Hate Yahoos New PPC System

[inpursuit]

I liked yahoo ppc before because they were not like google adwords complex ppc

You could view your bids, see what your competitor was paying, see who was below you and then bid to where you want to be.

Now they give estimates.. I told the lady.. How does that help me???

I now have to individually take each keyword and put it into yahoo and see physically where I am positioned, go back rebid.. do the same again.. go back rebid..

Whoever came up with the estimated averages was a moron as it doesnt help anyone.

Same with ad listings.. you can no longer view bids there either.. what the hell is their game!

[fulton savage]

Converting their bid system to a Google copy was (pretty much) part of the plan since this major overhaul was announced.

I just upgraded my first account this week and found that about 90% of my ad versions were mangled in the conversion. I am appreciative only of the backup they warned me to create.

[Claudio]

I've had my two main Yahoo accounts converted and running now for 4 weeks.
My numbers are dismal. Granted it's the end of the year, a typically slow time...but...compared to last year this time...still dismal. For me the bottom clearly fell out when Yahoo converted.

Since converting, my Yahoo cost per lead (CPA) has gone from a 2006 average of $12 to my current December 2006 cost of $110. Nice for Yahoo.

I feel like I am bidding blindly and accomplishing nothing but paying for Yahoo Christmas Bonuses. It's depressing. I really feel for anyone whose business relies on the holidays. Yahoo/Overture have been the core of my marketing for 3-4 years now. The decisions made over at Yahoo with this conversion are forcing me at re-think my entire marketing system and business plan.

[Rank3d]

same question here @inpursuit. they now try to hide the bids of every single bidder. it doesn't help at all. i wonder why they had to do that.i wish i could find some explanations for that

[PPCGuy]

The purpose of the new bidding model is to improve ad quality. I’m glad Yahoo finally upgraded their primitive system to add more emphasis on ad copy and bonus those advertisers that do. Yahoo has always been cluttered with bad ads with mostly all the same title tags. The system changes is going to force more creative ads and make the landscape more competitive. The overall result is going to be more quality traffic to your site.

[seodude16]

Originally Posted by PPCGuy

The purpose of the new bidding model is to improve ad quality.

The purpose of the new model is to make Yahoo more money. It has nothing to do with them wanting your leads to be better or to reward ad text quality, but simply they don't want you to know exactly how much it costs to be in the position you want. They'd rather have you guess and overspend for awhile until you figure out what to bid to be in the proper position.

[Rank3d]

Originally Posted by seodude16

The purpose of the new model is to make Yahoo more money. It has nothing to do with them wanting your leads to be better or to reward ad text quality, but simply they don't want you to know exactly how much it costs to be in the position you want. They'd rather have you guess and overspend for awhile until you figure out what to bid to be in the proper position.

Lolz. Well maybe 50-50. 50%-Yahoo wants to make more money, and 50%-they want to improve your conversions

[Matt in London]

Well, really - at the end of the day Yahoo need to make more money. However, they do that by improving the customer experience, which in turn means providing more relevant ads. If it's working for the customers and you, then it'll work for them.

I'm sure it'll take a while to iron out exactly how it will work and how we can influence our positions through optimisation etc. We're about to have Panama launched over here in the UK - I can't stand the current system, so I'm hoping it's an improvement...

[ackmnmn]

While I've been critical of Panama, I am starting to enjoy some of the features. I think after Y works it out, it may be enjoyable.

[leftoverjoe]

One thing I really like, simply for its convenience, is the ability to run two metrics on the same graph and compare the numbers visually. As someone who manages between 30 and 40 clients accounts in a given month, I really appreciate that kind of data at a glance.

Of course there's little things I would change here and there, like the fact that there is no 'go to next ad group' link when you're in there in a campaign. Just simple little time-savers like that would be a huge improvement.

[kdubette]

Although I like the new ranking model, the interface is a nightmare. It used to average a few minutes a day to manage my 6 accounts but now it takes an hour. On top of that, they totally screwed up all 6 of my client accounts when determining ad groups. One client, who runs over 160 keywords, had each one put into its own group. I've been working with CS to get it fixed but so far nothing acceptable. Bidding is a mess, taking too many steps where I used to be able to do it from one page. Compiling reports is a mess as well. Although it was time to upgrade, why did they throw the baby out with the bath water?

[caugas]

I like the new system, interface, and performance so far. I find that I spend less money due to my quality scores.

[Mel66]

Same here.

Kdubette, I think once you get your ad groups set up the way you want them, you'll find the interface to be much faster and easier to use than the old and awful DTC.

I agree, our account was kinda messed up too, and I'm still in the process of rearranging everything the way I want it. Y didn't make it easy, either, without a "move keyword to different ad group" function.

Melissa

[jbgilbert]

Kdubette, I think once you get your ad groups set up the way you want them, you'll find the interface to be much faster and easier to use than the old and awful DTC.

faster and easier? NOT YET... I (and I hope others) have contributed some simple suggestions to easy the management task in Yahoo.

With just a couple of the suggestions I provided account managment could get a great deal faster, BUT

Here the rubber really meets the road -- will Yahoo be technically competent and care enough to actually make changes in a relatively short period

[Mel66]

Do you really think it's worse than the old DTC? Or just worse than Google Adwords?

I agree, Y has a long way to go to even see the back side of Google as they run down the PPC road, but Panama is light years ahead of the old DTC in terms of page load times, navigation, etc. In my opinion, anyway.

Melissa

[caugas]

Originally Posted by Mel66

Do you really think it's worse than the old DTC? Or just worse than Google Adwords?

I agree, Y has a long way to go to even see the back side of Google as they run down the PPC road, but Panama is light years ahead of the old DTC in terms of page load times, navigation, etc. In my opinion, anyway.

Melissa

I 110% agree with Melissa on this 1.
One could agrue (including myself) that Google has set the standard. I compare all metrics and interfaces with Google, they truly set the bar.

As a general rule Yahoo as never performed on the level as Google (since I have being doing PPC).

But as Mel66 said, Panama is leaps and bounds better than the old two pronged Yahoo interface (Yahoo interface and Search Optimizer.

The Panama GUI is on the level, the pricing is more distrubted and Fair, and for the past 1 month my cost are down and conversions are up...

All in all, I pretty happy, I would be more happy if I could increase my demand and visits. For now I will leave this in the hands of Yahoo and their executive team in order to TAKE BACK MARKET SHARE, OR FIND NEW MARKETSHARE, so my #'s increase overall!!