Yahoo Morphing Into Google in Starting December

[AussieWebmaster]

Okay the day we have all dreaded now seems to have concrete dates according to an email I just received. We will sadly miss the bid tool of old, the days of bid gapping will soon be gone.

The email states:
As you will soon notice when you log into your Sponsored Search
account, we are making some important changes to your Manage Bids
page.

In early December 2006, some of the information on the Manage Bids
page will no longer be available. We will be removing the "Top 5 Max
Bids," "Position" and "Your Cost" columns from the current account
interface. The View Bids tool will also be removed.

These columns will be replaced with two new columns of data:

Estimated Average Position
This displays an estimate of the average position your listing may
achieve, based on your bid and the current bids of other advertisers.

Bid Range for Top Positions
This displays the current range of bids other advertisers are willing
to pay for the positions at the top of the search results page.

To learn why we've made these changes and more, please see our FAQs.

[Mel66]

I personally think this is really crappy timing on Yahoo's part. Not everyone has migrated to the new Panama system, for one; and for two, Yahoo PPC ads are still ranked based on the pure auction model until sometime in Q1 2007. Or at least that's what they've been telling us.

Why, in the throes of the holiday shopping season, do they change the game on us like this? I realize it doesn't change the way ads are ranked, but without specific bid data, how can we manage to that system? Instead of getting that info at a glance (or via a bid management tool) so we can easily manage our holiday campaigns, now we'll have to look at their "estimates" and guess where our ads might end up?

It's like playing baseball with a blindfold on. Yahoo's still calling balls and strikes, but you have to swing blind with them just telling you "we estimate that this pitch might be a strike."

Melissa

[AussieWebmaster]

I agree. They should have waited on this until the whole blind system went into effect - since that is what is really happening now and we don't get the benefit of the CTR helping.

What you have to do is bid really high and slowly lower until you drop to the second spot etc....

[Mel66]

Exactly. And that's not always very cost-effective, especially this time of year.

I also wonder how the bid management systems such as Atlas are going to work with this change. I know Atlas has said they're ready for Yahoo's new platform et al, but how do you develop your software so it manages bids in this halfsies-type system?

I have a lot of unanswered questions at this point. I hope the reps at SES are ready for me next week.

Melissa

[Chris Boggs]

I think I'll miss bidding one cent below the top-spot-mongering-jerk-that-bids-$20 the most

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by Chris Boggs

I think I'll miss bidding one cent below the top-spot-mongering-jerk-that-bids-$20 the most

Yeah bid gapping was fun.... making your industry competitors spend way over what they should because they had some 19 year old keeping an eye on PPC and did not know anything was great.

[Discovery]

I'm waiting until absolutely everything is worked out in panama before I deploy it...oh all right, truth is

They have kept my sorry ass from participating in the "early" release..

I just dont understand it... was it something I said?

Nice analogy Mell - Spot on.

Discovery - Steeee rike!

[Mel66]

LOL Discovery, I was waiting for you to weigh in on this!

I am glad Yahoo is having that nice little party at SES. I think they owe me a few free drinks. LOL

Melissa

PS, I'm not in Panama yet either. I applied, but haven't heard anything. And now I don't think I want to switch until after the holidays anyway.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

...the days of bid gapping will soon be gone...

I just went back to check out YSM after a long period away (I've been focusing exclusively on Google AdWords, and doing very well). I found I'm still in the old YSM interface, and it was a real shock to be back - slow and painful, with nothing like the features of Google. But, bid gapping at least provided a bit of distraction. And now that will be gone with Panama? Heck, I'm going to stick with the old interface until they kick me off

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by abbottsys

I just went back to check out YSM after a long period away (I've been focusing exclusively on Google AdWords, and doing very well). I found I'm still in the old YSM interface, and it was a real shock to be back - slow and painful, with nothing like the features of Google. But, bid gapping at least provided a bit of distraction. And now that will be gone with Panama? Heck, I'm going to stick with the old interface until they kick me off

smart move...get pulled screaming and yelling

[PPC]

The changes going into effect are for the DTC. So those of us who haven't been upgraded to Panama are going to be stuck with the poor usability and slow speed of DTC yet not have any bid info available to us.

[egain]

Originally Posted by PPC

The changes going into effect are for the DTC. So those of us who haven't been upgraded to Panama are going to be stuck with the poor usability and slow speed of DTC yet not have any bid info available to us.

And probably for a while yet

[PPC]

Looks like these changes have taken place today... at least for my account they have. The bid tool "view bids" is gone, but you can still see bids for individual terms from this url:

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

[inpursuit]

yeah they are morons.. Seeing estimates doesnt help me at all!

How the hell can you tell where you are positioned? unless you go plug your keywords into yahoo search engine and view individually..

am i going to do that with 10,000 keywords.. Not Likely..

I emailed them and told them they need to sack the idiot who made the choice to move to google system.

[inpursuit]

Originally Posted by PPC

Looks like these changes have taken place today... at least for my account they have. The bid tool "view bids" is gone, but you can still see bids for individual terms from this url:

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

I would not rely on that either as.. what it shows vs what position your in when you type into yahoo is different