Your YSM account will soon be completely upgraded

[fulton savage]

I got this email at about 1:30 PM today. Looks like we're gearing up for something..

Originally Posted by YSM

Dear MISTER,

As we informed you in May 2006, your Yahoo! Search Marketing account will soon be completely upgraded and redesigned, providing you with a number of advanced features that will help you better connect to Yahoo!'s audience.

To help provide a seamless upgrade for our advertisers, we plan on frequently communicating with you via phone calls, emails and U.S. mail. Thus, we are asking all advertisers to confirm the contact information currently on file with us, including physical address, email address and phone number.

As of August 2006, this is the contact information we have on file for your account:

Street Address: something
City: something
State: something
Zip code: something
Phone number: something

Please take a moment now to check the account contact information above. If any of the data above is incorrect, please update it by following these easy steps:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Click the Edit Profile link.
3. Check and update your contact info.

Another way to update your information is by logging into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account as you normally do, then click the "Edit Profile" link under the Account tab.

We greatly appreciate your attention to this matter, and look forward to providing you with all of the important information you'll need to know as your account is upgraded. If you have any questions, please contact us at (866) YAHOO-98.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo! Search Marketing

[David Wallace]

They are supposed to begin rolling out their new ad platform in the fourth quarter. I blogged about it here. They also debuted new platform at the recent Search Engine Strategies in San Jose.

[fulton savage]

Originally Posted by david's blog

New budgeting feature will allow you to set budget not only at campaign level but ad group level as well.

Awesome. Did they give up any screen shots?

[Masterlink2]

I just got off the phone with my rep. He said that every advertiser should receive this email that was sent out and this is not for special accounts or anything. Also, I was told that the switch over will begin in October and continue into the beginning of next year. They sent out the emails because this is a month away and they want to prepare advertisers for the switch - nothing is coming any sooner than October. He also mentioned some "hand-holding" system that they will be talking about more in the near future to help advertisers transition into the new platform. He said the time that each account is rolled into the new system is random and you can choose not to transition at the time they request but you do eventually have to switch into the new system by some point - but he didn't specify by what date.

-Mark Barrera

[AussieInCleveland]

Originally Posted by Masterlink2

I just got off the phone with my rep. He said that every advertiser should receive this email that was sent out and this is not for special accounts or anything. Also, I was told that the switch over will begin in October and continue into the beginning of next year. They sent out the emails because this is a month away and they want to prepare advertisers for the switch - nothing is coming any sooner than October. He also mentioned some "hand-holding" system that they will be talking about more in the near future to help advertisers transition into the new platform. He said the time that each account is rolled into the new system is random and you can choose not to transition at the time they request but you do eventually have to switch into the new system by some point - but he didn't specify by what date.

-Mark Barrera

So how would a gradual switchover running Oct '06 to, say, 1Q07, not unduly wreak havoc on bid strategy? I mean, if I am on the new system and I want to bid on "widget supply" and I'm in a blind bid like Google and I'm assessed on CTR, QS, etc, then how do I stack up against someone who is grandfathered under the current system who has a completely different view of the keyword marketplace?

[Masterlink2]

Originally Posted by AussieInCleveland

So how would a gradual switchover running Oct '06 to, say, 1Q07, not unduly wreak havoc on bid strategy? I mean, if I am on the new system and I want to bid on "widget supply" and I'm in a blind bid like Google and I'm assessed on CTR, QS, etc, then how do I stack up against someone who is grandfathered under the current system who has a completely different view of the keyword marketplace?

I found this mention at webmasterworld

"Our rep is saying Q4 for the Panama 'interface' roll-out, but - very likely - Q1 for the 'pricing model' roll-out."

I guess they are going to gradually get people used to the new interface first and then switch on to the new pricing model after they have everyone using the new interface to keep from dealing with the issue that you mentioned. It doesn't make much sense to me now so I am hoping that we hear more details soon, because this is a large task with a lot of room for unhappy clients. I don't want to be negative yet, so I will assume that by delaying the release, they are making sure the transition is as as smooth as possible...