Internet Marketing Blog

If you’re running a national SEM campaign, it may be desirable to exclude all local queries so that you can optimize the ad language for non-geographic queries and users. To target specific locales, you could setup additional campaigns that are better optimized for those sets of keywords. The best way to exclude location-based queries is […]

The 10,000 lb. gorilla is getting heavier. So says a recent report by comScore. Google sites (www.google.com, www.aol.com, etc.) increased their market share in December to 47.3%, compared to 28.5% for Yahoo and 10.5% for Microsoft.
The numbers themselves aren’t as important as the trends: Google continues to grow, Yahoo grew more percentage-wise and thus is […]

Yahoo! has announced the availability of their new Sponsored Search program to select advertisers. It is being rolled out to advertisers in stages, and you can either wait for them to get to your account, or you can request an early upgrade.
We have yet to take the new system for a test drive, but check […]

Several months ago we blogged on reporting errors encountered at Yahoo Sponsored Search. These issues were never resolved, and we continue to run into others. We are particularly frustrated by the fact that location-based campaigns do not produce reports that break out cost and performance for each location. Really. We have contacted Yahoo support about […]

Yahoo announced that it will delay the rollout of its new ad program that will include many of the core features of Google’s AdWords program, including ad positioning that factors in quality (presumably click-through-rate).
Yahoo’s advertising interface is long overdue for many improvements, some from a usability perspective, but also functionally. Chief rival Google AdWords is […]

Today I was conducting some keyword research on specific health topics, and I was collecting data from the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool. As noted in previous posts, the tool’s stemming can result in significant ambiguity. Another big problem is that the data comes from Yahoo’s search network which Search Engine Marketers like us often request […]

We have found reporting errors in another Yahoo Sponsored Search account that we manage. The report center reports are clearly missing the vast majority of clicks, in one case showing $11 in fees for a month in which more than $750 in charges were accrued. This is the 2nd time in as many months that […]

Michael Schwarz recently gave a Google Tech Talk on the bidding systems used by Google AdWords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, and other PPC programs that utilize “Generalized Second Price” (GSP) auctions. The presentation provides a very interesting analysis of bidding strategies and stability of the GSP system, comparing it to others that in some cases are […]

One of my least favorite things about Yahoo Sponsored Search (YSS, formerly Overture), is that ad placement is determined only by bid. Google’s AdWords program ranks ads according to a combination of bid, click-through-rate (CTR), and other factors, the net result being that intelligent advertisers are rewarded with better “bidding power” over those lesser quality […]

The Marketing Experiments Blog recently posted the results of a click fraud study. The study itself is interesting but somewhat inconclusive due to its short duration and limited scope. However, they make some excellent suggestions for preventing or at least reducing click fraud, some of which include:

Watch for significant variations in ad campaign performance.
Be conservative […]