Archive for September, 2008

Myth-busting and the Yahoo!-Google agreement

We wanted to share with you an excerpt of a Yodel Anecdotal post from Yahoo! president Sue Decker explaining the Yahoo!-Google agreement and reiterating our ongoing commitment to Sponsored Search.  As Sue puts it,

There’s been a lot of speculation swirling around about the Yahoo!-Google agreement. We hear everything from the claim that Yahoo! and Google will be fixing prices to the prediction that the agreement is a death sentence for Yahoo!’s sponsored search business. Since the critics clearly don’t understand the deal and what it means for Yahoo!, Google, advertisers, and users, it’s time for some myth-busting.

Here’s the bottom line:

• Yahoo! will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online advertising; and
• Yahoo! is not exiting the sponsored search business. We plan to remain a strong player in sponsored search.

For more from Sue, read the full post.

–The Team

Are Your Headlines Eye-Grabbers?

Use two basic tools in your account to get noticed

When you just have mere seconds to catch the attention of a searcher on the web, your ad copy better scream, “I’m just what you’re looking for!” Until we introduce ads that can seductively talk to users, the next best things for getting your ads noticed are our insert keyword and alt text features.

Insert Keyword
Research shows that web users are more likely to click an ad that has—in its title or description—the search term they typed in. Not only can this help bring you more traffic, but a greater number of clicks can also help increase your quality index score, which can push your ads higher in search results at a lower cost-per-click.

To help you achieve these goals, we recommend the use of the insert keyword feature in your new and current ads, to dynamically place the search term into your title or description. You will see this option appear to the bottom right of the title or description field once you start to type in the field. Just click the “Insert Keyword Automatically” link wherever you would like your keyword to appear, and our system will then include the word or phrase that matches prospective customers’ queries when they search for what you sell.

For example, if your ad group is focused on selling different types of televisions, you could use the insert keyword function in your ad title to insert any of the terms that users might employ to find the ads (i.e., “plasma TVs,” “HD TVs,” “projection TVs,” etc.) in your ad group.

Here’s how to insert a keyword automatically in your ad’s title or description.

1. At the point in the title or description where you want a keyword inserted, click the “Insert Keyword Automatically” link below the text field.
2. In the Keyword Insertion dialog box, enter the default text (text that is used if inserting a long search term makes your title or description exceed the character limit).
3. Click the “Add Keyword Placeholder” button. “{KEYWORD:default_text}” is inserted into the title or description.

Alt Text
The alternate text feature displays your ad with different text where the search term typed in by the user would go. Alternate text overrides the default keyword replacement, provided that insertion of the alternate text does not cause the title and description to exceed the maximum length allowed. (If inserting the alternate text would cause the title or description to exceed the maximum length, the default text defined in the keyword token will be used.)

Here are a few circumstances in which it makes sense to use alternate text:

1. To substitute shorter text than the actual keyword
Example: Use the alternate text “30GB mp3 player” instead of the term “white mp3 player 30GB 2.5-inch display” so the ad’s title and description fits within word limits.

2. To substitute more readable or more grammatically-correct text than would result from the user’s search term
Example: Use the alternate text “Refrigerators” instead of the non-plural term “refrigerator” so that the ad title reads “Great Deals on Refrigerators”.

3. To substitute case-specific text
Example: Use the alternate text “California” instead of the keywords “california” or “CALIFORNIA” so that proper nouns appear correctly in the ad.

4. To substitute more descriptive text than the actual search term
Examples: Use “vacation trips to Hawaii” when they searched for hawaii trips.

To specify alternate text for a keyword:

1. Open the Keyword Details page.
2. Select the “Use Alternate Text for This Keyword” checkbox.
3. In the “Enter Alternate Text” field, enter your alternate text for this keyword. As you enter the text, the ads that use Insert Keyword are updated with the alternate text.
4. Click “Save.”

Remember that if inserting the alternate text in the ad title or description causes the title or description to exceed the maximum length, the alternate text will not be used.

— Jeff Hecox

It’s APT to Change

Yahoo!’s new ad platform is designed to unify digital advertising, helping market players do business more simply and effectively

Today we launched our new advertising platform, APT from Yahoo!, at a media event in New York City with Jon Hamm, star of TV’s Mad Men. We believe when the new platform becomes available to advertisers, it will help them reach more quality user audiences, harness insights on those users, drive better performance and simplify media buying. Our YSM blog team has been intimately involved—working like “Mad Men,” you might say—in preparations for the launch of APT from Yahoo!, so, of course, we’ll keep you informed here of our progress and your opportunities to participate in the platform.

But for now, here’s Jerry…

I started dreaming about this day 18 months ago, when I laid out my vision for our board of directors on how Yahoo! could play a unique role in changing the face of online advertising. In fact, Sue and I called it Nirvana at the time – a platform that would be to 2009 what radio was to 1924, TV to 1947, color TV to 1965, and the Internet to 1993.

Sounds like hype, right? We don’t think so. As Sue posted in April, we listened to all of the pain points that our partners shared about the process of buying and selling ads. Would you believe it takes more than 30 manual operational steps to move from ad strategy concept to launching that ad? It involves faxes (!!) and sometimes weeks in proposal processing. Audiences are now distributed across a sea of web sites and are harder to find, understand, and put a value on. Madison Avenue might think it’s a shame Johnny Walker Red doesn’t flow at the office anymore.

APT looks to change all that. It’s simple. It’s open. It’s fast (like minutes vs. days). It provides a new level of control. It offers cross-selling more easily than ever been before. It will provide large amounts of quality inventory. It will help advertisers customize and target their messages more precisely through advanced targeting. And it will drive results. All this from a single online application. No more cobbled together processes or impressions. No more wasted time.

For more about the new platform, read Jerry’s full blog post.

— The Team

Matching Your Keywords to Searches

Should you let the traffic flow, or limit your matches to keywords that convert better?

This is an excerpt from Yahoo!’s 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, the tips from Yahoo!’s “Sharon Goodsense” offer practical search marketing insights. Download Smart Start.

Match types are like valves that control the flow of traffic in your account. The two types, Advanced and Standard, are designed to control the way in which your keywords are matched to your customers’ searches. But you can choose which match type to use, even down to individual keywords. In this way, you can target only very precise traffic for your site, or choose to cast a wider net for traffic that comes from variations on the keywords on which you’re bidding.

Differences between the Match Types
The Advanced match type is the default setting in your account that displays your ad for a broad range of searches related to your keywords, ads or web content. Think of this type as the value that can offer increased reach. The Advanced match type may bring a lot of traffic flow to your site, but this might potentially decrease your targeting precision.

The Standard match type restricts the way your keywords match to user search terms. It restricts your ad to be displayed only for searches that are exact matches to your keywords, as well as for common variations and misspellings. You may want to consider this for some keywords and ad groups to help ensure you are getting clicks that are more relevant to your business.

Advanced Match Type Keywords should be Specific
Using the Advanced match type with generic keywords could land you in a world of hurt—right in the wallet. Because generic keywords can attract a high volume of searches, broadening the matching on those words can result in too many clicks where the searcher isn’t really interested in what you offer.

Let’s say you sell television sets. A specific keyword like “Brand X 42” plasma television” would probably attract the appropriate audience to your site. But a generic keyword like “television” may attract people who are interested in television repair or the history of television as a media.

Use Excluded Words
You may get increased traffic to your site while using the Advanced match type, but there are probably a handful of words or phrases that just don’t make good matches for your business. In keeping with the example from above, let’s say you sell television sets bit don’t repair them. You might then want to exclude your ad from appearing for searches that included the word “repair.”

Our excluded words feature enables you to block up to 250 words and phrases per ad group, or across your entire account. For more details on using excluded words, please read this earlier blog post or visit our Help Center.

Control Match Type at Every Level of Your Account
Setting the match type to Advanced at the account level will deliver broadly matched traffic throughout your entire account. However, even if your account-level setting is Advanced, you can selectively set certain campaigns or ad groups to receive Standard match type traffic only.

Finally, if you are a new advertiser you may not know right away which match type best suits your particular keywords. Thus, you may want to experiment with one or both match types before “setting and forgetting”.

— The Smart Start Team

Search Marketing for the Big Event

3 tips to capture more impressions and clicks through hot happenings

Between the presidential elections, the Olympics in Beijing, and NASA Messenger’s second flyby past Mercury, 2008 is a year of big events. Search marketers should take note.

Why? Because whether you’re dealing with a nationwide political decision, an international sports event, or a hot dog eating contest, “big events” can drive serious search activity. And if your business has a reason to connect with those “big event” searchers—say, you’re a political publication covering the presidential campaign, a sports magazine with Olympics coverage, or a hot dog vendor—you can use that event-driven search to engage those searchers in a meaningful conversation.

Here are three hot tips on how to start talking about that big event:

1. Don’t forget to add the keyword
If you’re hoping to capitalize on a big event, your first course of action should be to remember to advertise in search for that event to begin with.

This sounds obvious. But I can’t tell you how many sports sites with dedicated Olympics sections, news sites with Election ’08 coverage, and science and nature magazines with NASA Messenger images have failed to advertise on crucial event keywords like “candidates 2008” or “mercury photos.” Those businesses have ended up hidden on relevant search terms—and they’ve missed out on a window of opportunity.

Don’t lose out on these opportunities. If you offer something of value to a sudden influx of searchers, let them know about it by advertising the appropriate keywords Yahoo! Sponsored Search.

2. Beware of ambiguous terms
Search terms like “presidential candidates 2008” are clearly event-related. But other terms are more ambiguous. “Cycling,” for example, could represent a search for an Olympic bike race, or it could be a search from someone who wants to buy a bicycle or is planning a long bike ride of her own.

Since big events are short-lived and capture popular interest, big event search marketers face a real challenge from ambiguous keywords such as these. That’s because big events can create sudden, diverging meanings for the same term. On the July 4th weekend, a search for “hot dogs” might be a search for the processed meat (as it usually is year-round); but it might also be a search for übereater Takeru Kobayashi, in anticipation of the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Confusion—and wasted search spend—can ensue.

As a rule, your attitude toward ambiguous keywords should be determined by your search budget. The less you have to spend, the warier you should be of ambiguous event terms. If you’re interested in scale, though, advertising on those ambiguous terms may be a worthwhile gamble. You might attract a lot of bike shoppers to your Olympics pages, but you’ll capture a lot more Olympic cycling enthusiasts, too.

3. Say it with creative
If you do decide to advertise on ambiguous search terms, your ad should let searchers know exactly what you offer—and, by implication, what you don’t offer. For example, if your site features Olympics coverage and you’re advertising on the keyword “cycling,” make sure that your ad copy explains that you feature Olympics scores, articles, and videos—and not sales on Schwinns. “See Olympic Cycling Photos” might be a better ad title than simply “Cycling,” or even “Men’s Cycling.”

If you use your ad copy to tell searchers exactly what you offer, feature or sell, you’ll get fewer of the wrong kinds of searchers—and more of the right ones—clicking on your ad.

Do you have your own strategies for running search campaigns around a big event? Post your comments below. Maybe I’ll talk about your suggestions at my next conference…and then, of course, you could advertise in Yahoo! Sponsored Search around the event.

— Abe Mezrich, Communications Manager, Didit

Photo courtesy of David All via Flickr and Creative Commons

Don’t You Dare

What not to do with your search account

We’ve already nagged you plenty about the things that successful advertisers should do—and it isn’t just cleaning your room or taking out the trash.

But sometimes knowing what not to do is just as important. When it comes to creating and managing your ads, avoiding certain mistakes before you make them can save serious time and headaches down the road. Here’s a quick breakdown of the pitfalls to avoid, which should help you realize a better return on your investment, and help our users see better search results.

Content
Don’t bid on keywords for which you don’t offer content. While these tempting keywords may drive traffic to your site, they will almost certainly fail to convert into sales, not to mention tick off the users who clicked on your ad.Make sure you have substantial content that’s relevant to the keyword, rather than just a picture, search results or a link to another site.

Titles and descriptions
Don’t write titles and descriptions that are confusing, misleading or too subjective. Try to create concise titles and descriptions that accurately describe your site and give users a precise idea of what they’ll find there. Don’t include things like superlatives (”world’s greatest”), gimmicky language (“$$$”), exclamation points or words in all capital letters. Also, be sure to include correct spelling and grammar, write your titles in title case (capitalize the first letter of most words) and write your descriptions in regular sentence case.

URLs
Users need to be able to easily find what they’re looking for on your page, or they may decide to look elsewhere. So don’t submit landing page URLs that aren’t clearly relevant to your keywords or that lead to pages with nothing but ads or sponsored links. Make sure that users will be able to discern between your content and your ads. Avoid submitting landing pages with pop-ups, pop-unders or exit consoles. Make sure all landing pages allow users to use the back button of their browser.

Page Quality and Unacceptable Content
We’re concerned about the quality of our search results, so we try to only show ads that lead to information that’s valuable to users. We don’t accept ads leading to pages with inappropriate, deceptive, redundant or poor-quality content. Likewise, we may not accept ads relating to certain products or services or ads relating to areas of questionable legality. For more details please review our complete guidelines on page quality and unacceptable content.

By following these rules (or, depending on how you look at it, by not following them) you’ll help your account to have relevant keywords, targeted ads and URLs that lead users right to what you offer. It may be one of the few times in life when not doing something can have such positive results.

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Five Questions About Keywords

In which we answer queries from our recent 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. With this post about keywords we continue to share those questions and their answers with you.

Q: Is there a limit to the number of keywords you can have?

A: Advertisers can have as many as 1,000 ad groups per campaign, and 1,000 keywords and 20 ads per ad group. Our user interface allows you to add up to 500 keywords at a time. Keep in mind that while these are the maximum number of components you can have, you may want to consider the effort required to manage and track a large amount of keywords in each of your ad groups. As a general best practice, you may want to consider having only 20 keywords per ad group.

Q: Is there a tool I can use to find relevant keywords?

A: Your account offers several robust keyword generation tools. Just follow these steps:

1. Click the “Campaigns” tab.
2. Select a campaign.
3. Select an ad group.
4. Click the blue “+ Add Keywords” drop-down menu (next to the “Ads” tab).
5. Choose one of the three options and follow the instructions to generate or add new keywords to this ad group.

Your three methods to add keywords include:

1. “Quick Add,” which lets you simply type in keywords when you already know exactly which ones you want to add.
2.  “Choose from List,” where our system makes keyword selections that are related to current ads and keywords in the ad group—you just check the boxes next to the ones you want to add.
3. “Research Keywords,” where you enter words or phrases that describe the products or services on your website and our system offers keyword selections. You can also enter your site’s URL and our system will “crawl” the page and offer keyword suggestions.

Q: How should I organize my keywords in ad groups?

A: There are many different ways to organize keywords, but these three best practices can get you started:

• Make sure all keywords in an ad group are very closely related to one another. The “tighter” the ad group is, the more likely you are to write ads that relate to all of your keywords.
• Don’t put the same keywords in multiple ad groups, because they will compete against themselves. Two exceptions to this practice are using the same keywords in both geo-targeted and non-geo-targeted campaigns, or using the same keyword for different seasonal campaigns. For example, you can use the keyword “gift baskets” for both a Valentine’s Day campaign and a Mother’s Day campaign.
• Keep what’s working! Remove, or just move, low performers so they don’t negatively impact your ad quality and you don’t waste too much time monitoring them.

Q: Does the order of keywords matter? What about abbreviations, plurals and misspellings?

A: The order in which your keywords are added to you account does not matter. We look at plural, singular, and common misspellings as if they are the same term.

Q: How can I track the performance of my keywords?

A: The keyword performance report is available at the ad group level. Remember that historical information will not transfer to a new location when moving one keyword over to a new ad group or campaign.

— The Team