Are Yahoo Sponsor Results Geo-Targeted?

[dollshouse]

Whenever I search on Yahoo.com (from here in the UK) I get Overture UK sponsored listings.

The problem is that my Overture rep tells me that this is not the case - apparantly my eyes (and the screen shot I've sent her) are not to be trusted.

Can somebody (preferably of some standing in the community) shed any light on this? What Overture results do you see, when you search on Yahoo.com? Always Overture US even if you are not located in the States, as is claimed?

Paul

[dannysullivan]

I'm in the UK, and I usually get Overture UK results on Yahoo.com.

I bet your Overture rep isn't seeing it because their IP address may be tagged as part of Yahoo's network and so in turn considered to be in the US. In fact, it's kind of scary the Overture rep wouldn't know this is happening.

Here's a screengrab of the top four listings, both Yahoo.com, one showing UK and one showing US:

http://searchenginewatch.com/img/0408-us-uk-overture.gif

I connect via a local broadband wireless company. They're in the UK, detected as such, so on one screen -- I see Yahoo with UK targeting.

To see Yahoo as a "US" person, I log into my UK AOL account via TCP-IP. Even though its AOL UK, the IP address makes Yahoo think I'm in the US. So I see different results (not just in ads, either -- also in editorial listings)

I actually asked Overture earlier this week if there's an override code we can us. Another option is to go to Overture.com in the US -- then you'll definitely see what's top for a US query, and you can guess at how that will show up in Yahoo. Anonymizer.com is also a solution to hide your IP address.

[dollshouse]

In fact, it's kind of scary the Overture rep wouldn't know this is happening.

Exactly why I made this post, it's like banging your head against a brick wall sometimes - thanks a lot Danny.

FYI - you can also use MSN.com to get US Overture listings from within the UK - it appears that they do not Geo-Target.

Paul

[dollshouse]

Here's the reply I've received from those professionals at Overture UK:

**********

Subject: Re: Case #32219922


August 20th, 2004

Dear Mr. XXXXX,

Thank you for your inquiry.

We would like to inform you that your listings for your Overture UK account XXXXXXX are not appearing on yahoo.com

When a user from the UK goes to yahoo.com, the page generally defaults to yahoo.co.uk As you have a UK account, you will only be appearing on yahoo.co.uk and not on yahoo.com

Rest assured that Overture UK aim to deliver only targeted traffic to your Web site and that all clicks are valid.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Yours sincerely,



XXXX XXXXX

International Client Services

Overture

clientservices@uk.overture.com

******
I think this speaks for itself - they make my life so difficult.

Paul

[dannysullivan]

When a user from the UK goes to yahoo.com, the page generally defaults to yahoo.co.uk As you have a UK account, you will only be appearing on yahoo.co.uk and not on yahoo.com
Wow -- not that I know of. If a user goes to Yahoo.com from anywhere, they should be getting Yahoo.com -- not the local edition. Search engines have tried various auto-rerouting things in the past, but I've not heard of Yahoo doing anything like this.

It is true that if you don't have an Overture US account, you aren't going to be showing up in front of those who get the geotargeted ads.

Rest assured that Overture UK aim to deliver only targeted traffic to your Web site and that all clicks are valid. But somehow, I suspect you know this and probably have both US and UK accounts. The key thing seems to be that you simply cannot view the US listings in the way someone from the US can, at least easily.

The issue's going to only get worse, as we talked about a bit here:
Should Search Engines adopt different results outside the U.S.? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=139) and in the two links referenced from that at the top.

[dollshouse]

The key thing seems to be that you simply cannot view the US listings in the way someone from the US can, at least easily.

Unfortunatley it's not as easy as that....

Here's the crux of the problem..
Different [sponsored] listings are appearing for us at Yahoo.com when compared to Yahoo.co.uk: (note that these are geo-targetted and I'm referring to the Overture UK listings)

http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-&p=dolls+house

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search/ukie?p=dolls+house&y=uk&ei=ISO-8859-1&fr=fp-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=

When I do these searches, the sponsored results are exactly the same except for second position - i.e. one sponsor is missing from the Yahoo.com results.

Not a particular problem for us, except for the fact that, as the number 1 bidder in this position, we should only pay 0.01p above the second placed sponsor - if the second placed sponsor is missing from one particular set of results then it's only fair that we should only pay 0.01p above third position. This actually boils down to a significant amount of money when you look at the bid positions and consider that it occurs for a lot more keywords than just "dolls house".

Well, that's my argument anyway, at the moment, the only response I've had from Overture is that: We would like to inform you that your listings for your Overture UK account XXXXXXX are not appearing on yahoo.com

It's laughable, except for the fact that Overture are a very important source of business for us - we really need them to pull through for us and this is what I have to deal with....

I'll update this thread each time I get a response, perhaps they will be embarrassed into finding a solution to the problem? I'm not holding my breath...

Paul

[YahooSarah]

Hi Paul,

I apologize for the confusion -- hopefully, I can clarify the matter for you:

Yahoo! does geo-targeting by IP address in the UK, which means that if you search at www.yahoo.com but you're based in the UK and have a UK IP address, you will see Overture UK results. You will see the same results as on www.yahoo.co.uk.

If you are not in the UK or do not have a UK IP address, then you will not see Overture UK results when searching at www.yahoo.com. Yahoo! is the only partner of ours that uses geo-targeting, and the UK is the only market where this implementation is currently in effect.

I've passed along your postings to my senior customer service colleagues, who will contact you very soon to discuss your account and keyword bids with you in more detail.

Hope this helps,

Overture Rep

[dollshouse]

I've passed along your postings to my senior customer service colleagues, who will contact you very soon to discuss your account and keyword bids with you in more detail.

Thanks - I hope this can be resolved without further difficulty.

Paul

[dollshouse]

Overture have now sorted this out for me and offered their apologies for the inconvenience caused by the geo-targeting confusion.

Paul