Archive for May, 2008

Writing Effective Ads

Find the message that clicks with customers

This is an abridged excerpt from the Smart Start guide, which is packed with helpful content to assist you in making your campaigns as effective as possible. Whether you’re an expert search marketer or just starting out, these tips from Yahoo!’s Sharon Goodsense offer practical search marketing insights. Download Smart Start.

When creating ads, there are several things you can do to help get more clicks.

Write the best ad text you can

• Be precise in describing what you offer. Ads that are not well written or are unclear do not perform well.
• Make your ads concise and factual. Ads that are too salesy might repel, not attract.
• Don’t use ampersands (&) and numbers in place of words. These symbols can make your ad look unprofessional.
• Provide a strong call-to-action. If your business provides something unique, make sure to include that in your ad.

Use the insert keyword feature

You probably wouldn’t click an ad that didn’t mention what you were searching for—and neither will your customers. Research shows that people are more likely to click if the keyword appears in the ad’s title or description. To use the feature, click the insert keyword link at the place in your ad’s title or description where you would like your keyword to appear. When a prospective customer searches for one of your keywords, the system will insert the appropriate keyword into your title or description in bold type—reassuring searchers that your ad matches their search.

Make sure your landing page is consistent with your ad

If you send searchers to a web page that doesn’t include what they searched for, this makes for a bad customer experience, which can have a negative impact on your conversion rate. For best results, focus on the customer, not your company.

Use ad testing

Testing ad messages is the mark of a smart advertiser—so we make it easy for you to do just that! If you can write an ad, you can use ad testing. All you need to do is create more than one ad in an ad group. Each of the ads that you created will be rotated in search results when searchers type in keywords from that ad group.

If you choose to use ad testing, the ad receiving the highest click-through rate will be shown more often in search results over time. This is because ad optimization is turned on in your account. (You can also set up ad optimization to show ads more frequently for other metrics, such as conversions or revenue.) If you prefer, you can also turn ad optimization off. But if you leave ad optimization on, you could see even more clicks to your web site, because your better ads will be shown more often. Eventually, this could improve your ad quality, which can improve your ad’s rank in search results. All steps in the right direction!

— The Smart Start guide

Green Clicks

How to “Green” Your Search Marketing

There’s no question that the environment is one of today’s “hot topics,” pun intended. Many consumers are now searching for ways to lower their carbon footprint, and creating a demand for eco-friendly products and services. It’s a new marketplace that is ripe for the picking for savvy marketers.

Do you offer a collection of green products but don’t know how to capture this new growing audience? Or are you an established green brand in fear of how to cope with an influx of competition? I spoke with a few of our customer solutions and content development representatives to get advice on structuring a campaign that shows your environmentally-friendly side.

Newcomers to the Green Market

1. Think Like a User

Environmentally-concerned consumers often look at every claim, ingredient listing and line of ad copy created by a product manufacturer or service provider to determine, “How might using this product or service hurt the environment?” So make sure you highlight your “greenularity” in your ad copy. For example, if you are a dry cleaner who uses non-toxic cleansers, include that fact in your ad, as it will set you apart from competitors.

2. Plant Seasonal Seeds

Green awareness isn’t just for Earth Day. Many folks purchase eco-friendly products at every gift-buying occasion, so go after them! You can create a green campaign for Mother’s Day, Graduation season, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc., just as you would for general seasonal campaigns.

3. Think Locally

We’ve all heard of the concept of “Think globally, act locally,” so consider adding campaigns specifically targeted at your local consumers. Try offering discounts to those in your nearby community to support the reduction of carbons emitted through shipping and transportation. Our geo-targeting feature makes it easy to show that you are aligned with green thinking in this way.

4. Land on Your Feet

If you’re running a green ad, make sure your landing page is green, as well. After all, you don’t want an environmentalist to click on your ad, go to your site, then see that you’re pushing a product that goes against their beliefs. But be careful: Green shoppers tend to be suspect of companies who try to “green-wash” their brand with shallow marketing ploys. If possible, add content on your site that shows what your company is doing to help the globe. You can even post news items on environmental concerns that relate to your products.

5. Up-Selling and Cross-Selling

If you offer several eco-friendly products, cross-sell them when a customer is purchasing one, and display them all on one special page. Green or not, users love one-stop shopping: If you’re selling someone an aluminum reusable water bottle and you’re not promoting your biodegradable disposable eating utensils, you might be missing out on a sale! A lot of people take baby steps in greening their lives—if you show them the way and tip them off to new options, you’ll make more sales and earn their loyalty, as well.

“But I Was Here First!”

While you may have been branding your company as eco-friendly long before being green became trendy, staying on top of the flood of new products entering this marketplace can be a challenge. We offer two suggestions:

1. Stress Your Credibility

If you really have been eco-friendly for years, tell your customers. Longevity in Earth-saving earns points with greenies who may be skeptical to fly-by-night newcomers, or those who are just jumping on the green bandwagon. Write it in your ad copy, and tell your story on your landing page.

2. …and Your Credentials 

If you are a certified green company, make sure that your ad contains this info. Green consumers love to patronize a company officially labeled organic, or one that passes all the tests for greenness. Their trust in that status will earn you their loyalty.

— Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager, Customer Solutions

Photo courtesy of Thiru Murugan, via Flickr

Anti-Phishing Reminders

Defend yourself from scammers looking to steal your account

Though we have previously published articles on “phishing,” we think it never hurts to remind you of ways to protect yourself from these scammers.

You may receive an e-mail that looks like it came from Yahoo!, taking you to something that looks like a Yahoo! Search Marketing log-in page. But in reality it can be a phishing scam from somebody who is trying to duplicate our login page to get your user name and password to hijack your account.

Well, don’t fret. To help combat these phishing scams, we have installed what’s called a “sign-in seal” on our log-in page. Already in use by many financial institutions, a sign-in seal is a cookie-based secret message or image that is displayed on your computer only. (That is, the machine you use to log in to your account.) If you use more than one computer, you’ll need to set up your seal for each. You can create your own custom text message to use as a seal, or upload your own image.

If you do not see your custom seal—and you haven’t cleared your cookies on your browser—when signing into your account, the site you’re on may be a “spoof” site designed to hoodwink you into giving up your valuable personal information. We encourage you to create a customized sign-in seal for your Yahoo! Search Marketing account today, then look for it every time you log in. You can set up your seal from your Yahoo! Search Marketing log-in page (the real one).

How to Recognize a Scam Email
Phishing emails usually try to hook you with some official-sounding message about your account. A common subject line is “Please Verify Your…”. Once you open the email, you’ll often see familiar corporate colors, branding, logos and language. Sometimes they will tell you that your account has been disabled for a bogus reason. At other times, they’ll offer a “free upgrade” to a new (and often non-existent) service.

Don’t Give Out Account or Personal Info to Anyone
The biggest clue in the fake email is that it asks for your username and password. We will never send you an email asking for your password.

Another way to help tell the faux from the friendly is by looking at the sender’s email address. Most of the official communications we send you will come from an address that looks like this: solutions(at)ysm.yahoo-email.com. If you get an email from a yahoo.com address asking you for info, it’s a good bet that it’s a fake.

If you think you’ve been “phished” for info, please let us know by emailing phishing(at)cc.yahoo-inc.com, or forward the email in question to that address.

To learn more about how you can keep from getting reeled in by “phishermen,” and how to guard against other Internet-based scams, visit these resources:

• Common Abuse Issues
• Yahoo! Security Center

—The Team

Pomp and Circumstance

6 Tips for Prom and Grad Season

My prom was a long time ago, but I’ve never forgotten…all the big hair. But proms and graduations still mean a lot to young folks—and the online retailers that sell evening gowns, tuxedos and limo services for the big evening, or diploma frames, coffee mugs or other gifts for grads.

According to a 2007 survey conducted by BIGresearch on behalf of the National Retail Foundation, a third of people polled planned to purchase at least one graduation gift in 2007, with a total projected spend of $4.5 billion. Although cash was the number-one gift for graduation and prom season, other items such as gift cards, electronics and apparel were also on gift-givers’ lists last year. On average, consumers expected to spend roughly $58.50 on gifts, with parents and grandparents over the age of 45 projected to spend roughly $110.

Ready to take advantage of this springtime shopping season? Here are six helpful tips that may help you attract gift-givers and prom-goers to your ads:

1. Separate Campaigns

Advertisers who sell gift cards, as well as those who specialize in formalwear sales and rental, may want to consider creating campaigns targeted toward consumers who intend to purchase these items for their loved ones. Likewise, advertisers who sell party supplies and greeting cards should also consider separate campaigns targeted at those who are planning graduation or prom bashes.

2. Promotional language

Including deals, such as low price points, coupon codes, free shipping or free gift wrapping, generally improves an ad’s performance.

3. Keyword/creative conflict

Make sure that your titles and descriptions don’t clash with their associated keywords. Even when the keyword appears in the creative, searchers may skip the ad if the main focus appears to be on something else.

4. Keyword insertion and Alt Text

Our Keyword Insertion tool helps make sure that the user’s search term always appears in your ads, and Alt Text helps the ad appear the way you want it.

5. Customization helps

Greeting card sites that offer customizable cards should be sure to mention that in their ads, as it likely will resonate with searchers.

6. Scope of offerings

Searches using general terms shouldn’t lead to an ad for a very specific item. For example, people searching with terms like “prom dress” usually want to be able to browse a variety of styles and colors, and may not click on an ad that promotes a “red floor-length strapless prom dress.”

You may not still remember everything about your prom night or graduation, but if you remember these few important tips, you can make your ads the “class” of ‘08.

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst