as a newsletter subscription or free trial download. It’s
possible to strike a balance between clutter and offering users appropriate choices.
Landing pages that segment users into two or three types might wind up with higher
conversion rates than a single-focus page that “loses” a high percentage of visitors.
Make a game of increasing landing page conversions. If you’re currently converting two
percent of all visitors (the average conversion rate), see if you can increase the percentage
to four or six. With higher conversion rates, you’ll improve profits without having to pay
more in advertising. Try the following tests (test only one variable at a time):

Test variables likely to have a high impact. Headlines can have the most significant
influence on landing page response rates. Also, try testing different benefits.

Test different variations of ad copy with an A/B split. Test one ad copy for two
weeks and then another for two weeks. Select the ad copy that yields the best
results. Repeat this test constantly improve ROI and conversions.

Test different offers like newsletter signups, whitepaper registrations, webinars,
etc…

Landing page design is a whole field unto itself. Smaller companies should try basic
split tests, such as short vs. long copy, or the use of photographic images vs. no
photography. Larger companies will want to go much deeper and may hire a
usability or conversion specialist such as Future Now, Inc., Nielsen Norman Group,
Site Tuners, Good Experience, etc. You may find your current consultant or in-house
colleague can offer a credible alternative, also.
Campaign Management Tip: Stick to Same URL’s
It’s easier for campaign management if you keep old landing pages on file, and for current
use, maintain the same URLs contained in your Y!SM ads for all landing pages (the content
of the page will change but the URL will remain the same). This is easier than changing
every URLs in Y!SM every time you change a landing page. Some advanced analytics
packages, such as ClickTracks Professional, actually allow you to archive old pages and
maintain a database of the performance of different pages at different time periods. That’s
for advanced users.
The point here probably is: sure, you can test. You should test. But ensure your test is
designed so that it doesn’t cause undue disruptions to your campaign. And make sure you
have some idea how you will actually learn something statistically significant from your
test.
For more ideas, take a look at Andrew Goodman’s Chapter 11 in his book Winning Results
with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005) for more suggestions on landing pages. This
chapter refers to a variety of excellent sources for further reading, and sketches out some
original suggestions of its own.
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Timely Y!SM Tune-Up: KlinQ.com
KlinQ.com is a homeware store that specializes in barware, crystal, coffee and tea
accessories, tableware, flatware, cookware, and the like. They had a successful Google
campaign and launched a Y!SM campaign but were unable to generate a positive return on
their ad expenditures. Here are the steps I took to fix the KlinQ Y!SM campaign:

I added product-specific keyword phrases to the account, such as gravy boat, tea
cup, coffee mug, Christmas coaster, and breakfast dish. I started with high
volume/high margin products (I used a keyword suggestion tool to find variations of
keywords). I added top performing keywords (in terms of ROI) from KlinQ’s existing
Google account.

I tried all types of keywords related to KlinQ products (even ones I didn’t think
would work). I’ve often been surprised by results. In this account, the term “liquor
tag” contributed to 6 percent of overall sales. It’s not always possible to predict
fads, and at holiday time, some of the best sellers might be high ticket items.
Within reason, you don’t want to miss *anything* -- as long as it’s in stock.

I used product/search term specific titles and compelling descriptions of every
listing. The ad copy a) painted an image of the product and b) contained compelling
benefits and c) had a call to action. For example, for the term martini shaker, I
used: “Get sleek steel or colourful glass martini shakers for sophisticated or playful
settings. Great gift idea. Free shipping over $25.”

I pointed all ads to search term specific landing pages. Search queries were visible
on each page and the shipping deal was repeated on every page.

I tested different ad positions (from position 1 to 12) and determined that the best
converting ad positions were positions 4 to 6. As a starting point, I used the Google
bids (generally Google ad pricing is less than Y!SM’s) and I worked my way up in 5
cent increments.

I added expensive terms to the account and bid low. Some of these terms convert
well at lower ad positions.

I standard matched all terms. The effectiveness of this campaign relied on the
specific nature of KlinQ product terms.
Here are the KlinQ results:
In three weeks, this account was returning $9 for every $1 spent in advertising. Here are the
reasons this campaign was successful:

The titles and description were compelling and spoke to lifestyle. They incorporated
specific keyword phrases into titles and descriptions. The terms were directly
related to search term queries typed in by visitors.

The landing pages were product specific and incorporated search terms. It’s a way
to get into buyers’ internal dialogue and to subtly suggest that buyers are at the
right place to make a purchase. They’ve typed in a search query, clicked on an ad
with their search terms and they now see the same search terms on a landing page.
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
For terms with adequate click volume, I promptly eliminated non-performing
keyword phrases to improve account ROI.
One final note to conclude this chapter. Yahoo just dropped a bit of a bombshell. Beginning
January 18, 2006, they began displaying less ad copy next to search results (fewer
characters) – though it seems that top-three premium placed ads may be allowed longer
copy for now. Although nothing will be “broken” if you leave longer ads in the system, your
long ad copy will be truncated. You might now need to go in and take time to rewrite all
your ads so the calls to action are visible. Depending on how you wrote them in the first
place, they may be acceptable the way they are.
! Action Item: Assess which ads are in need of rewriting to take account of the new shorter
character displays for ad copy near Yahoo Search results. Submit new, shorter ads.
Alternatively, ask Yahoo what they recommend. When they offload extra work on us, it’s
always extra fun to phone them up with difficult questions, just to test them!
In the next chapter, I take a look at the informative, but sometimes frustrating, world of
reports available within the Y!SM interface.
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Chapter 4: Tools and Strategies to Help: Reporting
Tools
In Y!SM reporting, there are two obstacles preventing advertisers from getting the most
from their Y!SM campaigns. First, the report feature in Y!SM is confusing. It is difficult to
know which report to pull to get pertinent campaign information (the DTC doesn’t provide
detailed description of each report). Also, the information contained within the reports is
confusing. It’s difficult to obtain pertinent information let alone use it to make marketing
decisions. I’ve written this chapter to highlight useful reports and outline how each report
can specifically be used to achieve PPC marketing objectives
To start, some general points on Y!SM reporting:

Report information is not current. There’s a 24-hour delay and sometimes it’s
longer. On Y!SM, advertisers are always working with information that’s at least a
day old.

Data in the account goes back 18 months and advertisers can’t pull reports beyond a
95-day period. Advertisers will need to download information periodically to
maintain a history of Y!SM account(s).

There’s no clicks through per term information (relative to account cash depletion).
Currently, the only data available is ‘click cost’ per term.

Pulling up reporting information in Y!SM is slow. To speed up the process, data from
all reports can be exported (via the DTC) and sorted on spreadsheets.

For invoice reports, you can only get one month of billing information at a time.
The reports usually aren't ready until the 15th of the next month.
Y!SM Reports
In Y!SM, four reports provide valuable campaign information. They are: the keyword
summary report, the category summary report, the URL activity report and the keyword
activity detail report (if using conversion counter). These will be covered in the sections
below.
Keyword Summary Report
Until April 2005, the keyword summary report was called the search term summary report.
It contains overall account information like impressions, clicks, CTRs, CPCs, average ad
position, total costs per keyword, etc… Data in this report can include match type (both
advanced match and standard match) by selecting match type in report level field. Data can
also include individual products by selecting either sponsored search or content match in
product type field.
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Figure 19: In the keyword summary report, advertisers can get specific information on
match types and product types. This report is for the sponsored match product.
How to Use Keyword Summary Report
In the reports tab, select the keyword summary report and enter a date range. To get
specific campaign information, run this report for each content match and sponsored search
(select in the product type field). For the sponsored search report, select “match type” (in
the report type field) to display advanced match and standard match terms. (Note: the
different match types are not applicable for the content match product). To sort report
data, use the arrows at the top of each column (sort in ascending or descending order).
Why Use the Keyword Summary Report
The frequency with which you run this report will depend on how many terms you have and
your ad spend per month. Naturally, larger accounts will run this report more often (once a
day is not uncommon). At a minimum, advertisers should run this report weekly.
Specifically, advertisers can use this report to:

Get information at a glance like overall account clicks, costs or CPCs. For this
information, it’s faster to run this report than trying to get data from the DTC.

Keep track of overall account trends (CTR, volume, costs, etc…) by aggregate,
product type and/or match type. For example, if you’ve changed bids, you can see
the overall impact on volume and costs. Or if you’ve changed ad copy, you can see
the overall impact on CTR. Compare results week over week or month over month
(you’ll need to run a report for each time frame).
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
Watch for volume spikes. Severe spikes are usually attributed to the content match
product. Be sure to run a report specifically for this product.
Category Summary Report
Note: the Category Detail report is a different report.
The category summary report is useful to identify best performing categories in an account.
This report shows impression, click, CTR, CPC, average ad position, total costs per keyword,
etc… information by category.
How to Use the Category Summary Report
Run this report and sort data by clicks (in descending order). Look at the category column
and note the categories that drives the most volume. The data in this report can be sorted
by individual product by selecting either sponsored search or content match in product
type.
Why Use the Category Summary Report
Run this report to find keyword variations for the best performing (and converting)
categories. A growing number of analysts believe that less is more when it comes to
improving campaign performance based on available data. Especially in the early going,
improving your category performance may well be more productive and more certain as a
strategy than trying to analyze every single keyword.
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Figure 20: Find keyword variations for categories that drive the most volume.
URL Activity Report
This is a good report to use to understand landing page conversions. Use this report to tally
performance data for different URLs.20 This report shows keywords, ad position,
impressions, clicks, costs and URL information.
How to Use the URL Activity Report
To run this report, enter a date range and a specific URL (Note: advertisers will need to run
this report separately for each URL). To get specific campaign information, run this report
for both content match and sponsored search (select in the product type field). For the
sponsored search report, select “match type”(in the report field) to display advanced match
and standard match terms. (Note: the different match types are not applicable for the
content match product).
This report can be merged with the keyword summary report to get an overview of all
terms, costs, positions and URLs. To do this you’ll need to do a VLOOKUP in excel (this
feature allows spreadsheets to be merged).
20
More information on landing page testing is available in Chapter 4.
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Why Use the URL Activity Report
Use this report to improve landing page conversions. Try the following strategy:

Test two different pages for two weeks each (the test period may be longer or
shorter depending on account volume). Note: you’ll need to test the pages one at a
time. On Y!SM ads cannot be tested simultaneously (there is no split testing
feature).

Select the best performing page. Continually repeat this test to improve landing
page conversions.
Keyword Activity Detail Report
If using Y!SM’s Conversion Counter, the keyword activity detail report can be used to get
conversion and positioning information. With conversions figures from Y!SM, advertisers can
use EXCEL to calculate conversion percentages and get position reports. I explain the exact
process below.
To use this report, select the keyword activity detail report (Figure 20) and choose a date
range (if volume permits choose one day). Select ‘match type’ (this will display both
advanced match and standard match terms) for the report level and ‘equals’ (this will
provide information on the exact keyword phrase) for match method. Enter a keyword
phrase (keyword phrases need to be run individually) and select ‘sponsored search’ for
product type.
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Figure 21: Select the keyword activity detail report and enter parameters (indicated
below) and a keyword phrase.
Secondly, download the file into EXCEL (Figure 21). In this spreadsheet, you’ll see the word
in various bid positions on the same day (if volume is adequate in your campaign). It also
shows standard versus advanced matched terms.
Note: Column K gets formatted as percentage and Column L gets formatted as currency (in
this case, dollars). Reformat the columns to suit your taste.
Figure 22: The keyword activity detail report downloaded in EXCEL.
Thirdly, sort the spreadsheet by Column E (position) (Figure 22).
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Figure 23: The EXCEL spreadsheet sorted by Column E.
Fourthly, use EXCEL's Subtotal function to specify for every change in position, you want
sums of conversions, impressions, clicks, and cost (Figure 23).
Figure 24: A screen shot of EXCEL’s subtotal function.
Now for this term, you have the numbers of impressions, clicks, total cost, and conversions
for this term (Figure 25). By adding in some simple calculations, we can see the following
for this keyword term:
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
Position #1 has a higher CTR (1.9%) than Position #2 (1.5%), but position #2 has a
lower conversion rate and cost than position #1.

Position #3 has less click volume, and the same conversion rate as position #1, but a
lower cost per conversion than position #2.
Thus, depending on your campaign goals (cheapest cost per conversion, maximum volume,
or whatever), this report can helps advertisers get a better understanding of positioning,
conversions and costs per conversions.
Figure 25: A screen shot of an EXCEL spreadsheet with spreadsheets, clicks, total cost
and conversions.
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Tracking for Doofuses
Tracking is arguably the most important part of any PPC (or SEM) marketing campaign. Have
a plan in place before launching any PPC campaign.
I’ll remain vendor-neutral here. I’ve briefly commented on this area earlier in the report. (I
used the term “Doofuses” because I don’t want to step on any trademarked toes!)
Here’s a radical idea: tens of thousands of you have accounts so small, that your best option
is to manage the account hands-on, to alter bids hands-on, and to track campaigns using
very simple tracking codes and inexpensive tracking software such as ConversionRuler.com.
Yet the industry push is for expensive “comprehensive” solutions. This seems to have
relieved Yahoo! Search Marketing of some of their sense of responsibility for the clunky
state of their own interface.
As you continue to track and manage your campaigns in mostly manageable fashion, cross
your fingers that Yahoo! -- not some third party -- will make it easier and faster for you to
do so, directly within the interface. By Q3 2006… please….
Third-party solutions become more important if you have more than 1000 phrases in your
account.
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Chapter 5: Y!SM Service Tiers and the Ambassador
Program
Y!SM Services
In this chapter, I’ll cover the service tiers and the ambassador program.
Service Eligibility
Accounts are reviewed at the end of every quarter (March, June, September and December)
and are automatically moved to the appropriate service tier. Advertisers are notified of
service tier changes.
Service levels are determined by reviewing the twelve month average advertising spend. If
the account has been online for less than a year, Y!SM will review the average monthly
spend to determine service eligibility.
Note: service eligibility does not extend to the diamond tier. This tier is by invite only.
Different Levels of Service in Y!SM
At Y!SM, there are several service levels. The service tiers are as follows:
New Advertisers
An account is in premier tier for the first quarter or until end of a quarter. New advertisers
receive gold level service for the first 90 days (see below for details). After the 90-day
period, advertisers will be notified of their new service level. The new service level will be
determined by projecting the advertiser's 12-month spend (based on the known 90-day run
rate).
Premier Account
The premium tier is for advertisers that spend between $20 to $5999 per year.
Here are the main benefits of the premier tier:

Listings are processed in three to five business days (depending on workload).

Account support is available by telephone from the Client Support Team.

Email support is available via the support request form in the DTC. The response
time is 24 hours.

Account management is online via the DTC.
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Gold Account
The gold tier is for advertisers that spend $6,000 to $59,999 per year. The high end of the
gold tier are called 24K advertisers. These advertisers spend between $30,000 to $59,999
per year. These advertisers receive a dedicated gold representative and proactive customer
service
The main benefits of the gold tier are:

This tier receives editorial priority over new account and premier accounts (priority
processing). Listings are processed in one to two business days (depending on
workload).

Gold advertisers in this tier have access to bulk upload spreadsheet (they’re not
limited to the DTC to make account modifications). Spreadsheets can be uploaded
via the DTC or emailed to Y!SM. (5000 terms at a time)

Priority telephone (calls are routed to the gold tier) and email support. Email
response time is 12 hours.
Platinum Service Tier
To qualify for platinum status, advertisers need to spend $80,000 per year. This was
modified in Q4 2004. The old range was $60,000 to $119,999.
All of the benefits of the gold tier apply to the platinum service level. The additional
benefits of the platinum tier are:

Dedicated team support. Team members take detailed account notes and any team
member is able to pick up where another left off.

Extended hours of service. Platinum service is available Monday to Friday 6am to
6pm (PT) and Saturday 7am to 4pm (PT).

Priority processing of search listings. The review process takes one to two days
(platinum advertisers get priority over non-platinum advertisers).

Priority email service (platinum advertisers get priority over non-platinum
advertisers).

Proposals with keyword and copy suggestions. Y!SM makes suggestions for ads in the
1st, 2nd ad 3rd positions.

Modifications to ad copy (titles and descriptions).

Dedicated editorial team to expedite the processing of listings for platinum
advertisers (as of November 2004). The same team is responsible for content
development (new proposals, revising ad copy, etc…)
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Diamond Service Tier
The diamond tier is Y!SM’s highest service tier. To qualify, advertisers must spend $35,000
per month (this criterion, as with others in these programs, is subject to change).
Diamond service is by invite only. To determine eligibility, Y!SM takes factors such as
account spend, the industry, the account potential, etc... into consideration. I’ve been told
(by Y!SM executives) account growth is an important factor in qualifying for diamond
service. In other words, they’ll pay more attention to your account if there’s a likelihood
that this attention will result in an increased ad spend over time. There are many agency
accounts in the diamond tier.
The diamond tier receives all of the benefits of the gold and platinum tiers. They also
receive:

A dedicated account manager with a direct phone number. The idea is a dedicated
rep is familiar with the site and industry and can speed up the editorial process for
advertisers.

A Dedicated diamond editorial team (to push listing requests through faster).
The Disadvantages of Diamond Service Tier
There are several diamond tier disadvantages. They are:

Diamond’s hours of operation are shorter than Platinum’s. Generally, this team
works nine to five and is off on the weekends.

Only the dedicated account manager can make modifications to the account. If you
contact the platinum team, they can only forward a message to the diamond
representative. This can also be problematic if your diamond tier representative is
sick.

With the extra person involved, simple changes and edits become a bigger deal than
they should be. It’s easier to forward your own bulk upload spreadsheet for simple
tasks like deleting keywords, etc…
All in all, I believe the mandate of the diamond tier (account growth) comes at the expense
of account servicing and maintenance. When I’ve made service requests, I’ve been told flat
out their emphasis is not customer service. This seems odd to me. Wouldn’t it make sense
to butter advertisers up with excellent service and then pitch to spend more money?
Priorities here seem all mixed up.
Personally, I prefer dealing with the platinum advertising team (I’ve actually had accounts
stepped down from diamond to platinum). They handle service requests (it’s a part of the
tier’s mandate) and I don’t need to humour diamond tier efforts to grow my account. All in
all, I feel I can better maintain control of Y!SM marketing strategies.
Objectively speaking, online (especially search) listing inventory being finite, there is only
so much account growth possible unless advertisers are to be lured into bidding wars on
popular terms. If you talk to any given advertiser, they’ll tell you they would be happier if
Yahoo! had fewer salespeople and more resources devoted to improving the DTC. We expect
this is in the pipeline.
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Google, too, is ramping up its sales force, it appears. There are interesting times ahead,
reminiscent perhaps of the last online advertising bubble when advertisers were encouraged
to ignore ROI.
Here are some tips to remember:

Y!SM is an advertising company whose goal is to increase advertising revenues. Their
proposals will likely contain expensive keyword terms. They will likely encourage
you to upload terms at the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd position.

Y!SM representatives are paid on how much they manage in ad spend. They’ll
encourage you to spend more in advertising via proposals, additional products etc…
! Action Item: Come up with your own keyword terms. Once you’ve determined the terms
that convert well, ask Y!SM to generate similar terms. Be sure to provide your own
compelling ad copy (to avoid copy that may generate strictly volume).

Ad copy in proposals may be geared towards generating volume instead of profitable
ROI.

If you have more than one account (one client), all accounts are entitled to receive
service at the highest tier. For example, if one account is at a gold tier and one
account is at a platinum tier, both accounts are entitled to receive platinum
service. Call Y!SM at 1 866 924 6676 to have all accounts linked together.
A representative from Y!SM in the UK, at a recent industry conference, presented an
example of a report that advertisers have access to if they qualify (likely platinum or
greater): a “competitive analysis.” What this analysis purported to offer was a look at
CTR’s, ROI, and other metrics from a selection of competitors. This brought an interesting
question from an audience member: how do Yahoo’s reps choose the companies to be
included in the analysis? What is the purpose of the analysis? Are they the leading
companies in the sector? “They’re not the leading companies,” came the guarded answer.
“We select them.” Why Yahoo! selects competitors, and the point of the analysis, isn’t
clear. But it’s not a stretch to imagine that such documentation is simply a sales tool.
I’ve seen similar competitive analyses for US industries, and the sales pitch from Diamond
Reps soon followed. One bit of advice you’ll probably get is to bid more so you get premium
placements “across the network.” Hopefully, Yahoo’s service reps will begin to focus more
on information and support, rather than upsells.
One marketer from the UK, with a successful financial firm spending between £50,000 and
£150,000 per month on paid search, recently told Page Zero that they were doing better
with Y!SM than with Google AdWords. One of the key secrets, in his view, was “flying under
the radar” and dealing with the system quietly using automated tools, the regular interface,
and in-house smarts, rather than relying on help from Y!SM reps. Attempts at “help,” in this
company’s experience, led to more frequent editorial disapprovals, bad advice, and worse.
When you think about it carefully, your Y!SM rep at a diamond level might well be treating
you like the smallest of a group of several large clients in a sector. Whether intentional or
not, your corporate information could be more easily transmitted to a competitor if you
confide in, or even make yourself well known to, a highly sales-oriented member of the
service team.
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So should you let sleeping dogs lie, or cultivate a working relationship with your rep? From
conversations with marketers, it sounds like it varies from company to company, from
country to country.
Ambassador Program (Precision Match)
The Ambassador Program is Y!SM’s agency program. There are different Ambassador
Programs for the different Y!SM products i.e. – sponsored search, local match, etc.
The Sponsored Search reseller program has three levels: Ambassador, Certified Ambassador
and Strategic Provider.
Sponsored Search Ambassador
Any agency can qualify for the Ambassador designation. Recently, the minimum $10,000
aggregate ad spend per month was waived.
Here are the benefits of the Ambassador Program are:

Ambassador logo for your site

Promotional credits

API tools

Customizable marketing materials

$20 financial reward for any new sponsored search or local search sign up
To qualify, advertisers need to pass an exam. Agencies who have been ambassadors for
years don't need to worry about the new ambassador tests, unless they wish to pass affiliate
codes through the API.
Sponsored Search Certified Ambassador
To qualify as a Sponsored Search Certified Ambassador, agencies need to have:

a minimum aggregate ad spend

demonstrated PPC expertise.

Required to resell other Yahoo! Search Marketing products (not only sponsored
search).
Further research is warranted on the benefits of the Ambassador program. At first glance, it
appears that Yahoo likes this program because it aligns agency and webmaster priorities
with Yahoo’s priorities – encouraging consultants to run campaigns the way that Yahoo
wants to see them run as opposed to representing clients independently. I’ve been talking
to some firms about their experiences but thus far the results of this survey are
inconclusive.
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Here are several benefits:

Specialized and prioritized account management services

Proactive account development

Certified Ambassador designation

Sales and marketing materials

Training

Access to Yahoo! AWS services
Strategic Provider
This is the Ambassador program’s highest designation. It receives all the services listed
above, and:

Preferred vendor presence on Y!SM.com

Senior account management services.
Does “senior” service mean better service, or even preferential treatment? It’s unclear. But
it stands to reason that dealing with any long-standing relationship is smoother than dealing
with an unknown. So no matter what the official designation, there are good reasons to
consider going with an experienced third party to manage campaigns.
Advantages of Dealing with a Search Advertising Agency
There are several advantages to dealing with an agency. The first is agencies can create
umbrella accounts. 21 The level of service is determined by the aggregate spend of all
accounts. For agencies, this often translates to platinum or diamond level service.
Also, affiliations with Y!SM make it easier to talk to the right people. There seems to be a
little more flexibility with editorial guidelines. Many times, I’ve been able to make cases for
phrases and advertising strategies. Here are two examples:

I was able to make the case that a slightly broader keyword phrase (example:
Internet marketing) would also be relevant to a landing page where only the more
specific term (example: search marketing) was allowed at first.

I had unorthodox words added to an account. These terms had been rejected
numerous times because they seemed very broad. I haven’t had a problem with
them since (the terms were added ten months ago).
Another advantage is that agencies are a source of business for Yahoo! Yahoo! provides
better customer service, faster uploads, etc… to agencies. I’ve often had tasks expedited
21
To get an umbrella account, you need to spend $5000 per month.
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and placed in front of other advertisers who don’t spend as much in advertising. If there are
editorial delays, agency accounts are given editorial priority.
Lastly, for some advertisers, no account history can cause problems. Y!SM requires a
$6,000 a year spend before they offer the bulk upload spreadsheet. Manual uploads can be
expensive and time-consuming.Agencies have access to bulk upload capabilities.
The past couple of sections have shown that Y!SM success can be achieved sometimes by
avoiding the “people equation,” but other times by relying on your relationships with
service reps. So which is it? On the whole, we think it’s the latter. Some agencies and larger
advertisers are valued by Y!SM not only for their spend levels, but for providing a consistent
point of contact. If you’re savvy and you speak Yahoo’s language, there is every reason to
think that leveraging these relationships will lead to better account performance over time.
Small to midsized companies in particular may find it helpful to use an agency to get better
“people power” involved in solving problems with a campaign. Larger companies might want
to have an agency present to act as a check on the aggressiveness of Yahoo’s sales efforts,
and of course for their expertise in managing campaigns and maximizing ROI.
On issues like click fraud, some leading search advertising agencies may get more of a
hearing than others. Some advertisers may “annoy” some service reps, and get ignored at
refund time. We’ve seen things.
Unfortunately, areas such as this really are too personalized. It’s not difficult to see that
relationships vary from country to country. In the UK, at least a couple of leading agencies
seem to enjoy larger click fraud refunds than their competitors do. We applaud the
collegiality associated with some such relationships -- agencies have helped Yahoo! isolate
and ban “rogue” publishers in their content network, for example. Indeed, wouldn’t it be
nice if this attitude permeated all advertiser-publisher relationships. But Yahoo! needs to
be careful that collegiality doesn’t cross the line into coziness and clubbiness. Wasn’t that
how the “old” advertising world used to work? Is that how a “new” media company really
wants to operate? Relationships are important, but so are formal written rules and
procedures.
Should there be more transparency and consistency in the way that Yahoo treats
advertisers? Absolutely. But until that day, relationships matter. You don’t hire an agency to
get “secret” favorable treatment from Yahoo -- that probably doesn’t happen on any
consistent basis. Nor should you hire one who is on Yahoo’s side because Yahoo is doing
them favors. But leveraging the right agency’s efforts may well be a shortcut to both
improved account performance and getting the “time of day.”
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Chapter 6: Troubleshooting – What Do I Do??
Y!SM Troubleshooting
Various problems can crop up when working on Y!SM accounts. In the sections below, I’ve
outlined several Y!SM obstacles and what to do about them.
Low Click Index
Poorly performing terms (relative to peer competition) are flagged and labelled low click
index (LCI). Y!SM takes into consideration the keyword bidding landscape, positioning and
impressions relative to clicks when determining if terms should be flagged as LCI. Y!SM
claims this gives lower advertisers a chance to get higher positioning if higher placed listings
aren’t performing well.
To find LCI terms, click on the LCI hyperlink in the account status box in the manage
sponsored search tab.
Figure 26: A screen shot that shows LCI terms.
There is no definite amount of time terms are flagged as LCI. When I asked Y!SM, the
unofficial answer I got was three to four weeks. Y!SM’s information about such an important
feature is awful. Advertisers should be able to get accurate information so they can
effectively deal with LCI issues.
Note: the actual documentation of LCI terms is also poor. The data contained in this LCI
account box is often inaccurate. You’ll need to go to the LCI page to get accurate
information. In the example below, you’d click on the number 40 to get to LCI information
(the LCI page).
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Figure 27: The account status box. Click on the LCI number to get accurate LCI term
information.
! Action Item: To avoid account interruptions, revise terms as soon as they hit LCI .
Recently Removed Folder
From low click index, terms are moved to the recently removed folder. Here, terms remain
online for three to five business days. Terms are then moved to the declined folder. Note:
terms will continue to appear in the declined folder after they’ve been removed. This folder
refreshes approximately every two weeks.
To find removed listings, go to the managed sponsored listings and then editorial status.
Figure 28: The Recently Removed Folder.
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Ways to Get Out of LCI
Here are some suggestions on how to get out of LCI:

If your terms are LCI, modify ad copy. Revising titles and descriptions may increase
CTR which will many times bring listings out of LCI. You may want to also change
bids to get better ad positioning. Note: adjusting bids alone will not help LCI terms.

If certain keywords don’t work, try different types of keywords. For example, a
company that sells email filter software can try different terms like Internet
blocker, net blocker, web blocker etc... 22

To get keyword ideas, run reports discussed in Chapter 5. Run the reports/tools
discussed in the top performing terms section and the category summary report.
23
No Impressions
Check to see if ads are displaying on Yahoo! If not, check the editorial status section on
Y!SM. Check the:


Declined tab to see if the terms were declined and the reasons they were declined.
Pending tab to check if the terms are still pending.

Removed listings to see if terms were removed from the account.
! Action Item: Be sure to appeal any editorial decisions you think may be incorrect.
Why Can’t I Get the Data I Requested from the DTC
For time to time, the DTC experiences glitches. When you experience a glitch i.e. not being
served the pages you request, try:

Delete cookies, cache, and temporary internet files. This will ensure an old page
isn’t being cookied.

Use Internet Explorer. Y!SM has had problems with Firefox and other non-IE
browsers.
“New Term”
The words 'new term' may appear in reports for recently added keywords. Eventually, these
clicks and costs get assigned to specific terms. This may take a day or two.
Terms should go live when data can be attributed to a specific keyword and category (if
applicable). It’s impossible to track any information related to a new term. It’s easy to
22
23
For more information on keyword discovery, please refer to Chapter 4.
For more information, please refer to Chapter 5 (Reporting).
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understand that Y!SM is generating revenues before the advertiser is able to determine
whether the term is profitable. It’s hard not to think that Y!SM is taking advantage of
advertisers during this time period.
Duplicate Ads
“Double serving” of ads is an increasing problem for both Yahoo and Google. Advertisers
may try to run multiple accounts so they can “blanket” the ad space to block out
competitors’ messages entirely. After all, they only pay for the clicks they receive, so it
might be in their financial interest to “dominate” the ad space.
If you notice duplicate ads being served, it’s best to report these from within your Y!SM
account (support request form). If you don’t hear back within a reasonable amount of time,
follow up by phone or email.
To make it easy for Y!SM, specifically spell out the problem. Include URLs, keywords the
advertiser is advertising on, screenshots, etc. Depending on current policy, the situation
could be rectified so that these keywords once again become competitive to all advertisers
instead of a single greedy one.
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Chapter 7: Products and Services
Y!SM Products
Often, I’ve learned about new products from coworkers or by accidentally stumbling on
information on the Yahoo! site. To provide clarity, I’ve briefly outlined Y!SM’s product line.
It’s a good idea to have an understanding of Y!SM’s. I’ve found Y!SM’s diverse product line
can make it difficult for Yahoo! reps to effectively recommend complimentary Y!SM
products.
Sponsored Search
Sponsored search includes the sponsored search product as well as the content match
product. As sponsored search has been covered in great length, this section will focus on
content match.
Content Match
Content Match displays listings (on Y!SM partner sites) next to relevant articles, product
reviews and more. So, for example, on WallStreetJournal.com, an ad to help people find
employment may appear next to a piece on jobs or an article on rising employment rates.
Content Match ads are displayed on Y!SM partner sites such as MSN, Yahoo!, Away Network,
CitySearch, Advertising.com, CNN, Cool Savings, Consumer Review Network, ESPN,
Edmunds, Homestore Network, Knight Ridder, MyFamily Network, SideStep, National
Geographic and the WallStreetJournal.com (there’s also a wide variety of smaller
publishers).
Generally, three ads appear on the content match partner sites; however, there are sites
that display four, five and six content match results.
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Figure 29: A results page with six content match results (more the exception than the
rule).
When new terms are added via the DTC, terms are automatically opted into content match.
Content match can only be disabled once terms are online (at an account, category
or listing level). Note: With a bulk upload spreadsheet, advertisers can opt out of content
match (and advanced match) before listings go online.
By default, all campaign settings (ad copy, categories, URLs, etc…) are the same in content
Match. The only setting that can be adjusted is bid price. Note: if content match bids are
not changed, they’ll be automatically set at the sponsored search price.
! Action Item: Set individual bids for content match terms.
In my experience, this product can deliver 20 to 30 percent of an account’s overall traffic
(on a yearly basis). Obviously, numbers vary widely depending on the industry. In popular
industries such as education, jobs/careers, finance and real estate the percentage of traffic
can be much higher.
It’s worth noting volume in the content network can be “spikey”, if you will. Use this
feature carefully as it may bring many unqualified leads. For example, if a headline appears
on USA Today or the NY TIMES web site that has to do with a murder in a log cabin, and your
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company sells log cabin kits (and has content match enabled), you can end up with many
impressions (millions) and numerous irrelevant clicks. It’s feasible that your company could
spend thousands of dollars (especially if you forgot to set content bids lower than search
bids) without a single conversion! In this case, you may feel you’re entitled to a refund.
Unfortunately, Yahoo! does not grant refunds if the traffic is legitimate but unqualified
for your company’s purposes.
On the other hand, traffic from the content network can be profitable. If you sell
prefabricated log homes (built cheaply and quickly), and a hurricane hits, and your ad
appears next to a headline on CNN.com or MSNBC like “Owners Must Rebuild...” you could
make enough money to retire. So, there’s definitely an upside and downside to the spikiness
of the content network. Be aware of the risks, and monitor content network traffic
carefully.
The above example of course is chosen somewhat deliberately as it refers to a sensitive
area of content targeting that some observers feel should be blocked or curtailed. When is a
publisher going to be embarrassed if a certain news story is accompanied by inappropriate,
seemingly opportunistic commercial messages? This can be tricky, because publishers and
Y!SM may not have perfect technology or the editorial resources to curtail all of the
potentially embarrassing placements. The decision to use or not use this kind of targeting is
yours in the end. You’re responsible and may have to explain your actions to those who find
it within themselves to be offended by your message. So it makes sense to focus on making
sure your ads are respectful and tasteful, since you can’t always predict their placement.
! Action Item: Traffic from the content network can be spikey. If you decide to use this
product, monitor it carefully.
Click fraud can also be an issue when dealing with the content network. Keep an eye on log
files to detect suspicious activity. If you detect fraud, be sure to report it immediately to
Y!SM. Make it as easy as possible for Y!SM to detect fraud by providing log file information,
screen shots and other information you think will be useful for Y!SM to provide a refund.
! Action Item: Be persistent when requesting refunds. The process will likely take some
time (one month or longer is common).
Content vs. Regular Y!SM
Y!SM has a loose view of what counts as "regular Y!SM" as opposed to content targeting. The
problem with Y!SM lately is that it isn't just poor-quality publishers on the Content Match
side that give us fraud traffic. Y!SM sometimes mixes in poor quality partners on their
"search" side, from partner sites like www.trustedsearch.net, www.univeralsearcher.com,
www.searchscout, www.resultsifter.com, and so forth. How do some of these sites get into
Y!SM’s regular network??
To contrast, Google has a clearer distinction between content match and regular Google.
Click fraud investigations are usually involve content match and not “regular Google”. Raw
referrer data from a Google account shows most referrals are from Google.com. There are a
smattering from AOL, Infospace, Adelphia.net, and Netscape.com. There are a few “no
referrers”.
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! Action Item: Set bids within the top three positions to ensure they get good exposure on
the content network. Monitor and evaluate results.
New Content Match Developments
Y!SM will be enhancing the content match product. Shortly, they’ll provide a tool for
estimates for content match searches. Furthermore, they’ll likely allow advertisers to have
unique titles and descriptions for the content match product.
Recommendations for Y!SM Content Match
Here are several recommendations for Y!SM content match:

There should be a Yahoo! only option for content match.

They should allow distinct tracking URLs for the content product. Currently, only bid
amounts and account online/offline can be different from sponsored search terms.
Currently, this feature is only available via the Search Optimizer tool -- and that
will cost you.24

They should improve technologies that analyze the relative quality of the referring
page.
Y!SM New Small Publisher Product (Y!Q)
Yahoo! recently released Y!Q code (for small publishers) that analyzes the text of a Web
page and shows search results based on its content. Publishers can add the code to web
pages to automatically generate a list of related links.
Yahoo will face several tricky issues with this product (as they have with the content match
product). Matching content-targeted ads can be tricky. Y!SM could run into problems by
opening up the service broadly in an automated fashion.
Also, fraudulent web site operators could erect phony sites to make money from Yahoo’s
program (click fraud). The sharpest operators will create “almost-good-enough” content
sites that rely on advertisers not tracking high-priced clicks closely. These sites will
generate some real traffic mixed with inexplicably bad traffic. Yahoo has a vested interest
in accepting such sites’ quality claims at face value, and dissembling when questioned on
specific fraud cases and what they plan to do about specific publishers. That said, click
fraud is such a challenge to Yahoo and Google’s future viability, it’s impressive to watch
their attitudes harden towards rogue publishers. Formerly, Google would stay quite tightlipped in reports to its advertisers regarding click fraud refunds. Now, sometimes they
explicitly state the nature of the fraudulent clicks, and ban the perpetrators from the
network. These companies are getting more adept at punishing and banning the bad guys,
but the jury is still out on Yahoo.
24
For more information on this, please refer to Chapter 4.
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! Action Item: Be persistent when dealing with Y!SM reps on questions of click fraud from
particular publishers, particularly when you can document such fraud. Ask that the company
remove low-quality publishers from its network and take quality control more seriously.
Directly ask them why they consider xxxxx.com to be a qualified partner site given the
site’s limited content or deceptive nature. Discuss further recourse with fellow advertisers
on forums; join standards bodies like IAB and push paid search vendors on standards. Start
your own quality content site and run relevant ads on it using Quigo, AdSense or the Yahoo
publisher network, as an example of how it should be done.
Local Sponsored Search
Local Sponsored Search listings appear in both the Local Sponsored Search product and at
the top of the SERP’s (in the local results section). Searchers access Local Sponsored Search
listings via a search site like Yahoo! Depending on the query, searchers are directed to a
locator page (Figure 30) or a sponsored search ad (Figure 31). The reason for this is there’s
not always enough local (product) supply. Also, sometimes sponsored search bids have
higher CPCs and can generate more income for Y!SM.
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Figure 30: An example of a Local Sponsored Search product page. It contains
information like business name, address, phone number, business description, link to
web site, hours of operation, accepted payment methods, driving directions and a
dynamic map.
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Figure 31: Sometimes local results will appear with sponsored search results. As in the
example below, local results don’t necessarily appear above sponsored match ads.
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When searchers type in a query, it is automatically associated to geographical locations
within the radius specified. This saves the advertiser the time of bidding on every location
within the radius. For example, if an advertiser is bidding on the term “dentist” it would be
linked to terms like “Palo Alto dentist”, “San Mateo dentist”, “San Jose dentist” if these are
areas in the designated radius.
Here’s some additional information:

A business must have a physical address in the selected region. In contrast, for
Google no physical address is required in the targeted area.

A website is optional. Y!SM provides business information on a locator page. In
contrast, advertisers must have a web site to advertise locally with Google.

Only one targeting option is available. Search results are from a radius of 0.5 to 100
miles. In contrast, Google’s parameters can be much broader.

Y!SM uses the search query (i.e. LA real estate) or the knowledge of a searcher’s
location obtained through Yahoo!’s database or Yahoo! local (as users are asked to
provide address, city, state or zip code). Unlike Google, Y!SM doesn’t read IP
addresses to display local ads (it works from a list of geographical locations).

The ad title must be business name and one ad is permitted per account (no matter
how many keywords).

Positioning can be difficult to predict. There’s no bid tool for Y!SM’s local product.
Note: The Local Sponsored Search product is a distinct product from sponsored search.
Consequently, to use this product, advertisers need to set up a separate account.
Local Sponsored Search Commentary
Local listings can provide additional traffic. In fact, in a recent campaign (for a national
ISP), the local campaign provided 50 percent of overall traffic.
Here are some additional pointers:

Create an additional campaign to target your home region. While the traffic will be
lower, the conversions should be considerably higher.

A large percentage of users obtain maps from this product. This indicates the
product is effective in driving searchers to a physical store.
If you want to advertise on across the Yahoo network, sponsored match accounts with
geographic keywords can be easier to work with. Furthermore, my tests indicate that these
ads display more often in Y!SM.
Note: Local sponsored search is not to be confused with Yahoo!’s local enhanced listings.
Local enhanced listings are accessible only via Yahoo!’s Local search. The enhanced listing
costs $9.95 per month (a basic listing is free). Enhanced listings include additional company
information like company tag line, business description, two links to promotional offers and
up to 10 photos of your company’s business.
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International Y!SM Accounts
To advertise internationally, a separate accounts need to be set up for each country you
want to target. Every country has a separate office that manages Y!SM accounts and
queries.
Here’s some more information on international accounts:

Each country (product) has a different minimum spend amount.

Each country has different minimum bid requirements i.e. the minimum bid in the
0.10 in the UK, 0.15 in Europe, etc…

Each country has different search partners and search term volume varies by
country.

Each country has a unique editorial team. The editorial departments are segmented
like Y!SM United States. There’s a team for small advertisers and large advertisers.
Y!SM Canada

US search results show for English speaking Canada. Results in Yahoo.ca and
Yahoo.com are different. In Yahoo.ca, four listings display at the top and one
displays at the bottom of the page. In Yahoo.com, three listings display at the top
and two listings display at the bottom of the page.

There are no plans to launch a Canada only product anytime soon. (Currently, Y!SM
has a product that targets French-speaking Canadians). Canadian English-speaking
advertisers can use Canadian specific geographic keywords in Overture US (if
targeting English-speaking Canada only).
International Commentary
Here are some general international account comments:

Separate accounts for each country make accounts time consuming to set up.

There are different rules for each country that advertisers must be aware of i.e. in
DE, you can advertise in English for English terms but not for German words.

Most foreign accounts are still Overture (they haven’t switched over to Yahoo! yet).
This prevents a consistent ad base on a worldwide basis.
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Product Submit
This is Yahoo!’s shopping product. Search results will appear in Yahoo! shopping.
It’s a feed based product and it’s geared largely towards retailers.
CPM based pricing for graphical ads i.e. banner ads (Figure 22). These ads are sold based on
availability (there’s limited supply). The ads that appear below the banner ad are sold on a
CPC pricing model. CPC pricing depends on the vertical and prices range from 0.20 cents to
1.00.
Figure 32: Here's a screen shot for the product submit.
Search Submit (formerly Site Match)
There are two products associated with search submit: search submit express and search
submit pro.
Search Submit Express
This is a paid inclusion product (for algorithmic results). There’s a single point of submission
into Yahoo!, AltaVista, AllTheWeb and other portals. Positioning results based on relevancy
(content), not bid amount.
To be included in Yahoo web search results, this product requires a submission fee per URL.
The cost is $49 for 1st URL, $29 for 2 to 10 URLs and $10 for the 11th URL+. Once pages are
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accepted, a cost-per-click fee is charged. CPC ranges from 0.15 to 0.30 cents per click
(depends on content area).
No bidding is required with this product. Listings generated automatically based on the
relevance of page content to search terms.
Listings are not guaranteed with this product. This product ensures sites will be crawled.
(Y!SM claims to index 80% of listings submitted but it may be 20%)
The main benefit of this product is sites are updated every 48 hours instead of every 6 to 8
weeks without paid inclusion.
As this is a feed based product, this product works best for:

Web sites with lots of information

Web sites with lots of pages 100+ URLs
Search Submit Pro
This product is similar to the above, but for sites with 1000+ pages (i.e. retailers) and
advertisers who spend $5000 per month.
With this product, advertisers receive dedicated account manager to help optimize the
account.
For the right advertiser in the right situation, this product is very effective. One of our
clients, a fast-growing retailer of bulk corporate logo items, reports that this has been
“fantastic” for them. (And little wonder: for only 30 cents per click, they get many top
rankings on highly commercial keywords.)
It’s also worth noting that the same client has sometimes had to shut down its regular Y!SM
Sponsored Match and Content Match campaigns entirely due to fluctuating performance. But
even here, things should be looking up in 2006 as the appropriate rescue strategy is
deployed.
Commentary
Y!SM claims this program discourages spammers. A better solution would be to stop spam
through smarter search algorithms. It’s not clear that consumers or consumer advocates
want paid-for “organic” listings, though they seem to accept sponsored links near organic
search.
In my experience, costs are approximately 10 percent of PPC spend.
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Travel Submit
This product is geared towards the travel industry. Listings are found in the Yahoo! Travel
product. Same as product submit but for the travel industry. It provides information on
hotels, car rentals, travel agents, etc…
It is a CPC model. The prices depend on the travel product (air, lodging, vacation rentals,
etc…) and range from 0.32 to 0.57 cents.
Users receive web based account access to change listings and monitor the account.
Directory Submit
Directory Submit provides expedited review of web sites. Sites are reviewed in seven
business days with this product. This is not a feed based product. Users need to select the
categories they want to appear in.
Only one URL may be entered at a time. The submission process must be completed
separately with each individual URL.
Users receive automated support. All web based. Users get access to online account
management center.
There are two different types of listings:

Sponsor Listings: Categories are priced between $50 and $300 per month. Signups
are handled through an online subscription form.

Site Listings: $299/year for this product.
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Figure 33: Here's a screen shot of the sponsor listings and the site listings.
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Appendix: The Differences between Y!SM and Google
In the period 2002-2004, advertisers were often more familiar with the workings of the
pioneer, Y!SM, than they were with Google AdWords. Today, given the focus most
advertisers have placed on Google, the reverse may be true. Reviewing the key differences
between the two platforms, I’ve uncovered numerous quirks in Y!SM that could trip you up.
Match Types
Y!SM’s Standard Match vs. Google’s Exact Match
Y!SM’s standard match option is slightly broader than exact match. It will display ads for
keyword misspellings, plurals, etc…. For example, for the term “diamond ring” you’ll be
appear for “diamond rings”, “dimond ring”, etc…
In contrast, on Google, the ad will appear for only term(s) that are searched, if exact match
is invoked by using square brackets in keywords in ad groups.
Y!SM’s Advanced Match vs. Google’s Phrase Match and Broad Match
Advanced match is similar to broad match. Y!SM’s definition is matching the individual
words in a search phrase to searches containing all of the words in any order and anywhere
w/ in the searchers given search phrase. For example, the advanced matched term “Apple
IPod” could appear for “get an apple IPod”, “buy an apple IPod”, etc…
Note: In Y!SM variations of the words must be included in the phrase. The word 'ring' will
never be map to the word 'jewellery'.
On the contrary, in Google, expanded matching will cause your ad to display on terms
Google considers to be synonyms, related phrases and plurals i.e. – 'ring' can be matched to
'jewellery'.
Match Type Implementation in Google and Y!SM
Google’s “phrase match” and [exact match] won’t work in Y!SM.
For new Y!SM terms, the advanced match is automatic (it’s the default option). Once new
terms are live, the advanced match feature needs to be switched off in the account tab or
turned off at a listing or category level.
Overall Campaign Considerations
In Y!SM, advertisers can’t rotate ads. You’ll need to do split-testing on your side rather than
Y!SM’s.
In Y!SM, you can’t purchase the same keyword for multiple campaigns. If you submit a
duplicate term, it will override the first term in the account. Google will also only show one
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ad, picking the keyword with the highest Ad Rank. In both cases, submitting duplicate
keywords can lead to confusion.
In Y!SM, different accounts need to be set up for different products (i.e. international
account, local account, etc…). Each of the products is supported by a different office. In
the case of the international product, each country is supported by a different office.25
In Y!SM, different departments are problematic for several reasons. The first is that
advertisers need to set up different accounts for the various products. This includes
products such as sponsored search & local search as well as services like search optimizer. It
also makes it difficult for Yahoo! reps to effectively recommend complementary Y!SM
products. Yahoo! employees may be simply unable or unwilling to make product
recommendations as it’s not their “job”.
In Y!SM, reports are delayed by 24 hours.26
New Ad Submission
In Y!SM, more information is required to create initial ads. Initially, advertisers need to
assign categories (new feature), keywords, title/description, bid amounts and a distinct
URL for each keyword.
In Y!SM, excluded terms (negative keywords) at the account level can be added during the
ad submission process (45 max). Excluded terms at the listing level need to be added once
the listings have been approved (45 max). The review process can take 3 to 5 days.
In Google, the ad creation process is logical. 1) create a campaign 2) add words you want to
include in ad groups within this campaign. At this point, if you want, you can apply different
CPC/URL requirements per word. While creating ads, negative keywords at a campaign level
and ad group level can be included.
In Y!SM, to see URLs, advertisers need to cut and paste it into a browser. In Google, to see
ads click on the ad in the interface and you’re taken to the landing page.
Modification of Ads
In general, it’s difficult to modify ads in Y!SM. Here are some examples:
In Y!SM, there’s 3 to 5 day turnaround for new to gold advertisers and 1 to 2 days for
platinum advertisers. If there are many advertisement submissions i.e. at Christmas, the
submission process may take a lot longer (I’ve seen 10 days+)
Changes via bulk upload spreadsheet are problematic. Until the changes are implemented,
the account receives bad clicks (need to be at least a gold advertiser to access this
feature).
In Y!SM, make sure your 'term' urls stay static. If they change, Y!SM is the worst of the two
for management. In Google, it’s easy to modify ads and new ads are approved and appear
25
26
For more information on Y!SM international products, please see Chapter 8.
For more information on Y!SM reporting, please see Chapter 5.
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quickly. Ad can be seen in 4 hours on google.com site and within 24 hours on affiliate sites.
There can be longer delays with content targeting and site targeting.
User Interface
All in all, the Y!SM interface is slow, inefficient & confusing. Here are some examples:
 In Y!SM, page load times are slow. If you have thousands of keywords, it is almost
impossible to utilize the direct traffic center for anything more than bid
adjustment.

In Y!SM, the user interface is not intuitive. More often than not, users have to
search for tools and information.

When advertisers turn ON or OFF a keyword, or series of keywords, the system
resorts back to a complete list of ALL keywords. Upon closing the verification
window, all search criteria is gone and you’re presented with an exhaustive list of
your entire campaign (the Manage Bids page should be the default return page when
adjusting a campaign). The same thing happens when checking keyword statistics.

Advertisers can’t delete more than one category at a time. Trying to remove
numerous campaigns can easily take 30 minutes.

There is no real way to test if a URL is working. You must copy the URL (assuming
it's short enough for the system to allow you to view the entire string) and then
paste it in a new browser window.
Here’s a workaround for Y!SM’s faulty interface design:

To decrease page load times. Go into the "Personalize Pages" section and turn off
the top 5 max bids. If you only turn them on when you need to review them, page
load times are much faster.

To find URLs faster. Go to "Manage Listings," Click on the "Advanced Search" link and
type in the URL you're looking for. You'll immediately get a list of all of your listings
that include that URL. From here, check off the ones you want to edit, modify one,
then copy the changes down to the rest if you want to. It helps finding URLs a little
easier.
Here are some interface suggestions for Y!SM:

Allow users to choose landing pages in the DTC. For instance, advertisers could
choose to go directly to ‘manage bids’ instead of ‘manage categories’. This would
prevent advertisers from going through several slow loading pages before getting to
the page they want (or add hovers to the main navigation page).

Add drop down menus on the manage categories page allowing advertisers to choose
the categories they wish to visit. Currently, if an advertiser has many campaigns,
there’s a lot of information presented on this page.

Include a search feature for advertisers to search for specific keyword phrases. It
would load fast (all other search terms wouldn’t load at the same time) and allow
advertisers to quickly access the information they want to modify.
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In Google, page load times are fast and the user interface is intuitive. You can do many
more functions per screen with Google.
In Google, the interface has its foibles, but technical glitches are relatively palatable.
Ad Syndication Options
Y!SM provides results to MSN, Yahoo! and other portals and web properties. Here’s the
breakdown:
Y!SM’s Leading Affiliate Partners
Here are Y!SM’s partnerships:

Portals: MSN (phasing out), AltaVista, Infoseek, Terra Lycos, Yahoo

Browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape

Meta Search: CNET, InfoSpace (Excite, Dogpile, MetaCrawler & WebCrawler)

ISPs: BellSouth, Juno, NetZero
Generally speaking, positions 1 to 7 will appear on the Y!SM network. The position will vary
as every network partner has different criteria. Here are some examples:
Yahoo!
On Yahoo! Search, ad display practice seems to shift with time, and may depend on the
user’s query, as with Google. On the query “Japanese maples,” for example, I saw 13 ad
positions, with 10 unique ads. The bottom 3 ads (positions 3, 4, and 5 below the search
engine results) are repeated in the top three positions in the right-hand margin. As a result,
positions 3 and 4 can be a good value - good visibility for less money. To be clear: ad display
will no doubt continue to evolve.
MSN
At search.msn.com, you’ll see 11 results on this same query.
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Figure 34: A deployment of Y!SM ads (top and right of page) on MSN Search. Soon, MSN
will offer their own ad program.
Every search may yield a different result as MSN reserves the right to sell their own
inventory. These are link placements that are limited to three paid clients per keyword and
are available to advertisers with a minimum annual spend of $75,000. (Advertisers need to
sign a contract but there’s a 30 day out clause).
MSN has been doing direct deals for more than two years now. In the last year, they’ve been
very aggressive in selling spots #1-3. There are very few keywords that are 'tops' in
impressions not sold out on MSN. This means that #1 in the DTC on Yahoo/Y!SM usually
means #4 on MSN. As a result, traffic from MSN via Y!SM is down dramatically for most
advertisers.
The screen real estate will take a new shape with the launch of MSN’s new AdCenter, a paid
search program that will compete with AdWords and Y!SM. It’s currently in beta and open to
U.S. residents employed as search advertising professionals and small business owners in the
US. It’s soft-launching gradually and should fully launch by Q2 2006.
Google’s Network Partners
Some of Google’s key network partners include: AOL, Ask Jeeves, Earth Link, Infospace,
Froogle, About.com, New York Times, Bizrate, Amazon, ATT Worldnet, Business.com,
Compuserve, and Bellsouth.
Both companies should provide fuller disclosure of partners, nature of partnership, reach,
the manner in which ads are displayed, etc. At a minimum, this information should be
disclosed to higher-spending advertisers. Because neither companies does disclose much,
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you’d best pay fairly close attention to the detailed analytics on your campaigns to watch
for the main sources of traffic and how they’re displaying your ads.
Keyword Research Tools
Google’s keyword tool doesn’t have search counts but does a fairly reliable and extensive
list of suggestions based on real Google search data and semantic analysis. A recent upgrade
to this tool has enhanced its functionality to allow users choices among various keyword
brainstorming options. It allows quick review both of keyword suggestions for more specific
phrases, and separately, lateral suggestions for similar or related keywords. In light of the
recent release of an advanced keyword research tool by MSN AdCenter, Y!SM’s tool now lags
its competitors. Don’t limit yourself to any one tool or method when it comes to keyword
research.
Customer Service
In general, Google’s customer service is better than Y!SMs.
Here are some customer service pointers for Y!SM:

In Y!SM, if you’re not at the platinum or diamond tier, it may be better to talk with
eager junior reps (at the 1 866 number).

Y!SM answers are subjective (sometimes). If you don’t get the answer you want, call
again and talk to a different representative.
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Executive Summary
Note: this is not an exhaustive summary, but a selection of key action items. There are
other to-do items that may arise from various points and recommendations made in this
report.
! Action item: Be sure to understand the cost of acquiring new clients before you start
bidding like crazy.
! Action item: Organize accounts into categories to make it easy to turn accounts on or off
at a category or listing level.
! Action item: Be sure to set individual bid prices for every keyword before submitting ads.
! Action item: Unless you’re willing to put in some extra legwork to ascertain what a
certain position will actually cost you, simply don’t use the Bid to Position feature.
! Action item: Bid sensibly in a range you can afford rather than bidding high and relying on
a bid discounter to fill gaps. In addition, you may find yourself in a position to educate
direct competitors about the auction. If you happen to bump into such a person at a party,
ask them if they are tracking the ROI on a certain keyword, or casually mention that bid
prices are getting crazy because “some nut” is bidding $15 “because he doesn’t know what
he’s doing.” Unless you happen to work for Yahoo!, it is in your interest in all public
interactions that involve discussing your marketing campaigns to talk down the bid prices
needed to succeed.
! Action item: Include low volume terms in your account, as these terms contribute to
successful Y!SM marketing campaigns for bargain-conscious advertisers. High-volume terms
convert well from high (expensive) ad positions, but for unusual search phrases, it appears
that conversions are relatively strong in lower (less expensive) ad positions, according to
Atlas Research’s Young-Bean Song. If you have the budget, on high-volume keywords, test
the ROI performance of an ad position of 1-2 (at a higher bid, obviously) for two weeks, and
follow this with a couple weeks in ad positions 4-6 or so, in order to compare the ROI
performance of high and middling ad positions for you on your core keyword Change your
tracking code when you change your bid to facilitate tracking.
! Action item: To prevent over matching, advance match phrases that are three+ words in
length. Disable the feature for shorter keyword phrases at an account, category or listing
level. This, of course, depends on your goals. For broader coverage, stick with advanced
match if your ROI picture is favorable.
! Action item: Manually add funds to account until the bugs are worked out.
! Action item: Do not select Non-Stop traffic if you must keep within strict daily or monthly
budgets.
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! Action Item: To generate statistically significant data, track a bit longer than you might
expect: 30-90 days is not an uncommon test period.
! Action Item: Reconsider your costly bid manager tool. It looks like Yahoo! is offering this
tool free to some advertisers now, with plans to offer improved versions to all advertisers
down the road. Especially if you just need simple day-parting, third party tools seem like
poor value unless they’re part of a comprehensive service and software solution which adds
value for you.
! Action Item: Always have a categorization plan to organize your account in advance, and
always assign categories to keywords when adding new listings, for ease of use later.
! Action Item: Don’t change bids until you have a good understanding of what’s going on in
your keyword space. Remember, it’s not a set it and forget it thing. With bid management
tools, advertisers in essence can 'hide' bids.
! Action Item: Rip your hair out, and then demand a refund, when Match Driver bilks you or
your client out of thousands of dollars by showing your ad on general terms you don’t want
to pay high CPC’s for.
! Action item: To improve chances of approval: mention the keyword in the filename/URL,
in the title, in a header and in the first sentence on the page.
! Action item: Be sure to select the most appropriate landing pages possible or terms may
be declined.
! Action item: If listings have been mistakenly declined, resubmit via the DTC or appeal via
your Y!SM representative. There is no penalty for resubmitting terms and often, the same
listing will be approved by a different editor.
! Action Item: Assess which ads are in need of rewriting to take account of the new shorter
character displays for ad copy near Yahoo Search results. Submit new, shorter ads.
! Action item: Run the advanced match activity report and standard match variations of
advanced terms.
! Action item: To avoid account interruptions, revise terms as soon as they hit LCI .
! Action item: Be sure to appeal any editorial decisions you think may be incorrect.
! Action item: Set individual bids for content match terms.
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! Action item: Traffic from the content network can be very spikey. If you decide to use this
product, monitor it carefully.
! Action item: Be persistent when requesting refunds. The process will likely take some
time (one month or longer is common).
! Action item: Set bids within the top three positions to ensure they get good exposure on
the content network. Monitor and evaluate results.
! Action item: Be persistent when dealing with Y!SM reps on questions of click fraud from
particular publishers, particularly when you can document such fraud. Ask that the company
remove low-quality publishers from its network and take quality control more seriously.
Directly ask them why they consider xxxxx.com to be a qualified partner site given the
site’s limited content or deceptive nature. Discuss further recourse with fellow advertisers
on forums; join standards bodies like IAB and push paid search vendors on standards. Start
your own quality content site and run relevant ads on it using Quigo, AdSense or the Yahoo
publisher network, as an example of how it should be done.
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About Page Zero Media
Incorporated in 1999, Toronto-based Page Zero Media focuses on search engine marketing
advising and consulting. Since September 2001, we've provided a highly specialized service
to nearly 200 clients seeking improved Google AdWords performance. Our staff of five
experienced account execs focuses exclusively on pay-per-click advertising and related
analytics. Clients range from small, focused niche retailers and professionals to Fortune 500
companies seeking improved targeting and testing in an increasingly competitive
marketplace.
About Mona Elesseily
Mona joined Page Zero in 2003, after stints in certified financial planning and Internet
strategy, the latter with Radiant Communications for clients such as Pattison Group, Ballard
Power Systems, and Cathay Pacific.
Since joining Page Zero, she has worked on a wide range of client campaigns for companies
such as Apollo Health, Tucows, Capital One, and many others. Mona has become Page Zero’s
go-to authority on the Yahoo! Search Marketing platform, and is author of the forthcoming
(December, 2005) 110-page Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook.
Mona earned a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, and a certificate in Internet Marketing
from the University of British Columbia.
Her “Type B” exterior is fashioned with West Coast activities such as yoga and mantras such
as “cool, man.” This conceals the internal “Type A” drive to “weed out the weak” -- a coldblooded approach to maximizing campaign performance. Mona is an avid networker,
contributing regularly to organizations such as the International Internet Marketing
Association, and enjoys discussing topics as diverse as business ethics and the growth of web
analytics as a field unto itself.
Who is Andrew Goodman?
Page Zero Media isn’t just another generic company trying to sell you “higher search engine
rankings.” We understand search marketing and search technology (it’s our passion) and
want to make a positive contribution a better understanding of search engines and better
standards and practices in online marketing. (It’s not voodoo!) Andrew Goodman, Page
Zero’s founder, is widely recognized as a thought leader in the evolving field of search
marketing. He co-founded Traffick, a popular “guide to portals,” in 1999, and foresaw many
of today’s trends such as paid search and semantic analysis. His Page Zero Advisor
newsletter has kept readers in the loop about emerging issues in paid search, such as
content targeting traffic quality, trademark law, and much more.
Goodman's expertise on pay-per-click keyword advertising is regularly sought by the business
press, including CBS Marketwatch, Bloomberg Markets, The New York Times, MEDIA
Magazine, Fortune Small Business, New Media Age, The National Post, Business Week, The
Globe and Mail, Forbes, Die Zeit, and Reuters. He has spoken or moderated at the last
twelve Jupitermedia Search Engine Strategies conferences and is a frequent speaker at
other industry conferences, such as Nielsen Norman Group’s User Experience. He leads a
professional, not-for-profit industry discussion group (hosted on Google Groups), SEM 2.0.
Recently, he completed a comprehensive reference guide on how to win at AdWords:
Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005).
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Page Zero Contact Information
Page Zero Media
119 Spadina Ave., Suite 703
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2L1
http://www.page-zero.com
416-763-2062
Andrew Goodman, Founder and Principal
(mobile number: 416-737-0944)
andrew@page-zero.com or pagezero@gmail.com
Dean Towers, Director, Client Services
(direct line 416-767-5491)
dean@page-0.com
Cory Kleinschmidt, Director, Web Development
cory@page-zero.com
Scott Perry, Senior Account Executive
scott@page-zero.com
Mona Elesseily, Senior Account Executive
mona@page-0.com
Mark Shawera, Senior Account Executive
mark@page-zero.com
Teran Dale, Client Support Technician
teran@page-zero.com
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102

Dealing w/ the New Overture

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