Sneak Preview - Yahoo PPC

At PubCon lunch 2006, Yahoo Search Marketing gave a presentation of their new search advertiser program.  This used to be called Overture.  As some of you may know, Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) is somewhat clunky to use now.  Jason always dreads making the YSM accounts, and greatly prefers Google Adwords and their reporting.

The good news is that this new platform will be much easier to use.  And they threw in some cool tools to go with it.  The presentation was by several Yahoo! employees and they actually demonstrated the creation of an account on the screen.

Here are some new features…

1.  The Geo-Targeting is pretty cool.  You can choose which locations to show your ad in.  They have a real nice visual tool that shows which locations your ad will show in.

2.  They have a new Keyword Suggestion feature that will allow you to enter some keywords and it will make recommendations.  Interestingly, once you mark which keywords you like and don’t like, it will make more suggestions.  It determines this through collaborative methods.  This is similar to how Amazon always makes recommendations on which “other books you might like”.

3.  There is a really cool Bid Estimator tool that graphically shows you about how many clicks/impressions you should expect based on what you want to bid.

4.  There is a cool Budgeting tool that shows you how many potential clicks and impressions your ad may not show for, given your daily budget.

Here are some other comments that were interesting. 

1.  When released, you will be able to upload via a spreadsheet.  This is something not everyone had access to before.

2.  There will be a new API coming out.

3.  The new multi-account home page/dashboard wall come out later.

4.  Early next year, they will have a new method of determining ranking.  It will be calculated not only by what you are willing to bid, but by a “Quality Index”.  This is somewhat similar to Google, but they are not revealing exactly what “Quality Index” means.  The already admitted that it is not just the Click Thru Rate (CTR).  They take other things into consideration as well.

5.  Automated bid monitoring tools will probably need to change somewhat.  For example, we use www.PPCManagement.com to update our bids.  They may need to make some adjustments.

6.  The new YSM interface is rolling out in US right now.  They will add other countries after.

NOTE:  I sat in the front row next to a guy from Yahoo and talked to him a little bit after.  He mentioned that a new “Home Page Dashboard” which will show pertinent details of several accounts at the same time will come out later.  However, the current method of logging in once and accessing different accounts will still be available. 

I also asked him how we can get in to start using the new interface.  He said that if you have already submitted and requested to be “in the pool”, that is your best chance.  My guess is we will move our stuff over to the next platform within the next month or so.  We requested it a while back.  However, he also hinted that if you have several accounts, you should register to be upgraded with your master account name.

 ALSO NOTE:  The new interface is rolling out starting now and incrementally over the next few months.  But the new ranking method will not come out until early next year.  Smart move.  Wait until the holiday season is over.

NOTE TO JASON:  This is cool.  You’ll like it way better than the current YSM.  It seems a lot easier to use.

(I usually develop the concepts of how we use PPC, but Jason actually makes the campaigns themselves.  Thank goodness I have him.  He’s actually quite good at it.)

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