Archive for January, 2008January 28th, 2008
Valentine’s Day AdviceGet your search campaigns—if not your love life—in order My first real Valentine’s Day was in eighth grade, when I torpedoed my three-week-old relationship by giving my girlfriend perfume instead of chocolate. Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for good V-Day advice—such as, I don’t know, that you shouldn’t tell your girlfriend that chocolates will only make her fat. Our Yahoo! experts have lots of advice for Valentine’s Day—not to get your love life in order, but to help you get the most out of your Yahoo! search marketing campaigns during this heavy shopping season. We’d like to invite you to an upcoming free webinar where they’ll share Valentine’s Day-related data and best practices. The one-hour webinar will cover the following: The webinar will be presented this coming Friday, February 1 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time/2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To sign up, please visit the registration page. — Jeff Sweat Posted by Administrator [ 4 comments | Categories: Events, Tips, Uncategorized ] January 23rd, 2008
A Smarter StartFree Booklet Offers Search Marketing How-to’s We’ve always had oodles of helpful content to assist you in making your campaigns as effective as possible. There’s the Help Center, the contextual help right in your administration interface, webinars and, of course, there’s the blog. But now we’ve got oodles more, all in one place, with the publication of the Smart Start Guide. It’s a guidebook geared especially toward the beginning search marketer, but it also offers tips for the more advanced Yahoo! Search Marketing advertiser. Yahoo! Search Marketing Specialist “Sharon Goodsense” shows how the decisions you make with your account play a key role in your search marketing success. In this easy-to-read booklet, Sharon takes you through the steps of creating effective campaigns and offers helpful advice of how to make good decisions. The Smart Start Guide includes chapters on:
There’s also a section of effective troubleshooting techniques. You can download the Smart Start Guide. —The Team Posted by Administrator [ 13 comments | Categories: How To's ] January 17th, 2008
Calling all Search Superstars!Searching for Searchlight Award Winners
So why should all of us in the search world be left out in the cold? Well, I’m happy to announce that our time has come. On February 12, we’ll be holding the 3rd Annual Yahoo! Searchlight Award showcase in New York City. If you haven’t been to it in the past, it’s a must-attend event. You’ll get to hear the insights and strategies behind four of the best search marketing campaigns from 2007. One winner will be crowned the 2008 Searchlight Award winner. (Previous winners include Avenue A/Razorfish and RPA.) You’ll also hear a great keynote from one of the most digitally savvy and forward-thinking agency minds. Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction, will kick us off with his thoughts on what’s hot in 2008 and beyond. Rob is as witty as he is brilliant, so we’re really excited to have him this year. We also have four great panelists who will be helping the audience decide who deserves the award. The panel will question the presenters, offering their own insights and providing their own analysis of the work. Our panelists include the following: Greg and Brian have been with us since we kicked off the Searchlight Awards and we warmly welcome them back. We are also excited to have Abbey Klaasen and the inimitable Kevin Ryan join us for the first time as panelists. Do you have a campaign from 2007 that you’d like to submit for consideration? Would you like to see your agency featured in a full-page print advertisement in one of the trade publications? Do you want the glory and exclusivity to boast that you are the best of the best? (Yes, yes and yes, of course.) If so, I would like to personally invite you to submit your campaign at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/searchlightaward/. (You can also use this link to register to attend the awards.) We look forward to seeing you in New York to help us decide who will win the 2008 Searchlight Award. In the meantime, we hope your 2008 brings marketing success to you and all of your colleagues. —Ron Belanger, VP, Agency Development Posted by Administrator [ 12 comments | Categories: Events, Yahoo! News ] January 14th, 2008
The Three Biggest Mistakes in Search MarketingKnowing What Not to Do is Important, Too Editor’s Note: Here on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog we usually like to “accentuate the positive,” as Johnny Mercer would say. But in search marketing, knowing what not to do can be just as vital as knowing what to do, especially when you’re just starting out. Veteran search marketer, Mike Moran author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. and Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, offers us some useful tips on how to avoid some of SM’s biggest pitfalls. Search marketing is becoming mainstream (as opposed to sidestream, I think), but I still find people drowning in that stream. They forget that search marketing is more about marketing than search, because the search technology piece seems so new and different. Woe to the search marketer who misses the marketing part—they’re likely to make one or more of these mistakes: 1: The Rank Amateur Error Search engines are personalizing more and more search results, so that different searchers get different results for the same keyword. If you focus only on rankings, soon you’ll wake up to find that only the search engines themselves know your rankings. Rather than slavishly reviewing your rankings, your time is better spent finding another metric that best captures the business value of your marketing efforts. 2: The Traffic Report Error Instead of studying traffic reports, focus on conversions—the sales that result from your search campaign, whether online or offline. Very often, search keywords that send heavy traffic to your site convert at low rates, while less popular keywords drive more revenue. Focus on the keywords that drive sales, not just traffic. 3: The 24/7 Sales Pitch Error However, that information targets people who already know they need to buy something—folks who know that your product (or your competitor’s) solves their problem. What about the people who know they have a problem, but have no idea what to do about it? Do you have the kind of problem-solving content that those customers are looking for? If you do, figure that some of those people will appreciate the information and stick around to buy from you. As you gain experience in search marketing, focusing on content across the entire buying cycle (including problem-oriented content for folks not ready to buy yet) will provide you with the widest net with which to snare searchers and turn them into customers. And you’ll be measuring just how many of them buy, instead of tracking only rankings or traffic. By avoiding these big three mistakes, you’ll be ready to make a few lesser mistakes—or maybe even get it right. —Mike Moran is an IBM Distinguished Engineer for IBM’s OmniFind search and analytics products Posted by Administrator [ 63 comments | Categories: Guest Columns, How (Not)-To's ] January 11th, 2008
Ciao, Bella!Blogster-in-Chief Michael Mattis Movin’ On Well, it has been one heck of a run. Over the last two years, through the launch of “Panama” and beyond, we have seen some rapid advances at Yahoo! Search Marketing. Here on the blog I’ve tried to keep you up on all the latest news, enhancements and tips and tricks, while at the same trying to keep you entertained and build a sense of community around your experience as a Yahoo! Search Marketing advertiser. I hope I’ve succeeded in some small measure. While the job itself is hardly complete—rest assured there will be many more enhancements coming over the next year, and there is always a lot more to learn—the time has come for me to bow out and let others take center stage. Of course, the redoubtable Stephanie Bilberry will still be laying down the search marketing law, Roger Park will be reporting back from the front lines, and the mysterious YahooPete and YahooSarah will be weighing in now and then. But look also for new, helpful content from Jeff Sweat, Jeff Hecox, Kastle Waserman, Michael Egan and others. Me? I’m off to BNET.com, the business arm of C|Net Networks, where I’ll be editing a number of business-related (surprise!) blogs and helping grow an active community around them. The experience I’ve gained here at Yahoo! has been invaluable, and I will continue to work with my friends here at Yahoo! on new features for BNET.com (a RightMedia publisher). It’s been great being a part of the Yahoo! Search Marketing team and the search advertising community. Thanks for all your helpful comments and feedback. You’ve been a great community. Ciao! —Michael Mattis Posted by Administrator [ 4 comments | Categories: Announcements ] January 10th, 2008
New Search Marketing WebinarsSoup to Nuts How-to’s for Your Campaigns By popular demand, we’re continuing our series of live webinars designed to help make you a more successful advertiser. This batch of webinars covers a variety of topics and will run from January 15 to February 5, 2008. Webinar topics include:
To register to attend any of these free webinars, visit the Help Center and click the appropriate Register Now button. You can also access an archive of past webinars here. —Michael Mattis Posted by Administrator [ 6 comments | Categories: Uncategorized ] January 9th, 2008
Predictions for 2008
Our master computer, YaHal-9000, sits calculating day and night in the bowels of our Burbank office building, giving off sparks, discharging wisps of eerie, green smoke, and occasionally dimming lights across the San Fernando Valley as it churns through reams upon reams of data from its billions of inputs. Recently, we begged an audience with the YaHal-9000 to get its predictions about what lays in store for us in ‘08. It wasn’t easy, for “The Exalted One,” as it demands to be known, does not have much use for us puny, feeble-minded humans and our insipid little concerns. It eventually gave in to our request, but only after we promised an oil change and a weekend off to watch a marathon of the new, digitally remastered episodes of “Star Trek.” In its booming, sonorous tones, the YaHal-9000 rumbled and sputtered the following seven predictions: 1) Oil will hit $100 a barrel. Bingo! The Exalted One got that one correct, right out of the gate! 2) The Nintendo Wii will be superseded by Apple’s new piWii, which is not only half the size of the Wii, it also lets players order pizza right from the console, though you have to use AT&T Wireless. 3) Post-”Panama” enhancements and upgrades will continue to roll out to Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers throughout the year. These will include many more options and greater flexibility. 4) KISS rocker Gene Simmons will stick his tongue out one too many times on “The Apprentice” and be fired by Donald Trump. He will then bite The Donald’s head off like Ozzy did to that bat. 5) UCLA will go to the Rose Bowl Game, but only after USC’s quarterback suffers a really, really bad mani/pedi. 6) We’ll continue to launch initiatives that can improve the value of the traffic you receive. Can’t share the details yet, but keep reading the blog for the full scoop. 7) You will meet success in your endeavors [in bed]. —Michael Mattis and The Exalted One, YaHal-9000 Posted by Administrator [ 16 comments | Categories: Features ] January 7th, 2008
You Oughta be in PicturesMoviegoers Search Early and Often for the Next Blockbuster I’m a bit of a movie buff. Not the kind of credit-scrutinizing nerd that knows the name of every key grip and best boy going back to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” mind you, but I do like to go to the movies just about every week and I’ve got a Netflix queue that should take me well into my 70s. In the old days, back when the Internet was but a twinkle in Len Kleinrock’s eye, you first heard about the next big release just before you saw the last one, right after the familiar green screen assuring you that the following PREVIEW has been APPROVED for ALL AUDIENCES. But times have changed, and so have the ways people learn about movies—and a Yahoo! study conducted last summer shows just how much. Online search, the survey found, is a top source for information about movies. Fully 68 percent of the 2,351 respondents said that they considered movie information sites to be the best source for getting the skinny on a movie, while 60 percent said that they count on “official” movie websites. And how do most filmgoers find these websites? Through search: 83 percent of respondents said that search engines were the “the most easy-to-use source” for finding movie information online. In addition, the study found that—contrary to conventional wisdom—most moviegoers (91 percent) will go online and search before a film is even in theaters. Your die-hard movie buffs are likely to engage in search (65 percent) when they first hear about a film. Later in the cycle, those wanting to avoid opening night crowds (26 percent) search just after opening weekends, and 15 percent search just prior to the DVD release. So what’s it all mean for advertisers? Well, if you’re advertising the next theatrical, on-demand or DVD release, it’s pretty obvious: make sure your landing pages are up to snuff, get your keywords in order, and hit the web hard. Ditto if you’re offering licensed merchandise or special offers of movie tie-ins. (Just make sure you’re not infringing on any copyrights.) —Michael Mattis Posted by Administrator [ 2 comments | Categories: Uncategorized ] January 2nd, 2008
What Quality Index is… NotWe talk a lot about quality index, but what does it mean to you? When defining a thing, sometimes it helps to start with what the thing is not. So here’s what your quality index is NOT:
Here’s what an ad’s quality index IS: It is a relative measure of how relevant an ad is. It reflects an ad’s ability to meet the needs of users by taking into account various relevance factors and click-through rate compared to its position and other ads displayed at the same time. It also takes into account all keywords in your ad group. Why You Should Care
For more on the quality index, visit the Help Center. —Michael Mattis, Quality Blogster Posted by Administrator [ 7 comments | Categories: How To's ]
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