Yahoo! Testing CTR Based Rankings?

[PPC]

Yahoo! seems to be performing some sort of test on certain accounts - one being my personal Yahoo! account. It is my guess (based on how that I see the rankings changed) that they are testing a pricing model similar to Google and MSN in which rank is a combinatin of CTR and max bid.

Does anyone else have any more information on this?

[rustybrick]

Um, yea rumors, but they were rejected by Yahoo soon after posting...

See http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060410-134538

[AussieWebmaster]

The listings are really jumping around today.... wonder if they are doing a little testing in the US today.....


Do any search with a good number of PPC advertisers.... rehit the search button and watch the listings jump around.... they are even doing that in the Overture bid tool... so it is getting a little hard to determined what is going on...

[RepairGuru]

I can positively confirm that Yahoo is doing some kind of placement testing, whether CTR or for some other purpose. Many of my listings are jumping all over the place, even disappearing altogether, even though I am bidding for position #1 on all terms.

[AussieWebmaster]

Given they are supposed to be rolling this out by October 1 I would imagine a little testing might be needed before then.

[Discovery]

Sure as hell better not be paying the full Max Bid to get position 5.

CTR is definately on!

It makes me wonder. If they're experimenting with CTR then why don't they turn off the now useless position search feature! Or clue the account admins in on the fact that their ads are being tested with CTR.

How can we optimize the ad for better CTR if and when CTR is being applied!
I would hope that YSM understands that we have to switch strategies when CTR comes into play.

I should note that this account is new, opened only 2 days ago.

Discovery

[Discovery]

Yahoo message -

Content Match -

*Please note: Your “Bid Rank” (the order of your bid relative to other bids for same Keywords) does not necessarily equal the position in which your listing is displayed. Your bid rank and your click-through rate together influence your listing’s position.

Has this always been the case? Content Match has been so full of fraud that we rarely use it, but tested it with a new campaign over the last 3 days.

Sponsored Search

I watched all day yestereday - I had the 2nd place bid on Sponsored Search and was in 5th-6th place listing ALL DAY! I was charged my MAX BID PRICE for 5th Position.

YahooSarah

Confirm that CTR is now on in Sponsored Search. Confirm that YSM did not notify ANYONE about using CTR. Confirm that our conversion rates and CPL hit the crapper because they are NOT geared towards CTR!!!

PS: The 3rd Quarter is just 24 days away...

[PPC]

I don't think CTR is on yet but it is definitely being tested. I feel the same way though... I know what changes to make when CTR goes into effect, I just don't know the best time to make them. Its frustrating, but what can you do?

[AussieWebmaster]

October 1 is a date I have heard by senior people at Yahoo for some major implementations.

[Discovery]

I have heard... second half of this year and by the end of the year muttered about as well....

IMHO if they don't roll something significant out by the end of July they will have once again solidified their reputation as having a lot of promises but delivering no results.

Can you imagine if they let it slip to after the first of the year?
No they wont let that happen, even if the tech side falls apart they'll paint a pretty new face on the front of the house and call it a new UI.

[AussieWebmaster]

They will roll out some serious changes to the interface by October 1..... though I agree they always seems to announce things at SES San Jose or SES NYC....