The New Bidding System

Helpful hints for managing your account

No feature of the new Sponsored Search has garnered more attention in the blogosphere than the bidding system, with its snappy, graphical presentation and dynamic slider-bar functionality.

Kudos aside, we know new things can sometimes be a little bit confusing. So here’s a little play-by-play of how the new bidding system works. Take a look at the screenshot below:

Notice in the lower-right corner (highlighted) that there are two boxes. Each box contains a data tool that corresponds to a specific set of information: Estimated Clicks per Bid and Bid Range for Top Positions.

Bid Range for Top Positions
This bit of data is designed to help you with your bidding decisions at the ad group level or at the keyword level depending on how tightly you want to manage your bids. In general, you may want to manage at the ad group level, as you might find this to be easier. For special, high-priority keywords, however, you may want to manage at the keyword level. (To manage at the keyword level, just click on the keyword itself.) The Bid Range for Top Positions column is designed to offer the latest available range of bids for the positions at the top of the search results page. Want to appear at the top? Then your bid must be within or above this range.

Estimated Clicks per Bid sliding graph

This groovy little widget is designed to help you understand the number of clicks your ad may receive for a given bid. This information is important if you want to see how changes in your bid may affect your results. By moving the slider back and forth to increase or decrease your bid, you can see how your estimated monthly clicks, your position and share of available clicks may be impacted. The estimated number of clicks is calculated using your bid and historical keyword data (such as the previous bids of other advertisers, monthly click volume for your keywords, and other factors).

So which tool should I use?
It depends on what you’re trying to do. If you want your ad to appear at the top of the search results, then consider using the Bid Range for Top Positions to help guide your bidding. If you want to estimate how many clicks you may receive for a particular bid, use the Estimated Clicks per Bid sliding graph.It’s important to note that the Bid Range for Top Positions uses recent data and the Clicks per Bid sliding graph uses historical data, so there may sometimes appear to be a discrepancy between the two data sets. Also, please remember that both of these features use estimates only and are not a guarantee of click volume. Factors other than bid amount—such as the bidding behavior of other advertisers, your campaign settings and your ad performance—may also influence your position.

Thanks and happy bidding!

—The Team

Posted by Administrator

[ Categories: Account Upgrade Info, How To's ]
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36 Comments Add your own

1. Gene Massey | January 9th, 2007 at 9:12 am

Way too complicated to figure out
2. Matt O'Brien | January 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am

This new bidding system is a piece of cake compared to the new upload template. Could you of made it any more complicated and time-consuming Yahoo?
3. Mary | January 9th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

What? I don’t even know where to begin!
4. Dianna | January 9th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

I really liked, no LOVED, the old system. I liked knowing who I was bidding against and how much each one bid. I think this is just like Google now, a way to make me pay more for less information and a way to bid up key words higher and higher.

Ok, I still like Yahoo better than Google and I still use Google even though I hate their bidding system.
5. RcStan | January 10th, 2007 at 4:57 am

RE: I really liked, no LOVED …

Thanx Dianna, I thought it was just me. I couldn’t make heads nor tales of Google now I have two accounts that are useless.

It’s alotta work, but I’m finding the data I need to do this thing. Thanx alot to these Yayhoo’s for taking away what little data we had to work with.

Now … my question:
Has anyone else noticed that VIEW BIDS & KEYWORD SELECTOR TOOL are slowly disappearing ??

Two possibilities:
1) They are now needed so badly that they can’t handle the traffic

or

2) Grab your ankles …

Anyone gotta n’opinion ??

RcStan@AnyDamnThing.com
6. JLK | January 10th, 2007 at 8:38 am

Nope. Not playing anymore. Click fraud
is way too tempting for this type of misuse
of the internet. I’d pay for orders placed
but not for 10,000 “clicks” that don’t
result in anything but a big bill for me.
NO THANKS YAHOO!
7. asokan | January 10th, 2007 at 9:01 am

Loved the good old system like Dianna and others. now the new system is like google. i was spending more money on yahoo old system,because of the google system.now both are same . now i am thinking which way to go GOOGLE OR YAHOO.
8. Robert Taylor | January 10th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

We made the decision today to cut back on Yahoo ads and look for other alternatives. It’s too complicated and the system is very slow. Plus we can’t run ads that are properly targeted, with Yahoo support telling us we need to create a separate adgroup for every keyword. Right! If we ran at the level we run on Google I’d be typing in 1000 separate ads–one for each keyword. It’s not worth the effort.
9. Chris | January 11th, 2007 at 9:31 am

Why are relevant stats not given on the screen where you can change bids for multiple keywords (as they are in Google)? Say you have an Ad Group with 50 keywords that you want to change the bids for. If you would like to use relevant stats such as CPC, avg position, conversions, cost, CTR, reve, etc. you have to make bid changes one at a time. If you select all 50 keywords you want to change and click ’set keyword bids’, you go to a screen where all the relevant stats are gone. How stupid is that? I manage an account with over 5000 keywords and in Panama I am supposed to select each one individually and slide some pointer over a graph to make each individual bid edit? Thats absurd, fix your ’set keyword bids’ screen Yahoo so I can edit multiple bids at once while all relevant stats are displayed.
10. Bob | January 11th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

I agree Chris! There is a huge aount of work converting to the new system that the advertisers are required to do, let alone updating bids.

Also, YSM, please add a way to move keywords between ad groups that is more user friendly!!! I’m dying here!!!
11. Terry | January 11th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

This stinks!!!!

I have 200 keywords, some of them got mutilated in the conversion from old to new system. I don’t know where to start, I can’t seem to figure out how to move an existing keyword from one campaign to the one it is supposed to be in. I bet this adds 20 or 30 hours of time in fixing the conversion problems! I’m really thinking about quitting Yahoo altogether and not wasting my time.
12. Bob | January 12th, 2007 at 5:58 am

Terry,
I know what you mean. I have 1200 keywords. After being on the phone with YSM for a an hour or 2, here is what I think I know.

You can copy or move an ad group between campaigns. From the ad group page click on the drop down box on the right called Ad Group Settings.

If it is just one keyword, just adding it to an ad group in another campaign seems the easiest. If you have many keywords, you can download your add group or campaign in excel and copy paste into Add Keywords.

I think there might be a way to upload a revised spreadsheet but I guess it entails changing ad group and keyword ID’s and they said it wouold be too cumbersome and lot of chances for errors.

Hope that helps. I do agree that this had made tons of work for us.
13. Administrator | January 12th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

Mary (Comment #3) seems a bit confused by the changes. She says:

What? I don’t even know where to begin!

Believe me, Mary, I felt the same way the first time I walked into Victoria Station, in London! But really, we’ve got lots of resources to help get you up to speed, starting with the blog itself. In addition to helpful articles like “Smoothing Your Upgrade” http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2006/11/20/smoothing-your-upgrade/, “Be Prepared”< http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/index.php/page/3/> and “Upgrade Resources,” the blog links to the Upgrade Center< http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/upgrade.php>, where you can find FAQs, checklists, tutorials and more.

As for the rest of your comments, we really appreciate the input. We’re monitoring them closely with an eye toward improving all the time!

Thanks!

-M2

14. Ken | January 14th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

Unbelievable disaster and abuse.
Why would a company abuse their CUSTOMERS like this?

Yahoo converted my account with over 25,000 keywords which now looks like someone shot it with a shot gun. Why didn’t they convert our accounts the way we had them set up?

I have spent way too many hours trying to clean up their mess and I have had it.
Where do we spend our web budgets now?
15. Dave | January 16th, 2007 at 4:21 am

The end is nigh! I think Yahoo can expect to say goodbye to a lot of their clients over this.
16. Andry | January 16th, 2007 at 7:34 am

I don’t know where to start, I must spent a lot of time to learn.
17. Spencer | January 16th, 2007 at 8:12 am

I am very disappointed with Yahoo for dropping their simple bid method in favor of this very confusing new system. It appears to me that it offers no new advantages to the customer, but is designed only to boost Yahoo’s profits. Yahoo used to offer a clear choice from Google. Now, they are just the same. We are a small business and I don’t have hundreds of hours available to clean up the mess caused by this “upgrade.” I’m sure someone will come up with a viable alternative. In the mean time, where do I spend my advertising budget? I’m fed up with both Yahoo and Google.
18. Ed | January 16th, 2007 at 8:46 am

The new Yahoo PPC system is about 1000 times BETTER than the old system. They copied Google for one reason; the Google system is easier to use! Yahoo will gain a lot more new advertisers than they will lose.

I really laughed when I read Terry’s comment about 200 keywords and 20 - 30 hours to fix! Are you kidding? You should be able to create new campaigns with tightly niched ad groups, copy or truncate your old creatives, and add your keywords in less than an hour. We use each of the big three’s PPC systems and spent the least amount of work and money with Yahoo because the old system was terrible. If you’re having a problem setting up campaigns in the new Yahoo model, you should think about hiring someone else or getting out of the PPC advertising model. The new system is much easier to use and make changes to as your business dictates. Then of course there’s the guy crying about click fraud. Wake up buddy, there’s fraud everywhere and the amount of click fruad is getting less and less! Have you read an article lately in a main stream publication about click fraud? No, because it’s not as bad as it was made out to be.

Wake up complainers and stop crying. You’re in business to make money and sometimes to stay up with the Jones’s you need to learn new systems. Give it a few months and you’ll be much happier!
19. jeff | January 16th, 2007 at 10:26 am

I have lowered my spending with Yahoo and I would think many other people have also . They are lagging behind Google in a big way and this has dropped them further . Yes , I used to enjoy tracking my bids with Yahoo , it was quick and easy , however this new system was designed with confusion in mind>
20. Linda | January 16th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

I had cut way back on Yahoo because of very few clicks. Now, with the new system I’ll cut even further back because it is difficult to manage key words, etc. Did you realize that once you are on the new system, and have a budget, that you need to go into the new asap and RESET your budget for each key words or the money is gone quite fast? Also, we are not longer seeing how much money is bid in top 5 listings, which forces people to blindly bid on key words, resulting in more revenue for Yahoo and less for bidder. Boo-hoo! I liked the old system much better.
21. Dan | January 18th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

I agree with you all. This new system is frustrating and unnecessary. Just like Google now, which I rarely check since it’s so difficult to figure out. AAARGH !! Thanks for complicating things, Yahoo.
22. Ellen | January 23rd, 2007 at 6:16 pm

I don’t understand the new upgrade. On the plus side, in most cases, I am spending less than I used to for great positions, so how is this making Yahoo more money? Plus, the auto creation of campaigns and adgroups wasn’t exactly seemless. Now, I am left to try to figure out how to move keywords between adgroups and I absolutely can’t find this documented anywhere. I tried to download my adgroup and reassign adgroup names and IDs, and this didn’t work. Help - short of deleting keywords from old adgroups and then adding them into new adgroups, and suffering delays while they are approved, what can I do? Please answer, someone.
23. tbroeski | January 24th, 2007 at 5:04 am

I really like the current system on Yahoo. In order to have a “content” driven adds that ups you in “quality”, you have to put in so much information and extraneous links that the person simply trying to find out about your company actually can’t.
The click through ranking rewards the big companies who will take any click through. As a small “legitimate” invention design company I’ve written my web to get the type of clich throughs I need, not what Yahoo figures will make them the most money. I know they are a business, but the few search engines really have a monopoly. I’ve paid a lot of money to have “content” written and it only brought in less quality clicks. It’s great for scam companies that want to Hide who they really are behind a ton of “information”, but might hurt those that want to get to the point. I guess we’ll have to see how this compares to the other content driven engines.
24. Administrator | January 24th, 2007 at 6:13 pm

Dear Ellen,

To answer the first part of your question, the more relevant your make your ads, the more likely it will be that potential customers click. The idea is that everybody wins in the end.

As to the second part of your question, sorry, but at this time you cannot move keywords between ad groups. We do offer a webinar that provides more information on managing your account in the new system: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/ysm/sps/training/webinar_archive.html

Which should answer some of your questions. Also, we’ll be looking more into navigating your new account in the coming weeks on the blog, so stay with us.

-M2
25. Marc | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am

quote: As to the second part of your question, sorry, but at this time you cannot move keywords between ad groups.

This is a joke or not?
I just started trying to sort all the keywords in my account, the yahoo support leaved a BIG mess in my upgraded account in december, what i wanted to clean now before the new ranking system goes online…

I tried now 30 mins to move my keywords from one adgroup to another, only to read on the official yahoo blog that this isn’t possible at this time?!

But yahoo suggests we better group our campaigns/adgroups and keywords in a way that could result in a higher quality index … But doesnt offer the tools to do so.

At the end of the day I’m only once again dissatisfied with yahoo’s searchmarketing. Now I have to delete 50.000 keywords, and redo ALL my campaigns and adgroups and rewrite all ad’s etc etc, thanks yahoo.
26. dave | February 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm

Im trying to start a large campain, it seems as though i will not even use Yahoo at all.
You all saved me lots of time and money.
I have had great luck with Redzee search
10,000 clicks for 500 dollars.
I will also check into Google.
27. Scott | February 4th, 2007 at 11:47 am

I was spending between $500-$600 per day for the previous 5 weeks before the upgrade. The day after I upgraded, my cost went straight to $800 per day. (You should see the new graph they provide showing this) I don’t watch it everyday, so I just noticed it yesterday. I noticed that the content match was turned on, which in the old system I had it turned off. (Not sure if that is why yet) I have since turned it off. Has anyone else experienced this? Thank you.
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