Posts filed under 'Events'

Yahoo! at Search Marketing Strategies

Join us in New York for search’s annual big event

Well, it’s not quite the Oscars, but as far a search goes, Search Engine Strategies is it. Yahoo! will be there, natch—because you know we invented this officious oracle thingy, right?—and we’ll be working the crowd, pressing the flesh and offering you all the tips and tricks you need to be better at what you do.

According to the SES New York website, some 5,000 marketers and search engine optimization professionals attend each year to network and learn about topics such as PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more.

What:  Search Engine Strategies NYC
Where: Hilton, New York
When: March 22 to 26, 2010
Why?: Because you need to know if you’re in search

Here’s a selection of sessions where Yahoos will be speaking:

Tuesday, March 23

The State of Search: Where to Next?
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

Digital Asset Optimization
Wendi Sturgis, Partner Management Group, Yahoo!

Search Analytics: Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers
Dennis R. Mortensen, Director of Data Insights, Yahoo!

Search on the Edge: From Real-Time Search to Dynamic Discovery
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

Developing Great Content
Wendi Sturgis, Partner Management Group, Yahoo!

Advanced Issues: Advanced Paid Search Tactics
Rob Wilk, National Director of Search Optimization & Strategy, Yahoo!

Advanced Issues: Ads in a Quality Score World
David Miller, Director, Product Management, Yahoo!

Thursday, March 25

Advanced Issues: Advanced Paid Search Tactics
Rob Wilk, National Director of Search Optimization & Strategy, Yahoo!

Advanced Issues: Ads in a Quality Score World
David Miller, Director, Product Management, Yahoo!

— The Team

4A’s Conference Round-Up

Trends and tips from the smartest minds in advertising

This week, your indefatigable Yahoo! Advertising correspondents went on a field trip to the 4A’s “Transformation 2010” conference in San Francisco. (Those 4A’s stand for the American Association of Advertising Agencies.) While there, we did old the meet and greet, tweeted, and posted to Facebook our take-aways from some the smartest minds in the advertising world. We even did a little live blogging and took some video, too. (Lookin’ good, Carol!)

For a round-up of some the most interesting sessions, switch over to the Yahoo! Advertising blog.

Five Ways Advertisers Can Save Time

Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop simplifies multiple campaign management

If you’re an advertiser running more than one campaign, you will probably welcome the new Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, a free offline tool that lets you spend less time on the tactical details of campaign management, and more on increasing your return-on-investment.

With Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, it now takes just a few clicks to modify multiple campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads at the same time. And if you get carried away, you can even undo selected changes with no harm done.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop puts an intuitive face on five major campaign management tasks:

• Bulk editing: Easily make mass changes to settings such as status, match types and budgets within an intuitive interface; increase or decrease multiple keyword bids; and export your view of keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns into Excel for use however you wish.
• Campaign transfer: Import your third-party campaign data in one easy step.
• Keyword research: Use our keyword suggestion engine to find and add new, relevant keywords to your campaigns; get URL-based keyword suggestions to increase your keyword relevance and improve your performance; and export the keyword suggestions into Excel to share this information or to add tracking URLs.
• Find, replace and search: Find and replace text in ads, keywords, ad groups and campaigns; search for specific campaigns, ad groups, ads, or keywords in your account; or search for information in any of the account tabs.
• Account performance statistics: Retrieve status and statistics for your account’s impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, ad quality scores and other information.

By using Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop you’ll have more time to analyze campaign performance, test your ads, and do all the other things that can help make campaigns succeed. Or, you could go do something else entirely!

Ready to get started? Download the free Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, or register now for a webinar that will introduce you to the tool and its benefits.

–-Chris Marlowe, Staff Writer

(Stopwatch image by Casey Marshall via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Yahoolympics scores 17.5 million fans

Yahoo! attracts largest online Olympic audience, Feb. 8 to 14

Whether it’s figure skating, freestyle skiing , snowboarding, hockey, or this year’s big game, curling, Winter Olympics fans are turning online in record numbers. And Yahoo!—the single most visited site for the Winter Olympics—is winning the gold in terms of unique visitors.

Yahoo’s Olympics site attracted 9.3 million unique visitors from February 8 to 14, according to comScore. That’s the largest online Olympics audience for the period, which included the Opening Ceremony and the first three days of competition, while Yahoo! Sports attracted more than 17.5 million unique visitors. Yahoo’s Olympics site surpassed both NBC’s Olympics site (6.5 million unique visitors) and ESPN (8.4 million unique visitors) during the same period.

For more, visit the Yahoo! Advertising blog.

(Curling image by bensonkua via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Catch the Revenue Wave

Ecosystem 2.0 conference explores profiting from interactivity

All the big names in online advertising are surfing to Southern California for Ecosystem 2.0, which this year is focused on the theme of “Revenue: The Next Wave.” The annual conference brings together the smartest and most influential of online advertising’s kahunas, so naturally Yahoo! will be there hanging ten when it kicks off on Sunday, Feb. 21.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the event’s main sponsor, says the focus will be on figuring out how to deliver on the profit potential promised by interactivity.

Award-winning event
We’re particularly proud that Yahoo! is receiving the award for “Most Innovative” interactive media sales organization. Seth Dallaire, Yahoo! Vice President of Mid-Market Sales, will accept the honor on behalf of everyone at Yahoo! whose hard work combined inventive ideas about content, advertising solutions and data usage to create new, long-lasting revenue streams for its advertiser and publishing partners.

Another highlight of Ecosystem 2.0 is “The Great Debate” on Feb. 23. This annual spotlight brings together the guiding lights of online advertising to share their expert opinion on every aspect of a hot topic, which this year is: “RESOLVED: I Own the Data.”

The debate’s four speakers include Yahoo! Vice President of U.S. Partnerships, Ramsey McGrory. He’s really involved in how Yahoo! gathers, handles, utilizes, analyzes and protects incredible amounts of digital data, so he’s the perfect person to explain how we’re delivering value for Yahoo! advertising and publisher partners while retaining respect for privacy and addressing other concerns.

Yahoo! is adding some special touches to lunch on Feb. 22, too—as if three days at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad isn’t special enough! Just don’t forget the sunblock and surf wax.

What: IAB’s Ecosystem 2.0
When: Feb. 21 to 23, 2010
Where: La Costa Resort and Spa, Carlsbad, Calif.
Why: Because you look a little pale and could use some sunshine

—Chris Marlowe

(Surfer image courtesy mikebaird via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Yahoo! Network Distribution and Import Campaigns Webinar

Please join us Feb. 4, 2010 for this free and informative Sponsored Search webinar

We’re offering this free webinar for our Sponsored Search customers, covering two important features: Network Distribution and Import Campaigns.

The Network Distribution feature allows you to target marketing campaigns to the entire Yahoo! Network, including Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Partners. Learn how you can control where your ads appear, use reporting to help you optimize your settings, and adjust your bids, as well as how to set premiums based on the traffic most valuable to you.

The Import Campaigns feature allows you to import your Google AdWords campaign data into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. Learn how the tool can help you to import your AdWords campaign data, so you can leverage the insights and know-how from your Google campaign data for your Yahoo! campaigns.

To enter the webinar on February 4, you will need the password you created when you registered.

When: Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, 11 A.M., Pacific Time
Where: The Internet—go here to register
Why: Because it’s great stuff to know for improving your campaigns and results

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

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

Not Just Turkey and Santa

Cut through the glut of typical holiday messages by promoting these offbeat holidays in November and December

’Tis the holiday season again—and I don’t just mean the major ones like Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like focusing on the more obscure holidays, like National Rad Tech Week, Sandwich Day and National Tie Month.

These are some of the special months, weeks and days that business organizations or Congress have designated to promote various causes. Depending on your business, you might be able to turn these offbeat holidays into a new ad campaign and ring up some extra cash. Below are some examples:

In November for example, booksellers have a number of offbeat days to choose from, including Indian American Heritage Month, National Young Reader’s Week (Nov. 9 – 15), National Bible Week (Nov. 22 – 29), National Game and Puzzle Week (Nov. 22 – 28), National Author’s Day (Nov. 1) and National Young Readers Day (Nov. 10).

Food and desert retailers have plenty of marketing choices in November, as well. These include: American Diabetes Month, National Georgia Pecan Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pomegranate Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month, Vegan Month, Sandwich Day (Nov. 3), National Men Make Dinner Day (Nov. 5), National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (Nov. 7), World Diabetes Day (Nov. 14), Homemade Bread Day (Nov. 17) and Turkey-Free Thanksgiving (Nov. 26).

Here are a sampling of other specially designated dates in November and December that, with a little creativity, you might be able to organize a search marketing campaign around:

November:
National Adoption Month
National AIDS Awareness Month
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week (Nov. 1 – 7)
Intimate Apparel Market Week (Nov. 2 – 6)
World Toilet Day (Nov. 19)

December:
World AIDS Month
Spiritual Literacy Month
Cookie Cutter Week (Dec. 1 – 7)
National Hand Washing Awareness Week (Dec. 6 -12)
World AIDS Day (Dec. 1)
National Dice Day (Dec. 4)
Poinsettia Day (Dec. 12)

Best of luck with your campaigns, and happy holidays!

— Colin Kingston, Listings Editor

Ad News and Views from Around the Web

Altered ad ethics; tweeting for fun and profit; get your phone to yodel; marketing that breeds like bunnies, and more

Should altered photo ads carry warning labels?
“Truth in advertising” is mandated by the Federal Trade Commission. And we’re all for it. But what if an ad does not contain an explicit promise—such as “contains zero grams of fat”—but merely an implied one? What if the ad is just an image of a pretty girl or boy plus a brand name? New York Times columnist Randy Cohen (“The Ethicist”) thinks ads that use digital enhancements to make fashion models look so thin they seem in desperate need of a sandwich should carry the equivalent of a warning label.

Tweet all about it!
Unless you live in L.A. or have an expense account fat enough for your company to fly you there, you’re probably missing the 140 Character Conference (#140), yesterday and today. Well, never fear, Twitter is here. Follow the Tweets by conference-goers, including our own Jeff Sweat.

Dialing for yodels
OK, most phones don’t actually “ring” anymore. They chirp, ping, buzz, vibrate, and sing “Crazy Train” or just about any other song. But now you can get your phone to actually yodel. Not only that, you can make it yodel in just about any style you want: hip-hop, a cappella, R&B, reggae, bluegrass, what-have-you. To get your own yodel and for info on other Yahoo! innovations this week, click over to Yodel Anecdotal.

Oh, the stories they could tell
Over at Search Engine Land, Ciarán Norris talks about the best (and worst) stories that brands have told via social media.

Viral marketing…with Bunnies!
Here’s a quick case study on how to make your viral marketing breed like rabbits: At the recent premier of “Rabbit Fever,” a funny documentary about competitive bunny breeders, the producers gave out bunny ears to everyone in the theater, and took photos. Then they put the photos on Flickr, knowing that everyone in the audience on Facebook or Twitter or with a blog would post about it (like we are right now). Talk about cheap, effective viral marketing. (Full disclosure: The author of this post was in that audience. See if you can find him in his rabbit ears on Flickr.)

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