Five Burning Questions

In which we answer popular queries from our advertiser webinars

Every month, we get great questions in our ongoing series of advertiser webinars. Even if you’ve never had a chance to attend one of these sessions, this info is too good to keep to ourselves, so with this post we’ll start sharing those questions and their answers with you. To hear the answers firsthand—and pose some Qs of your own—sign up for one of our webinars.

Q: What is the difference between a campaign, an ad group, and an ad?

A: A campaign consists of one or more ad groups that share the same budget, schedule and geo-targeting criteria. A campaign is typically created to support a particular marketing goal, such as a seasonal promotion, or a marketing initiative with separate budgeting or geo-targeting requirements.

At the next level down, an ad group contains keywords that are related to each other, plus a set of ads that can be displayed in response to searches that are relevant to the keywords.

An ad—containing a title, description and landing page URL—is the marketing message displayed to prospective customers searching for or viewing content related to your keywords. Often called “creatives,” ads can be frequently created or altered as you add keywords, or in response to ad testing that gauges ads’ appeal to searchers.

Q: What is the difference between an account spending limit and a campaign spending limit?

A: Your account spending limit allows you to set a budget for your entire account. Of course, you can have multiple campaigns within your account, and each of them can have a different spending limit. However, any one campaign spending limit should not exceed your overall account spending limit.

Q: Does it cost anything to use geo-targeting?

A: Geo-targeting is a free feature on all Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts. It allows you to target your ads to potential customers located or interested in particular geographic areas within the market selected for your account, and can potentially save you money. Geo-targeting permits you to target prospective customers by state, territory or province; or by Designated Market Area (DMA®), which typically means a city and its surrounding area.

Q: How does geo-targeting know where users are, or the area they’re interested in?

A: Geo-targeting looks at factors such as the user’s search query or Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine when to display your ads. For example, if someone in Arizona types in “Limo Service in Los Angeles CA,” then an ad geo-targeted to Los Angeles can be displayed. Please be aware that geo-targeting accuracy is not guaranteed and may vary depending on the level of targeting selected, as well as other factors, such as the quality and type of data in the traffic stream that we receive.

Q: I started a campaign this morning and it is set to end on a specific date a month from now. When will I be able to see the results of that ad campaign?

A: If you have set your campaign to end on a specific date, complete reporting for the ad campaign will be available the day after the campaign is scheduled to end. Of course, you can review your reports at any time during the scheduled duration of your campaign to see how your ads are performing to date.

— The Team

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28 Comments Add your own

1. Ashwin S | June 5th, 2008 at 2:48 am

Good article!

http://soporificsatire.blogspot.com
2. George (Don't Panic) Cinje | June 17th, 2008 at 8:42 am

Yahoo needs to step up the Global geo-targeting.
3. Karol S | June 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am

Agreed. If Yahoo could spend 20% of the energy on Global Geo (that they do on Local Geo), maybe we could all benefit from the very weak dollar.
4. Tom W | June 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

I am not sure what other people think, but I hate the new system. The old system was the best around. I could see what the placement costs was for a certain spot, and I could set my costs accordingly. Now we just put up a bid and hope Yahoo puts us in a good spot.

The system stinks. Its no different then Googles.

And considering Google has about 80% share of all internet searches it doesn’t’ make much business sense for yahoo to copy its adword camp. Maybe they should try something different
5. Robert Thau | June 17th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

I am very unhappy with the marketing system, pay per click and the bidding on position. Somedays I don’t even get the budgeted clicks to my site, I have had o nothing nada, response from anyone clicking on my site. I am befuddled shocked and dismayed by o results out of 150 + clicks. My friends told me I should have used Google as my search engine and not Yahoo, now I understand why they told me this
6. HawaiiGuy | June 17th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

I agree about geotargeting. Running US/Canada ads I still get [have to pay for] traffic from europe and asia which I definitely don’t want.

These are not from search queries with a geolocation within them so the ads should not be showing. It seems like it would be fairly easy to differentiate between US and European IPs.

By the way…some of the minimum bid requirements are nuts. Sometimes 2-4 times higher than even google. Since yahoo has less people/companies bidding on kws you’d think the min bids would be less.

All in all though, I think yahoo has made some good improvements. They still have quite a ways to go however.
7. Dave | June 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

I have actually been getting a lower CPA from Yahoo than Google, probably because Y’s CPC is considerably lower. My concern is, will Y’s CPCs get as high as G’s when they start running some of the PPC ads? Also, I just saw that Microsoft adCenter is rolling out an offline account management tool like Google’s AdWords Editor. When is Yahoo going to stop making us monkey around with downloading and uploading spreadsheets to make large-scale updates to our accounts?
8. Caesar | June 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Yes, Yahoo has lost it’s way….. I am about ready to jump ship becuase all the new system has done for me is eat up my advertising dollars with NO increase in sales. An…. unless I bid # 1… my ads do not get displayed 100% of the time…. But with the #1 position…. the fraudulent clicks sprial out of control….

It’s time to go back to pay for position…. The system they purchased from Oveture… They had it right…..

Yahoo is not like any other advertising company…..

They Ask, “What is Your Budget ?” You tell them…. then they spend every bit of it… regardless of the ROI…. Next “Sucker”.
9. Sherry Maloney | June 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Do you have someone sitting there clicking on ads to eat up budget? I am also advertising on Google and getting more clicks and not on advertisements. Also more revenue from Google. I just don’t understand why ads on Yahoo get clicked more than Yahoo!
10. Pamela | June 17th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

way to many complainers here !!! I have both yahoo and google and get far more click thru on Yahoo, then google. I am sold on Yahoo, perhaps you all should re-word your adds to create the attention you want.
11. Jim | June 17th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

I have been using Overture and now Yahoo since it first started many years ago. I have noticed that with every new change, it is getting harder for the smaller companies to market. The big companies with their advertising budget can and will do business.

But when you go from .20 a click to 1.67 a click overnight due to minimum bids set by Yahhoo, that is out of control.

The changes are good for Yahoo in the short term (more profit) but will hurt them in the long term (dissatified customers and loss of profit).

If you bring back the Overture original system Yahoo will see both a windfall in profits and sustained customer base.

Let us the advertisers compete against each other with bidding. Not Yahoo dictating what the minimum bids are before they list you.

This is just my opinion for what it is worth.

I have been keeping track of my marketing on Yahoo since I started and believe me it is a skeleton of what it used to be.

Good Luck
Jim
12. Disgruntled | June 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

These are the five most burning questions? This is what you thought would be important to tell advertisers? This shouldn’t be Yahoo Search Marketing 101 (more like kindergarten)yet that is what you give us. The webinars must be USELESS if this is the best you can come up with. They don’t know what a campaign or ad group are? They can’t grasp what account and campaign spending limits mean? Give ne a break.

Here are 5 truly BURNING questions….

1. Why does the Non-Referred category in an Analytics report contain referred traffic?

2. Why are blocked domains limited to 250? When I have 1400 I would like to block? They should be unlimited.

3. Why does ad optimization always delete what seems to be my best performing ad? I don’t use optimization any more.

4. Has your share of the market dropped so bad that a well managed account that ran 10k/day with hundreds of conversions PRE-Panama now can’t even spend 3k and gets nowhere near 100 conversions? You won’t admit it maybe, but “Market Fluctuation” just doesn’t cut it any more as an escuse.

5. If keyword has a 1.5 CTR and the ad has a 3 bar quality score, then the ad is replaced and the CTR goes to 3.1 why does the new ad still only have three bars? The quality “bars” are too ambiguous. Do you plan on creating a better quality score indicator EVER?

These are just a few….But notice they are a little over the kindergarten level. They require more than the pat answers that can be found everywhere in the help files, which is where you should have referred those questions so you would have time to answer the TRULY burning questions.
13. Jeff | June 17th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

Min bids don’t mean anything If you bid the min
you don’t get any clicks. I think the min bid
is about $.10 but if I bid that I would go months without getting any clicks, right now I am bidding $.75 on most of my key words and half the time I still don’t reach my daily budget of $3.00 a day and I cant afford to spend $1000.00 a month on yahoo advertising.
I have an account with google adwords at $3.00
a day and almost a week now with MSN adcenter at $3.00 a day and between all three I cant get the sales I need to justify paying the money, I am looking to ofline markiting (printed adds) like the penny saver, white sheets, ADS PAY, depending on the publication
and ad size you can get an ad that can run all month for $10-$80. I seem to be getting half of my traffic from these. There also some free or low cost advertising online also, just do a search for (online advertising or free online advertising) and with some time invested you don’t half to pay through the nose to do business.
14. pterryv | June 17th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

Boy, it is a relief to see that I am not the only one frustrated here, for mostly all of the above gripes.
This being my first forray into internet marketing, we were hemoraging advertising dollars for the first 6 months with literally nothing to show for it.
Now we have adjusted our account spending limit as low as possible, to try other media avenues, but were hesitant to leave Y!
Maybe Google is the way to go. It certainly couldn’t be worse.
15. GregM | June 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

I would like Yahoo to address conversions.
i can generate more impersions and more clicks with yahoo than google….Yet

I like Yahoo to address conversions.
I can run virtually the same campaign on Yahoo as on Google… I get more impressions and clicks on Yahoo yet Google give me 5x the conversion rate?
16. Richard | June 17th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Hey Yahoo, are you reading any of these comments? Now you understand why so many of us are pulling for Carl to take over and throw the bums out.
17. sergio | June 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

OHHHH I forgot, for someone that has campaign in 8 10 countries WHY IN HELL DO I NEED TO OPEN 8 to 10 freaking campaigns????
I mean PLEASE god let them see you the light.
18. Alan Pattinson | June 17th, 2008 at 9:20 pm

I always recomend to my clients to peak their web pages rather than throw money at PPC, but still some managers like the CONCEPT of PPC. But it doesn’t get the ROI that page tweaking does.
19. metmind | June 17th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Good! Thanks
20. alan hamilton | June 18th, 2008 at 12:31 am

The burning question that I have is: when will Yahoo finally become advertiser friendly by offering day parting so advertisers can schedule run times for campaigns?

I was told by a Yahoo rep two years ago that it would be available in 3 - 4 weeks. It is now two years later.

Thank You
21. Gil C | June 18th, 2008 at 2:09 am

Wow! If heads don’t roll I’ll be amazed.
I was beginning to wonder why sales had suddenly dropped off.
A bit of finger pulling from orifices needed here!
22. Patty | June 18th, 2008 at 6:32 am

I have advertised with Yahoo and Goggle as well as others. In the last 6 months my spending has almost doubled on Yahoo without increasing my sales. The new system has made most of my important keywords unusable. We can’t afford to pay $2.75 for a minimum bid. When I am only paying $1.00 for the same keyword on Goggle. The worst part is when you do a search on that word there is only 1 or 2 companies that show up. So tell me why does Yahoo feel it is so important to raise the minimum bid to an amount that no one wants to pay. Thank god for GOGGLE!
23. Paul M. | June 18th, 2008 at 7:04 am

I am very glad to see that it was not just me that had seen bid amount skyrocket and sales plummet. I really liked the old Overture system, it was working extremely well for me, bringing in many new customers. All of a sudden, it’s like someone turned off the spicket. Is there any chance we can go back to a more user-friendly PPC system? Thanks for considering our requests, Yahoo.
24. Mark S | June 18th, 2008 at 8:57 am

Ditto to all of the above.
I’ve dropped my spending to 25% of what you used to be on the old system because it’s no longer worth the time and effort. The old system was so much more managable.
25. Tampa Furniture and Mattress Clearance store | June 18th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

I agree…but.
“Disgruntled” makes some particularly poignient (sp?) comments and I agree with them all, but I also see a vast area for improvement in Yahoo’s (and Google’s for that matter) natural search results.

Surfers are wise to Sponsored Search and I believe many are ignoring the results in favor of the natural results…which in my field are terrible on both Yahoo and Google. They’ve invested so much energy in tweaking the natural results, that legitimate business get buried behind a bunch of junk sites, all sorts of yellow pages and other directories. If I wanted to go to Yellowbook to search for widgets, I would have started at Yellowbook, not started at Yahoo only to be taken to somewhere else to do another search.

As a searcher, rather than advertiser, I’m tired of the bad results. A new company that simplifies natural search for us, as users, may have a shot at disrupting the big guys.

I give Yahoo some credit. I’ve received more help from the people at Yahoo than I’ve ever received from Google.
26. bill smith | June 19th, 2008 at 7:58 am

it’s too bad you changed your system. i used a search optimizing company, nicer ad layout thru my provider and get nothing now. sure, i cut back my budget since i received a rate increase that’s out of line. i’ll bet that you are losing alot of clients to Google. that’s where i’m going.
adios to yahoo.
27. Mark Logan | June 20th, 2008 at 3:46 am

Our problems seem very common, the new interface is confusing, without being advanced enough to produce results.

We are thinking of pulling away from Yahoo, they are eating up our advertising dollar without results.
28. Noticias SEM, herramienta&hellip | August 18th, 2008 at 2:07 am

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