Benefits of the New Platform

Easier to use, new features, new possibilities

Not everyone has the iPhone fetish. Not everyone leapt out to order a New Beetle or a new Mini Cooper the second they were announced. Some of us, like yours truly, prefer not to be the early adopter, but prefer to adopt a wait-and-see-attitude.

That’s why we’ve offered everyone the chance to upgrade to the new Sponsored Search sooner if they want, or, to wait until their scheduled date.

But there are lots of benefits that come with upgrading to the new platform, including an easy-to-use control panel, fast ad activation that allows most ads to go online in minutes, ad testing that let’s you see which ads work best, geo-targeting, enhanced campaign budgeting, forecasting and scheduling, and greater visibility into your ads’ performance.

Test… test…
If you’re nervous about diving in, don’t be. The new system has been pounded on relentlessly by some of the hardest-to-please fellow advertisers, and tweaked to ensure that it addresses the issues that are most important to you.

We’re still making improvements. We’ll continue to update and enhance the system as we move forward into 2007 and beyond, adding new features and functions.

Keep your eye on the email
If you’re not planning on requesting an early upgrade, you’ll want to keep an eye on your email in-box. Two weeks before your scheduled upgrade date, we’ll send you a note to help you get prepared. Here on the blog, we’ve posted a number of articles to help you prepare your account and smooth your upgrade.

About a week after you receive your upgrade notice, you’ll a get second note from us with details on how you can preview your upgraded account and get familiar with all the changes. (Here’s a helpful article about how to navigate your new account.) Once in the preview, you’ll be able to upgrade your account at any time by clicking the “Upgrade Now” button.

Keep in mind that whether you’re a trendy early adopter or a conservative dallier (or simply a habitual procrastinator), you will be upgraded eventually, so it’s best to be prepared.

—Michael Mattis

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7 Comments Add your own

1. Rick | January 23rd, 2007 at 9:18 am

I’ve only been using this for a couple of days, but I am far from impressed. I’ll give it till the end of the week. I’ve use overture for 4 years and have even dropped google because I liked overture better. But now, I’m re-thinking my decision. For years I was able to make a bid and I knew where I would be. I could look and see my ad and adjust it as market conditions required. Now, I can’t even find some of my ads and according to the bid information on the keywords, I should be #1 or #2!

I’ve spent a heck of a lot of money in the last 4 year with overture and now yahoo, but it will come to an end real fast if this is the way things are going to stay. I’ll just bite the bullet and go back to google. MSN seems to be working ok now too.

I don’t know whos’ bright idea this was, but it is just about the most assinine this I have ever had to deal with.
2. Brian | January 23rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm

So much for ” Easier to use, new features, new possibilities” etc…

Today (23rd January 2007) I’ve been trying to log into Yahoo Search Marketing all day but the system is out.

( Along with Yahoo mail and Geo cities also)

Not too impressed to say the least.

I look forward to an expanation as to what’s happening.
3. Administrator | January 24th, 2007 at 6:07 pm

Dear Rick,

You may want to take a look at our online webinar, which addresses some of your questions. You can find it at: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/ysm/sps/training/webinar_archive.html

We realize finding things in the new interface can be a challenge when you’re used to the old one. In the next few days, we’ll posting some tips on how to find your stuff, move it around, and so forth. You can start by using the search function to find keywords, ad groups, etc. Search can be found under the Dashboard or Campaigns tab.

* * *

Brian,
We’re not aware of any outage on that date. There were a few blips over the weekend with regard to Sponsored Search as we got ready with yesterday’s launch, but there were no Yahoo!-wide issues that we are aware of on January 23. Sorry.

-M2
4. Rod Connors | January 24th, 2007 at 11:09 pm

I used to love Overture/Yahoo. I have been with Overture/Yahoo since I started my online business a few years ago. I even used to recommend Yahoo to my customers because it was so easy. Now with the new program that I was forced to switch to, it has taken my wife and I several days to change half of my keywords pricing. I am a web designer and small business owner and this system is so incredibly backwards it is baffling. Yahoo, do you know what gets people to my site? The answer is Keywords. Do you know what your new system focuses on? I sure don’t but it is not keywords. Before the new system it would have taken me 10 minutes to change my prices. I’m still not done yet because everything is broken down into a multitude of screens and categories that each take forever to load up. You have to submit each keyword change, wait for approval and then click on seveal other screens just to get to the next keyword. I got so fed up I set all of my keywords to a minimum default. However, that didn’t even work because when my account was converted all 250 of my keywords were set to a “Custom Bid”. I have to manually go in and change each keyword to default bid which takes 10 minutes per keyword. I now have no clue where any of my keywords rank. I have reluctanly started spending more with Google because it is easy to use compared to the new Yahoo. I have one suggestion for Yahoo, get rid of it NOW!!!!!!!!!!
5. Administrator | January 26th, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Rod,

We’re sorry you’re having trouble with your account. We’re pretty certain, though, that the slowness you’re experiencing does not come from our system. Also, you may quickly view all of your keywords and their performance from the Dashboard by selecting the “Top Keywords” drop down underneath the Alerts box.

We think there are a few other techniques you can use to better manage your keywords. We will be contacting you shortly with more detail.

-M2
6. Gogi Gupta | February 2nd, 2007 at 2:45 pm

I love the fact that your blog says “test, test, test..”, but Yahoo! Search Marketing has an absolute aversion to advertisers testing anything.

We run millions of dollars of media each year, roughly 90% with Google, because we are allowed to be creative.

For instance, if a a “tween” pop star appeals to the Radio Disney crowd, we run ads against Radio Disney kewyords in Google. On Yahoo!, we argue with human editors about the interest level. How about you let us test, test, test and SEE if the audience is interested by using CTR?
7. Rick Smith | February 3rd, 2007 at 11:46 pm

We’ve advertised with Goto/Overture/Yahoo since the beginning. After our upgrade, our costs more than doubled overnight.

I throttled our ad budgets dramatically, we’ll likely be dropping Overture completely after about 7 years of using it.