Archive for November, 2009

The 12 Weeks of Christmas: A Yahoo! Survey

When and what consumers will be buying this holiday season

It wouldn’t surprise anyone to know that the recession has changed the way consumers think about spending, but the question on your minds right now is likely, “How will it affect my holiday sales in 2009?”

To help answer that question, Yahoo! has worked with Decipher, Inc. to create the “12 Weeks of Christmas” Consumer Survey. The survey, conducted in October, polled 2587 online Americans. They told us when they’re planning to shop, what they plan to purchase across retail categories, where they plan to purchase, and what offers/promotions people are likely to take advantage of this holiday season. We’re broken it down a bit, to bring you the highlights:

Fears affect shopping
The majority of people polled (76%) said they were worried about the rising cost of basics such as gas, food and services. More than half (55%) said they felt the government isn’t doing enough to fix the economy and 52% of people polled said they that they were worried that the US won’t be able to get out of the recession. Almost half of people polled (48%) said they’re worried that something will happen to their income and they won’t be able to support their families.  So clearly the economy is weighs on consumers’ minds.

Read more on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

Enjoy the Silence (While You Can)

It’s your last chance to get your ads and campaigns ready for the oncoming holiday onslaught

You know that scene in a horror movie where someone says, “It’s quiet,” and someone else responds, “Yeah, too quiet.” You just know that something unbelievably loud and/or insane is about to happen.

Well that’s where we are now, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, enjoying a brief bit of silence before the holiday madness begins and all hell breaks loose. For some it may feel like we’re just barely past Halloween and still nowhere near the holidays, but nowadays “the holidays” begin the second that Halloween ends, and those who wait until after Thanksgiving to get their search marketing campaigns ready may be left in the dust come Friday.

To that end, we’ve put together a few holiday best practices that could help make your season (and your ads) a whole heck of a lot brighter:

Bejeweled
When it comes to jewelry, we have found that users are looking for personalized items. So if you offer them, be sure to call it out in your ads. We also found that users often respond better to jewelry ads that focus on the offering, rather than the business itself. It’s great if you’ve been around for 25 years, but since ad space is so limited, it’s really better to use that space to explain what you sell and why you’re a great choice for consumers.

‘Tis better to give…
For advertisers that sell food and flowers, we determined that users respond better to ads that put the focus on giving, rather than receiving. An ad suggesting that users treat themselves didn’t go over as well as an ad suggesting that a user could visit that site to find the perfect gift for someone. We’ve also noticed that sites that offer local delivery could be shooting themselves in the foot if they make it appear as if they only serve a very specific local area. If you have a local store but you sell nationally (or internationally), don’t limit yourself by putting your physical location into your ad. Doing so could cause users to assume that your service isn’t available to them.

Blips and bleeps
For ads concerning electronics and toys, consider veering away from listing high price points. Users may shy away from ads that offer items at price points that they consider high, even if the price is actually extremely competitive. It’s better to focus on other things, such as what promotions you offer, or the uniqueness of the item for sale. Your ad is the gateway to your site, and hanging a sign above the gateway that reads “what you want is expensive!” may deter some users.

In the case of price points that are lower, be sure to check the marketplace, to make sure they’re low enough. If your competitor’s ad states that they’re offering the item for $10 less than your ad states, it’s a no-brainer which ad the user will click on. Additionally, if you sell name-brand items, be sure to list them in your ad. While users are concerned with quality and prices, they also want to see the big names in ads, especially when it comes to electronics and other big ticket items.

Get into the spirit
Creating holiday themed ads is important to catching user eyes, but if your product or service isn’t particularly holiday-oriented, it’s even more important. Sites that sell something that isn’t completely related to the holidays but not totally unrelated (for example, a candle site) should consider specific, “holiday” themed ads, that will appeal to users searching around the holidays. The more relevant your ads are to the holidays, the better.

Tips for all seasons
Of course, the usual factors that help improve campaign performance still apply:

• Write clear, concise ads that point out exactly what products or services you offer.
• Take advantage of available character space in ads—why just say “We have ornaments” when you have enough room to say “We have ornaments at great prices”?
• Go easy on the jargon, and avoid copy like “lowest prices on the net” and “don’t pay too much!”
• Avoid noise words like “full time” and “online,” since anyone shopping on the Internet probably already knows that they’re online and can buy at any time, etc.
• Keep an eye on potential scope issues in your listings. Remember that broad keywords (i.e., “Christmas gifts”) should bring back broad results; for example, ads that stress the wide variety of potential Christmas gift items you offer. A general keyword (i.e., “iPod Touch”) should bring back highly specific ads offering the iPod Touch and not five other similar products.
• Make sure your holiday ads are all up to date and that they don’t reference the 2008 holidays, or special sales that have already ended, etc.
• Use keyword insertion, so that your keywords appear in your ads, making them instantly more relevant to users. Use alt text to make sure that those keywords appear in the ads correctly, in cases where you’d like to replace a keyword that’s too long for the ad, or for a purposefully misspelled keyword that you’d like have appear in the ad properly spelled.

Now more than ever, shoppers are actively seeking online deals and promotions that can save them money. This is why it’s so important to call out whatever special deals or promotions you may be offering for the holidays. Stuff like free shipping, gift wrapping, coupons, discounts, guaranteed Christmas delivery and any other deals you may offer really go a long way with consumers.

You know that the next six weeks are bound to be completely insane (in a good way), so now’s the time to get ready!

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Breaking News from Yahoo! News

Tabs allow news-junkies to get info, photos, video and the latest tweets on popular stories 

News flash! Today Yahoo! News announced enhancements to its Yahoo! News Shortcut. The enhanced shortcut with these new tabs will now display for many breaking or major news searches, and offers related content: News, photos, video and tweets from Twitter.

For example, check out the big story of the week: The national shortage of Eggo Waffles. Here’s what the new shortcut looks like.

For all the details, visit the Yahoo! Search Blog.

You’re Invited…

Attend our free display advertising webinar this Thursday to help enhance your search campaigns

Research shows that using display advertising can lift your company’s search activity by 155%. (Source: Specific Media; study leverages 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad effectiveness data ending August 2008, backed by comScore.) This coming Thursday, November 19, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, we invite you to join us for a free one-hour webinar that will demonstrate why adding display ads to your marketing mix can energize your search campaigns, and present an simple and quick way to get started in display.

The webinar will include a live product demo of Yahoo! My Display ads, an innovative display advertising solution that allows you to easily create your own banner ads, with no designer needed, and run them across the Yahoo! network in a matter of days.

In this webinar, you’ll also learn about:

• Yahoo!’s innovative display advertising and targeting solutions
• The benefits of combining search and display advertising
• Best practices for using display advertising
• How other business owners are succeeding with display advertising

You can register for the webinar here.

— The Team

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

One Shining Moment

Norton hits a three-pointer with college basketball tournament campaign on Yahoo! Mobile

According to sports pundits, “defense wins championships.” This maxim is often true for the annual championship tournament of college basketball, commonly known as “March Madness.” The security software leader Symantec plays a different type of defense, but one that is no less vital to its legions of fans and customers. Over the years, the company’s Norton products have built a legacy similar to those of college basketball powerhouses like UCLA and North Carolina.

During the 2009 tournament, Norton promoted a free trial of its new product, Norton Internet Security 2009, targeting Yahoo!’s highly engaged mobile audience. The goal of the campaign was to generate awareness of Norton’s performance improvements, and to capture email addresses to build its opt-in database. Like a Final Four “Cinderella” team, Norton’s mobile campaign far exceeded expectations, and provided important learnings for future promotions.

For more details, please visit the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

The Tooth about Dental Ads

Dentists—and doctors of all types—should drill down on these tips for writing healthy ad copy

Ah, the dentist. We put it off, we brush furiously to avoid it, but sooner or later we all wind up seeking out the man—or woman—in white.

When it comes to finding dental help, the Internet has made the thing easier, bringing local dentist info out of the yellow pages and onto our computer screens. But like anything else you search for online, there are a lot of possibilities out there. Dentists have to compete for attention online by creating strong search results that stand out and catch the eyes of users.

Given that, here are some tips that can help our dental advertisers put a polish on their search campaigns:

Get to the point
Ads for dentist offices (and all ads, really) should be direct and to the point, avoiding slogans, jargons and claims to fame. Lines like “We provide miles of smiles” may sound cute, but they don’t really explain what services you offer, and worse, they take up valuable real estate in your ad copy. Likewise, stuff like “As seen on WKTV local news” doesn’t have as strong an impact as titles and descriptions that clearly and precisely explain who you are and what you offer.

Additionally, we’ve noticed that specific dentist names don’t matter much to users. Rather than use up space by listing doctor names or degrees, dental advertisers should consider using that space to explain the services they offer, as well the location they service.

Please, think of the children
If you offer dental services to kids and your keywords are child-specific (i.e., “child dentist”) then your titles and descriptions should focus on children, even if you also serve adults. Make sure your “child” info comes early in your ad copy, because anyone searching on child dental keywords will absolutely be looking for it.

Also, make sure your ads for children keywords make sense for children. Ads for “children’s dentist” may flounder if they’re full of references to tooth whitening, dental implants or other services that children generally don’t need. Lastly, make sure that your ad copy doesn’t clash with the keyword. People may be deterred if they search on “kid dentist” and get back a result that offers things like “sexy smiles.”

Pinpoint your location
Since the majority of dental advertisers offer local services, it’s a good idea to mention your service area in your titles and descriptions, even if your ads are already geo-targeted to that area. However, make sure that your service area is clear to users: If you live in a highly recognizable city, that’s easy enough, but if the city you work out of is lesser known, simply listing that city name may deter users who aren’t familiar with it. Adding a state name or the name of a more recognizable city that’s close by may help users place your location.

And, as always…
All types of advertisers should use keyword insertion to make sure that users’ keywords appear in your ad copy, as well as alt text to make sure that they appear just the way you want them. Write ads in sentence form and avoid “shopping list” copy that simply lists the services you offer. Avoid redundant or repeated words that make ads read poorly. Don’t use abbreviations that aren’t typically well known; abbreviating words just to save space may confuse and deter users. Simply put, make your titles and descriptions concise, to the point, and clearly indicative of who you are and what you’re offering.

In the end, your ads are a lot like your teeth: A little maintenance and care will help keep them in great shape. So when you have a chance, give your ads the check-up they deserve.

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Pricing Adjustments Working, Say Experts

YSM CTRs way up, CPCs and CPAs down as compared to AdWords, according to Covario blog

The Actionable Insights blog, published by marketing analytics software maker Covario, is reporting that Yahoo! Search Marketing’s September change to the way pricing discounts are determined is having a significantly positive impact for advertisers. Blogger Craig Macdonald and team looked at Covario client data  to determine whether the launch of the new discounting was working as intended, and found that the answer was clearly “Yes.”

Macdonald reports that (looking at a four-week period before and after the discounts were enhanced) click-through rates on Yahoo! Search Marketing ads were up 46%, while only up 5% on Google AdWords ads during same time period. Covario also found that cost-per-click on Yahoo! fell by 29% during this time, while being down only 10% on Google.  Finally, Covario found that cost-per-acquisition on YSM is down a full 11% since the launch.

More details can be found at the Actionable Insights blog.

— The Team

Never Stop Learning

Upcoming free YSM webinars can help you save money and become a smarter advertiser

The calendar may say November, but now’s the time to go back to school, whether you are already a Yahoo! Search Marketing advertiser or just thinking about becoming one. That’s because you can attend one—or more—of our upcoming one-hour webinars, which are designed to educate, inform and improve your online marketing skills.

Here is the schedule:

Holiday Best Practices 2009 Webinar
Beginner Advertiser Webinar: Tuesday, November 10 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Advanced Advertiser Webinar: Thursday, November 12 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Yahoo!’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Overview and Search Best Practices Web Conference will cover the following topics:

• Review of 2008 holiday shopping data
• Review of 2008 consumer search trends
• Holiday campaign best practices

Click here to sign up for the beginning advertisers’ webinar, or here to sign up for the advanced advertisers’ webinar.

Getting Started with Marketing in Search Engines Webinar
When: Wednesday, November 18 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time

In this webinar, designed for new advertisers and those considering becoming an advertiser, we’ll cover the following topics:

• How search engine marketing works, and why your company should be advertising in search engines.
• How to set up a Yahoo! Sponsored Search account, ads and campaigns. We’ll use a live demonstration to illustrate how easy it is to get your ads online.
• How additional Yahoo! advertising vehicles, such as display ads, can complement your SEM efforts.
• Why and how using search engine marketing can drive your results this holiday season.

You can register for this webinar here.

Display Advertising Webinar
When: Thursday, November 19 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Research shows that using display advertising can lift your company’s search activity by 155%. (Source: Specific Media; study leverages 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad effectiveness data ending August 2008, backed by comScore.)

In this webinar, you’ll learn about:

• Yahoo!’s innovative display advertising and targeting solutions
• The benefits of combining search and display advertising
• Best practices for using display advertising
• How other business owners are succeeding with display advertising

You can register for this webinar here.

— Jeff Hecox

Ad News and View from Around the Web

Yahoo! front page success; improving your search performanceYahoo! (still) hearts creatives; holiday sales success, and more

Time spent on Yahoo! front page up 20 percent since redesign
Eric Schonfeld over at TechCrunch reports from Yahoo! Analyst Day on the success of our new front page. Writes Schonfeld: “Senior vice president Tapan Bhat gave an overview of how the redesigned homepage is performing. In the past three months, pageviews are up 9 percent, and time spent on the homepage is up 20 percent…  Some of the big drivers of user engagement come from the ability to customize the homepage by adding applications and feeds from anywhere on the Web into the My Favorites column on the left-hand side. According to Yahoo consumer surveys, 75 percent of users love the applications area and 40 percent are using between 6 to 11 apps. Usage of that feature is up 8 percent over the past three months.” Not bad, if you did say so ourselves.

Improving your search performance
Thinking ahead to 2010, Search Engine Land’s Michelle Stern says that you, the B2B marketer, can improve your search results next year by following three relatively simple rules.

“Yahoo! Hearts Creatives” video a hit
We do indeed speak your language, agency creatives. A few weeks ago we unleashed the Yahoo! Hearts Creatives video—originally created as an in-house marketing vehicle—on the general agency public. Since then, it’s gotten rave reviews and is appearing embedded on sites all over. Check out some of the comments, and feel free to leave one of your own. Meanwhile, a Leo Burnett exec asks, “is strategy the new creative?.”

Holiday sales success secrets
Sometimes, you don’t realize the truth of an obvious bit of advice until it’s put in front of you—you know, one of those “I should have thought of that” moments. Last week we posted five tips and tricks for making your holiday season successful in a tough economy based on Yahoo! research. Nothing groundbreaking here, just common sense you don’t realize is common until someone mentions it.

Tips for using Yahoo! Site Explorer
ClickZ’s Erik Dafforn, offers several tips on Yahoo! Site Explorer, a comprehensive set of tools that help you, for starters, explore all the Web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. You might want to put your propeller beanie on for this one. To explore Explorer, explore here.

Five ways to optimize your Facebook marketing
While everyone’s whining about the new Facebook look and feel, marketers should take a second to look at Daniel Flamberg’s post over at iMedia Connection. For marketers, says Flamberg, “Facebook isn’t a cakewalk.” He then offers five solid tips on how to make the best of it.