Yahoo! Search Marketing

Yahoo! Search Marketing was formerly named Overture.
How Does Yahoo! Search Marketing Work?
Yahoo! Search Marketing is primarily a manually edited pay per click search
provider. You write ads for your website and they get approved to appear in the
search results on YSM partner websites. YSM bid prices are transparent. You can
usually see exactly what your competitors are bidding at any given time.
YSM places exact match listings above broad match listings. This means that if you
bid on the exact term that someone is searching for you will rank above ads that are
matched via broader matching options.

If you bid 10 cents for “best seo book” and someone else bids 25 cents for “seo
books” your best seo book ad will show above theirs if someone is searching for
“best seo book.”

YSM also truncates search terms for ad targeting, so book and books should target
the same ads.
YSM Bid Prices vs. Click Costs:

With YSM you pick a maximum bid price and your bid will never exceed that.
Their software has a bid discounter built in, so often times your average bid cost
may be less than your bid prices. YSM makes most bid prices transparent. In
competitive fields competitors will ensure your click costs are near your bid price.
Bid Jamming:

In some niche markets there will only be a couple people who place exceptional
value on ultra qualified leads. For example, a Chicago DUI attorney may bid much
higher for the term 'Chicago DUI attorney' than a general nationwide firm would.
If there are only a couple competitors in a market, it is not uncommon for the top
few bids to be $5 or $10 while the rest of them are around 25 cents or less.
For example, if they bid $10 you can bid a max bid of $9.99. If the third placed
person is only bidding 25 cents your clicks will cost you 26 cents each while
ensuring your competitor pays a full $10 per click.

Of course you want to monitor your accounts closely if you are using aggressive
bidding techniques or bid jamming people. Some competitors will be stupid and let
you take their lunch money. Others may be smart and re adjust their bids to bid jam
you. Some will go so far as click fraud, so you need to watch your account closely if
you are bidding aggressively in competitive markets.

Bid to Position:

When you use the bid-to-position bidding strategy, it also hides your full bid price,
only showing 1 cent more than the person below you. Bid to position allows you to
bid a max price and max position. Yahoo! will keep your click cost and ranking at
or below your max.

YSM Programs:

YSM offers a $10 bid bonus when you open an account, but has a $5 startup fee
(which is converted to click credit), and it has no monthly minimum spend. They
also have a FastTrack program where their account representatives will set up your
account for a one time $199 fee. I recommend taking the time to set up your own
account. You know your products better and are more interested in your own
success than some random YSM editor is, they are more interesting in ensuring you
spend as much as you are willing to.

YSM recently launched Local Match, which allows you to target your ads from a .5
to 100 mile radius of your business location. The Local Match product requires that
you have a business with a physical address, but it does not require a website. These
ads give driving directions to your place of business. Local Match ads show up in
the same location where other YSM ads appear.

YSM also offers a paid inclusion program by the name of Search Submit Express
(which I generally consider a waste of money for most websites). Search Submit
Express gives your sites 48 hour refresh throughout the Yahoo! powered search
products. SSE is a one time $49 review fee and also has an incremental cost per
click. SSE is good for sites which:

• are rapidly changing
• or are having dynamic indexing problems
• or need indexed quickly
• or need the associated tracking offered by Search Submit Express

Free Yahoo! Search Marketing Tools:

Yahoo! offers a suite of tools to help their advertisers set up their accounts.

• Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool: shows the frequency of searches
across the YSM network for the prior month.
(http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)

• Yahoo! View Bid Tool: show the highest bidders for a specific search term.
(http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/?
Keywords=casino&mkt=us&lang=en_US)

• Yahoo! Regional Search Term Suggestion Tools: gives country or
region specific search frequency.

• Yahoo! Advertiser Workbook: free downloadable ebook released by
Yahoo! to help you get the most out of your YSM campaign.

YSM Search Term Suggestion Tool Errors:

YSM truncates their search terms. While the plural and singular versions of search
terms will greatly differ in search volume YSM just lumps them together.
Please note that the Yahoo! search term suggestion tool tends to run high since
many automated bots and bid managers scour through their partner network.
WordTracker tracks click data from the meta search engines by the name of
Dogpile and WebCrawler.

Since WordTracker makes their money by selling data
versus clicks you can usually expect more legitimate traffic measurements using
WordTracker. Digital Point created a free keyword suggestion tool which compares
both traffic estimates.

KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com are two additional useful
keyword research resources.