Advertisers, Begin Your Account Transitions

You’ll be ready for the expected October move of Yahoo! Search ad serving to adCenter

Last week, we completed the transition of the back-end technology for English-language Yahoo! organic search results in the U.S. and Canada. This week, advertisers can start transitioning their paid Yahoo! Search Marketing account, in anticipation of the Yahoo! ad serving transition which we expect to start mid-October. We encourage you to transition your account before the ad serving transition begins, so that you are ready to reach more than 159 million searchers in the U.S. and 15 million searchers in Canada* on Yahoo! Search, Bing and our partners.

Start your account transition now
Beginning today, you may log in to your Yahoo! Search Marketing account and initiate your transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter. We’ve created a detailed Transition Checklist that you should review now, to help ensure that you’re prepared to make a smooth transition to adCenter, as well as a Feature Comparison Guide, to help you get familiar with adCenter’s features and capabilities.

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Yahoo! Organic Search Transition to Microsoft Now Complete

What this means for you

Big news from the Yahoo! Search blog today—we’ve completed the work of transitioning certain back-end functions for Yahoo! Search over to the Microsoft platform.

So what does this mean for you? As we noted in an earlier post, if ranking well in organic search results is important to your business, here are three tips for you:

1. Review your organic search rankings on Yahoo! Search for the keywords that work best for you and note any differences in your rank, now that the results are being powered by Bing.
2. Decide if you’d like to modify your paid search campaigns to compensate for any changes in organic referrals that you anticipate.
3. Review the Bing webmaster tools and optimize your website for the Microsoft platform crawler, as Bing listings will be displayed for approximately 30% of search queries after this change, according to comScore.

For more on the organic search transition, see the FAQs for self-service advertisers at the Yahoo! Transition Center.

— The Team

Important Updates on Search Transitions

Organic transition beginning this week; paid search transition testing happening now

As we continue to work toward implementing the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, we’ve reached some very significant milestones and wanted to share this important news with you.

Yahoo! organic search transition to begin
Later this week, we will begin the work of transitioning the back-end technology for Yahoo! Search over to the Bing platform. This is an important step toward our goal of improving the overall relevance of Yahoo! organic search results and attracting a larger audience to Yahoo! Search, to ultimately put your ads in front of more potential customers.

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A Virtual Yahoopalooza at SES

Meet top Yahoos at Search Engine Strategies, San Francisco, August 17–19

This is going to be fun.

Search Engine Strategies, the undisputed Lollapalooza of search marketing conferences, comes to San Francisco for the first time next week. Along with thousands of marketers and agency professionals with whom to network and schmooze, the conference offers opportunities to learn search marketing strategies for all levels from entry to over-experienced.

And Yahoo! will be there in force, because search is a part of our core being, woven throughout the Yahoo! Network, helping you reach audiences at a vast scale.

What: Search Engine Strategies
Where: Moscone Center, San Francisco
When: August 17 – 19, 2010
Why: Because search marketing is ever-evolving and you’d better evolve with it if you’re going to keep your results on top—and because you’ll have a swell time meeting and greeting others in this vibrant field

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Back-to-School Ad Tips

Adjust your ads and keywords for maximum results this shopping season

It might seem like summer just started, but, as always, consumer minds soon turn to what comes next. Before you know it, summer fun ends, and kids and adults alike have to prepare to go back to school.

Back-to-school is big
According to the National Retail Foundation’s 2010 Back-to-School survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average American family is planning to increase its back-to-school spending to $606.40 this year, up from $548.72 in 2009. And, according to the survey, 30.8% of families plan to do their back-to-school shopping online this year.

The Yahoo! Buzz Index shows that searches for “back to school” and related keywords rise dramatically in July and peak in August. This is when people are most on the lookout for school supplies like textbooks, laptop computers, backpacks, uniforms, calculators, dorm accessories, fashionable teen clothing and more.

Give shoppers their own back-to-school assignment
Want to know a surprising fact? Online back-to-school shoppers love deadlines—in a way. Just think: Remember all those nights you spent cramming for the big test or writing that term paper the night before it was due? Consumers can feel the same way about making “un-fun” purchases.

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Geo vs. Geo

A mysterious stranger offers direction on geographical targeting

Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising.

Originally posted January 9, 2009

The following account is a work of fiction. It is the product of too many minutes staring at a blank page, too many Triple Mochas, or perhaps both. But the points it makes about geographical targeting are real, and should be applied to your Sponsored Search account.

The assignment came in from the blog editor: Write a post that explains the differences between the use of the geo-targeting tools in a Yahoo! Search Marketing account, and using “geo-modified” keywords.

At first consideration, this task seemed simple. I was very familiar with both concepts. The geo-targeting tools, which we introduced with the “Panama” platform in 2006 (and enhanced in October 2008), let you target customers located or interested in specific geographical areas. If you want to reach all Canadians, you select Canada. Or you can narrow your geo-targeting all the way down to reach Brandon and Brenda in zip code 90210.

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A Look Ahead at the Transition to Microsoft adCenter

The latest update on the search alliance, and what advertisers will be doing once the transition window opens

As we approach the beginning of the Yahoo! Search Marketing account transitions to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform, we wanted to share more details on what self-service advertisers will be doing to prepare for the changes to come. Here are some things to begin thinking about:

adCenter account creation
Soon, you’ll need to either create a new adCenter account, or link an existing adCenter account to your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. Later this month, advertisers will see an “adCenter” tab within their Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts. Clicking there will take you to the beginning of the account transition process, where we’ll walk you through the simple steps to create or link accounts.

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Building a Foundation with Strong Keywords

Go wide—with a range of specific and general words and phrases

Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising.

Originally posted February 3, 2009

[Below 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.]

Want to increase your conversion numbers? You may need to consider bidding on more specific keywords that contain things like the brands you sell and even specific model numbers. This will appeal to searchers who are closer—or ready—to purchase.

Start by looking online—and thinking like a customer
One of the best and easiest places to begin scouting out keywords is right on your web site. Look through all your pages and pick out the words that are most relevant and interesting to your customers.

• Put yourself in searchers’ shoes to come up with all of the possible ways they might be looking for what you offer.
• Consider bidding on keywords for your most profitable products and services first to spend most effectively within your budget.
• Think about what you want your customers to do (like become better informed or make a purchase).
• Review your competitors’ web sites to see what kinds of words they use to talk to customers
• Use the Find Keywords panel, on the left side of the Choose Keywords page in your account, to get possible keywords that relate to the products and services you want to promote.
• For a more advanced way to find keywords, check your web server logs. These logs can tell you what your site visitors are searching for and how they navigate through your web pages.

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Ad News and Views from Around the Web

Online spending up double digits; tweeting at Harvard Biz; hitting the Hispanic market; giggling for Yahoo!, and more

Online ad spending up
Here’s a little silver lining for agencies and publishers: Online ad spending will see double-digit growth, reaching $61.8 billion worldwide this year and $96.8 billion in 2014, according to an eMarketer report cited by AdWeek. Hopefully that rising tide will lift all boats.

Business schools heart social media
You knew it would come to this. One minute you’re tweeting just for fun about how yummy that bagel was this morning, and the next you’re running a comprehensive social media campaign that “leverages the power of peer-to-peer networks to optimize brand evangelism and foment expanded sales opportunities” for your company. Now it’s official, because B-schools like Harvard and Columbia are offering bit-ticket courses in social media marketing, according to BusinessWeek.

What’s more important? Your keywords or landing pages?
Not surprisingly, the answer is that they’re both vital to your efforts. So says Dan Darnell, director of product marketing at Adchemy. Writing on Adotas, Darnell says that too many advertisers focus on either their paid search ads or their websites, when they should be looking at “the contributions of the entire advertising experience—from keyword selection to bids to ad copy to landing pages.” It’s only obvious after someone takes the time to point it out.

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Free Ship = Good Tip

It’s the wonder offer that works wonders for your sales

Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising.

Originally posted February 13, 2009

When I was a kid, my grandfather always used to say, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” He’s still right, but today the word “free” doesn’t raise as much of red flag as it did in Gramps’ day. In fact, more and more consumers are recognizing the value of free, especially when it comes to their online purchases and how they’re shipped. Because when it comes to shipping, “free” can be the key that unlocks the door between advertisers and customers.

Determining factor
According to a new study of 9,000 shoppers conducted by ForeSee Results, free shipping had a huge effect on holiday sales in 2008. The study showed that free shipping offers play a major role in whether consumers buy in a store or online, and, when purchasing online, where they shop. Avoiding shipping costs was the third most common response for why shoppers choose to buy in a store rather than on a retail website, behind the ability to receive the product immediately and being able to see or feel an item before purchase.

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