3-Minute Drill

New video gives you the keys to search advertising

We’re all pressed for time—why, just by reading this sentence you’ve lost five seconds that you’ll never get back.

But spending some time to become a more educated search marketer is time well spent, because it can pay off with more sales for your business at a lower advertising cost. By taking just three minutes out of your day to watch the linked video from our friends at Forbes.com, you can receive some sage advice from several industry experts, including our own Patrizio Spagnoletto (try saying that three times fast—we just call him “Pato”).

The video includes tips on writing effective ads, choosing the right keywords and using geo-targeting. OK, your three-minute crash course begins now… .

— Jeff Hecox

Knowing Right from Wrong

5 secrets for managing keywords in your account

Picking keywords can be a daunting task. After all, how do you know which ones will work before you start using them?

The keys to success here are to experiment with a variety of keywords, and to craft a strategy that reflects what you offer and attracts your target customers. The Customer Solutions representatives I work with on a daily basis often work with advertisers who have gone down the wrong keyword path, and they’re very skilled at helping them get back on track. So it was only logical that I ask them for best practices when managing keywords. Here are their five secrets:

1. Consider Your Customer
There are two kinds of shopping searchers. First you have the window shoppers, who are just starting their search, are browsing different models, comparing prices and haven’t yet made a decision. Then there are those who are ready to buy. These searchers will most likely search on a specific model, and are looking for the lowest price and perks like free shipping.

When you are putting together a campaign, put yourself in the searcher’s shoes. Focus less on what you have to promote, and more on exactly who your target audience is, what they are searching for, how they are searching for it, and what they might type into a search box to find it. Consider all the facts about your purchase events, then work backward through the process to determine the keywords buyers would likely use.

2. Go High and Low
Many advertisers use both expensive, high-volume keywords and low-volume, “long tail” keywords. To make account management easier, we recommend using separate ad groups for high-volume and low-volume keywords.

Why? If you have a mix of high- and low-volume keywords in the same ad group, it may hurt your quality index score, which is based on the performance of the ad group as a whole. Also, using separate ad groups will make it easier to see which ads and keywords are working, and which aren’t.

3. Try Branding and Niche Marketing
High-volume keywords offer the opportunity for branding efforts, because you could receive a bunch of impressions but a lower click-through rate. As you know, with Sponsored Search, you don’t pay for impressions, so you can use them in part simply to get your name into the eyeballs of prospective customers. Low-volume keywords don’t offer the same branding potential, but their conversion rates can be higher.

4. Know the Wrong Keywords
Just because you offer a certain product or service does not mean you should bid on that term.

For example, consider an advertiser that sells all kinds of karaoke equipment. This advertiser bids on the term “subwoofer” — but the reality is that most people searching for a subwoofer aren’t going to buy it from a karaoke dealer, so these may be wasted clicks. If this advertiser really wanted to find subwoofer customers, adding a modifier to the keyword (example: “karaoke subwoofer”) might be helpful, so people know up front what is being offered, rather than having to click to find out that it’s not what they want.

5. Don’t Ignore the Obvious
Sometimes the most obvious keywords are the ones that advertisers end up forgetting, such as bidding on their brand name, domain name and variations thereof. If someone hears or sees your company name somewhere and can’t remember the exact wording, they may type in a phonetical spelling hoping to find your site. So you’ll have to think like a customer to figure out what they’ll type.

Tools You Can Use
Yahoo! offers a collection of tools to help you come up with keyword ideas. By clicking on the “+Add Keywords” link, you will get a drop-down menu with three options for adding keywords: Quick Add, Quick List and Research Keywords. You can get more info on these handy tools in our Help Center.

— Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager

Click Investigation Just Got Easier

Be sure to check out the new features of the Traffic Quality Center

We take traffic quality seriously at Yahoo!, which is why we’ve updated our Traffic Quality Center with features that make it easier for you to find answers and get resolutions for traffic quality issues.

The updates include:
• A submission form to initiate a click investigation
• ”Ask Ace“: A new question-and-answer column written by one of our traffic quality experts. 
• Animation on the homepage highlighting our stance on “bad clicks.” Refresh your browser to watch different versions.

Dealing with Traffic Spikes
So, what should you do if you see an unexpected increase in clicks or impressions? Under the Click Investigation Tab at the Traffic Quality Center, you’ll now find information to help you troubleshoot click spikes, plus, a form that will let you submit an request for an investigation by Yahoo!.

Of course, it’s normal for click or impression volume to fluctuate in many keyword markets. These fluctuations can be based on a variety of market conditions or changes to your campaign or account. Here are examples of different things that could cause a spike in impressions or clicks:

• Changes to an ad’s ranking in search results
• A change to the match type used for your ads
• Keyword seasonality
• A new distribution partner added to the Yahoo! network
• Yahoo! Buzz placement, where searches on certain popular keywords can be performed directly from the page content. 
• Yahoo! Front Page placement, where searches on certain popular keywords can be performed directly from the page content

We hope that these enhancements to the Traffic Quality Center will help you understand and manage your Yahoo! Sponsored Search traffic better.

— Reggie Davis, VP, Marketplace Quality

You’re #1! (But Should You Be?)

5 steps to make sure you’re bidding for the right place

It’s a fairly well known fact that the higher your search listing appears on a page of results, the more likely users are to see it. In search marketing, a general rule-of-thumb is to get the best possible placement you can for your ads. Consequently, everyone covets that top spot.

But—surprise! There are times when being number one not only doesn’t help, it might actually hurt you. In the “search marketing marathon,” it’s not always necessary to win the race—simply running it well is more than enough to provide great results for your campaigns. (We should also note that there are plenty of times when you do want to be number one. When that is depends upon your business.) Here are five ways to help make sure you’re bidding to the right place:

1. Bid To Your Budget
Though it’s always nice to be number one, if you use up your entire daily budget with three clicks, is it really worth it? When you’re managing a limited budget, you may want to set your bids at reasonable levels that will stretch your funds further and allow your ads to display for a longer amount of time throughout the day. If your bids are high enough to maintain decent placement but low enough to keep from reaching your spending limits, you should be more than satisfied with the results.

2. Keep “Ego Bidding” in Check
For some keywords the only reward you’ll get for top placement is bragging rights. Highly competitive but very general keywords often wind up being expensive and poorly converting—truly, the worst of both worlds. While it’s natural to want to see your business show up first in search results, it’s a moot point if it winds up being expensive and you have nothing to show for it.

3. Avoid Budget Saturation
When you have an unlimited budget, it’s tempting to spend whatever it takes to maximize visibility and have all your ads appear in top spots. While this would increase traffic, it may decrease your conversion rates. It’s better to pay for top placement on the keywords that get the job done, and let your lower converting keywords hang out in lower positions in search results.

4. Go Where the Conversions Are
Your real goal should be to find the optimal position that drives the maximum number of conversions. Sometimes that may be the number one spot, but it doesn’t have to be. If your ads are converting just as well in a lower position, why pay more? Using our ad testing feature will show you which ads work and where, and help determine if you really need to be in the top spot for a particular keyword.

5. Mind the Season
In some cases, top placement may only be necessary on a seasonal basis. For example, a site that sells home décor would absolutely want their ads to garner the prime spot for keywords like “christmas decorations” when the holidays roll around. But is it necessary to be number one on “christmas decorations” in July?Lowering your bids for seasonal keywords is one way to avoid paying unnecessarily for keywords that aren’t likely to convert during 10 months out of the year. Instead, create holiday-specific campaigns that can be turned on during the season in question and then off when the season ends.

—Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

The Choice is Yours

There’s more than one way to optimize your ad performance

Want your account to run the ads that work best for you? Our ad optimization feature automatically displays the Sponsored Search ads that perform the best—based on how you choose to measure ad performance.

We know that not everyone measures success the same way. For example, you might want to optimize for ads that deliver conversions more frequently.

Fortunately, you have control over the way ad optimization works, because you can choose from one of several guidelines to determine your highest-performing ads in a campaign or ad group. You can choose to optimize your ads for:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Conversions
• Revenue

Optimizing for conversions or revenue requires use of our conversion-only or full analytics feature. If you have analytics turned on and your site is tagged, the system will default to conversions or revenue, but you can change your settings.

Not seeing the link for campaign optimization? It’s probably because it is an advanced feature that is currently available to our higher spending advertisers only. When your account reaches a certain spend level, the feature is automatically enabled in your account.

How to Change Campaign Optimization Settings
Follow these steps to change the ad optimization guidelines for a campaign:
1. Click the “Campaigns” tab.
2. Select a campaign.
3. Click the “Campaign Settings” button.
4. Next to “Campaign Optimization Guidelines”, click “edit”.
5. Choose the guidelines you wish to use.
6. Click “Save Changes”.

Follow these steps to change the ad optimization guidelines for a specific ad group:
1. Click the “Campaigns” tab.
2. Select a campaign.
3. Select an ad group
4. Click the “Ad Group Settings” button.
5. Next to “Ad Group Optimization Guidelines”, click “edit”.
6. On the “Define Ad Group Optimization Guidelines” page, choose the guidelines you wish to use.
7. Click “Save Changes”.

Now all you have to do is decide which performance guideline makes the most sense for you.

— Jeff Hecox

Riding the Wave

Case Study: How Internet marketing company Wave Direct helped its client increase leads by 50%

It took more than a 90-minute presentation to convince a new client to step out of its marketing comfort zone. But for Internet marketing firm Wave Direct, it was a matter of persuading its customer, an internationally known five-star hotel chain, that an aggressive Sponsored Search campaign could help generate more timeshare purchases. Given the chance to show what can be accomplished with the right keywords and exciting ad copy—and with the assistance of a talented team of Yahoo! Search Marketing account managers—Wave Direct rolled up some tremendous results.

Company Overview
Established in 2004, Wave Direct is a direct marketing company specializing in customized e-marketing solutions including targeted email, display banners and search engine marketing. With seasoned direct marketer Rob Cheyne at the helm, Wave Direct has established itself as a leader in the rapidly evolving e-marketing arena. In 2007, the firm began managing the online marketing efforts of a widely recognized hospitality chain which operates several all-villa resorts in some of the world’s most desirable destinations. Wave Direct’s marketing efforts have focused on driving high-quality leads to the client’s website so prospects can learn more about the advantages of timeshare ownership.

Starting from Scratch
Prior to hiring Wave Direct, their five-star client managed internally-supported search marketing campaigns which yielded mixed results. After jumping on board, Wave Direct’s team recognized that the optimal demographic target was a much better fit with the users of Yahoo!, so they began working with the Yahoo! team to open an account and get its search ads up and running. A month of ads appearing in Yahoo! Sponsored Search results established baseline metrics, and then the team went to work on fine-tuning the campaign, including adding and deleting keywords, and spicing up the ad creative.

Five-Star Results
Adding more specific, targeted keywords—and ditching the “plain vanilla” ads for more exciting copy with attention-getting words like “luxury” and “opulent”—was the passkey to the penthouse for their efforts as Wave Direct enjoyed some very obvious performance improvements just 24 hours after renovating the campaigns. The firm was able to substantially cut the client’s cost-per-conversions, while increasing the overall number of leads by an impressive 50%. Wave Direct continues to generate great results for their customer, taking advantage of Sponsored Search’s ability to “dial up” bids and budgets on particular keywords during down seasons.

Doubly Good
With their client now sold on the importance and value of search marketing, Wave Direct continually works with its Yahoo! account managers to make any adjustments that will build on the already-impressive marks. The team has added a number of “long-tail” keywords, which are low-volume search terms that are targeted and can convert well. Wave Direct reports that the firm uses the impressive results to help sell other clients on the value of search marketing. Most telling, though, is that in 2008 Wave Direct plans to double its business with Yahoo!.

Lessons Learned

• Think “out of the box” when looking to add keywords, including using “long-tail” terms that are low-cost but can have a high impact.
• Avoid “plain vanilla” copy in your ads; use exciting adjectives that will catch the attention of searchers.
• Use a combination of email, display advertising and search ads to drive the greatest return-on-investment.
• Use common sense in evaluating your campaigns: Take advantage of available reports to see what’s working and what’s not.

Testimonial
“Yahoo!’s account interface is by far the fastest of the three main players. Yahoo! is the most user-friendly company to work with among the Big Three. If I could get the same amount of responsiveness, service and friendliness that I get from Yahoo! from all my other vendors, I would be in a wonderful position.” — Don Eaker, National Sales Director, Wave Direct

— Jeff Hecox

Making Sense of Match Types

Learn how to make your ads more relevant

Sometimes my socks don’t match. This is not a fashion statement but usually the result of my hectic morning rush to get out the door and to work. You may always be lucky and conscious of wearing matching socks (which I’m slightly jealous of), but you may have some questions about using match types with your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaign. That’s where we can help you.

First, you need to know that Sponsored Search offers two different “match types” that help you control the way in which your keywords are matched to the terms web users enter into search boxes: Standard and Advanced.

The Advanced Match Type
The Advanced match type is your default match type. It allows your ad to appear in response to a broader range of searches, even when the keyword you are bidding on is not an exact, word-for-word match with the search query.

The benefit of the Advanced match type is that it will display your ad for related searches using keywords that you may not have specifically added to your campaigns. It can also save you time and remove the burden of having to think of every possible keyword related to your products or services. However, while the Advanced match type can deliver more traffic, this traffic could potentially be less relevant.

Example: The keyword “Fender guitar” could be matched to related search terms such as “Fender Telecaster guitar,” “Fender Stratocaster guitar” and “electric Fender guitar.”

When using the Advanced match type, make sure to use excluded words as needed. Excluded words specify search terms that you don’t want to be matched to through the Advanced match type. Here are a few key details about excluded words:
• Excluded words help block certain searches that you believe will not apply to your products or services.
• Example: You only sell new guitars, so you may want to exclude terms such as “free,” “repair,” “used” or “vintage.”
• You can currently exclude up to 250 words at the account level, as well as 250 for each ad group.

The Standard Match Type
This option restricts your ad to be displayed for searches that are exact matches to your keywords, as well as for common variations and misspellings. You may want to consider this for certain keywords and ad groups to help get clicks that are more relevant to your business.

Example: “Fender guitar” could match to “Fender guitars” and “Fender’s guitars.”

You can control your match types from the account level, all the way down to individual keywords. Learn more about them at our help center. But sadly, the help center says nothing about socks.

— Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications Manager and occasional non-matching sock wearer

Sell Your Products Globally

Put the “worldwide” in your Web with Yahoo! Sponsored Search

Is your company looking to expand abroad? International sales can be a great way to boost your company’s growth, and Yahoo! Search Marketing is a simple way to get targeted customer leads. With the announcement of the opening of three new markets for Sponsored Search — Southeast Asia, Latin America and India — now’s the perfect time to consider getting a few new stamps on your “advertising passport.”

Using Sponsored Search in our international markets offers many of the same benefits that you have advertising with Yahoo! Search Marketing in the U.S.: the familiar “Panama” user interface, control, and distribution via both Yahoo! and our partners’ properties.

Southeast Asia
The opening of our Southeast Asia market helps businesses reach more than 53 million potential new customers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Yahoo! is, in fact, the most popular online network in Asia Pacific (comScore, May 2007).

Latin America
Yahoo! Search Marketing tiene mucho gusto to announce that Sponsored Search is now open for business across Spanish-speaking Latin America. This new regional marketplace enables advertisers to target customers in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Argentina from a single account in that marketplace.

India
The “subcontinent” is a huge and growing Internet market, and the opening of this third Sponsored Search outpost means you can target Indian consumers not only on Yahoo!, but also through partner distribution sites such as MSN India and OneIndia.

— Jeff Hecox

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

Father Knows Best (Practices)

How to Reach Customers Shopping for Father’s Day

Father’s Day may not get the same amount of attention as Mother’s Day—ask any dad—but consumer spending for Pop is on the rise. According to a 2007 poll conducted by BIGresearch, consumers were expected to spend $9.9 billion on Father’s Day gifts in 2007, with the average person spending $98.34, up from $88.80 in 2006.

If you own or work for a site that sells items that are possible Father’s Day gifts, these suggestions may increase your appeal to consumers who are looking to spend for Dear Old Dad:

• Yahoo!’s keyword insertion tool can work wonders, but be sure to keep an eye on your keywords when using this feature. Keywords such as “father day” will not automatically be changed to “father’s day” when keyword insertion is employed; it may show up without the apostrophe, depending on the search query. To avoid this, create Alt Text for those keywords to help ensure that they appear correctly when placed online.

• Avoid the “feminine” touch in ads that are geared towards men or products that appeal to men. Steer clear of words more typically associated with women, to avoid confusion among searchers seeking Father’s Day gifts. The following example illustrates an ad that could deter people who see it, but which could easily be fixed by changing one word:
  

  Men’s Leather Purse 
  High-quality full-grain leather. Free shipping; no sales tax in USA.

  In case it wasn’t obvious, changing “purse” to “bag” could make all the difference.

• Be careful not to “mom-ize” your listings. While references to flowers and cookie baskets may be great for moms, ads for dads may benefit from focusing on things like gift boxes and mugs, or other “non-mom” items you may sell.

• Listings for tools or appliances perform better when they contain product branding. Be sure to call out the brands you sell, because they catch searchers’ eyes.

• Listings for novelty golf items should focus more on the item itself, rather than the hilarity of the item. Since title and description space is limited, it’s better to use that space to be as descriptive as possible about what you sell.

• Sites that sell golf cart parts and accessories should focus on the accessories in their titles and descriptions. Searchers seeking to buy dad a golf cart accessory probably aren’t interested in buying him parts, as well.

• Personalization helps: If you offer personalized golf clubs or other gifts for dads, be sure to call it out in your ads.

Following these simple rules should help your potential customers bust open their piggy banks to spend for dad—and maybe even find an alternative to the boring old necktie.

– Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Photo courtesy of Karl Gunnarsson via Flickr

« Next Posts Previous Posts »