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Getting PPC Advice from Yahoo!? Take the Good with the BadPosted by John on May 19, 2008 in Ad Texts, Yahoo! Search Marketing |
Reading search marketing blogs is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. Today I was scrolling through my blog reader quickly reviewing the “big three” blogs. When I got to the YSM Blog, I was greeted with this headline: “Writing Effective Ads.” With a smile I clicked through and began reading. Very soon into this excerpt from Yahoo!’s Smart Start guide, my smile turned upside down in frustration. In between providing a few solid pointers on writing ad texts, Yahoo! managed to sneak in some truly awful advice.
Before I break down Yahoo!’s post, let me first share a dirty little secret. Today is the first time I’ve ever read about the Smart Start guide. How in the world did I miss this thing? It was released in January! While I don’t agree with everything in the booklet, it is a pretty snazzy introduction to PPC and Yahoo!’s interface. But really, how did I miss this?
So, now it’s on to Yahoo!’s ad writing advice. The first section is titled Write the Best Ad Text You Can.
- Be Clear, Be Precise. I’m on board with this one. Ads that have a clear message will drive higher click-through-rates and conversion rates.
- Be Concise, Be Factual. If I knew what Yahoo! meant by “too salesy,” I would consider agreeing. However, when I think of the function of PPC, “salesy” is what we’re all about, right? Including price and calls-to-action like “buy now” are both tried and true methods for driving sales.
- Don’t Use Ampersands. Seriously? For one thing, using ampersands saves me 2 characters when writing ads – not to mention that I can point to many ads in my Yahoo! campaigns that have excellent CTR and conversion rates in spite of my “unprofessional” ampersands.
- Use a Strong Call to Action. Despite contradicting point #2, I whole heartedly agree.
The next section is about DKI. Use the Keyword Insert Feature
- Let me be clear, I think that when used properly, DKI can be a great tool. What I don’t agree with is Yahoo! completely side-stepping the fact that a well-organized account structure can render DKI nearly useless. When you structure your PPC account around tightly themed ad groups, it’s a piece of cake to simply write your keywords directly into the ad!
- My one concession: in the full version of the Smart Start guide, Yahoo! appropriately places the account structure section before the ad text section. At least they got that right.
If you would remember, the title of Yahoo!’s post was “Writing Effective Ads.” Well, thus ends the part about actually writing ads. That’s all you get about writing, but this is only 50% of the article! Next up: Make Sure Your Landing Page is Consistent with Your Ad.
- At first glance I have no qualms with this idea. One of the most important actions you can take for your PPC campaign is to match well written ad texts with a highly targeted, relevant and keyword rich landing page.
- Where Yahoo! misses the mark is in pointing readers to the HOW. “For best results, focus on the customer, not your company.” Huh? What about writing a compelling headline that connects the user experience between ad text and landing page? What about strong calls-to-action? What about keywords in the copy? Two short sentences on this subject is sad, at best.
Are you ready for Yahoo!’s last attempt at redemption? Use Ad Testing.
- “Testing ad messages is the mark of a smart advertiser…” I couldn’t agree more!
- Since this post has been nothing short of a rant, I guess I shouldn’t stop here. My final point is more of a difference in opinion: To optimize ads or not to optimize ads. Yahoo!’s opinion (and the opinion shared by Google and MSN adCenter) is that setting your ads to automatically optimize is the best way to go. Why is that opinion flawed? Primarily, it’s a suggestion that benefits their revenue stream. The more ads are clicked, the more money Yahoo! will make. But more to the point, it detracts from your ability to run a clean A/B split test for your ad texts. There are a myriad of factors at play in determining which ads will be “the best” and you should do everything in your power to control the test and declare a true winner!
Well, that pretty much sums it up. I think that Yahoo!’s intentions were good when writing their post, but they just simply didn’t make the grade. And some of you may argue that this post was written for beginners and should be treated as such. Even so, I still think that Yahoo! should have done a much better job of walking newbies through the tricky maze that is PPC ad text creation. They’re one of THE PPC authorities, and should write blog posts as such. They should be giving us advertisers the real “meat and potatoes” posts!
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May 20th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I saw this YSM blog post and was slightly confused as well. I completely agree with your comments on Ampersands. I too use them whenever possible and see great CTR’s.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:54 am
@ Kara:
Thanks for commenting!
In the original post, Yahoo! made a comment about using symbols or numbers in place of letters, too — which makes sense. Nobody wants to read stuff like “make dollar$ and cent$!” But a simple ampersand hardly makes an ad text “unprofessional.” As I said in my post, it’s a character saving tool and you and I both have proof of great CTRs!
May 21st, 2008 at 10:10 am
Agreed, some of the YSM advice was perplexing!
Everything I have read about PPC suggests that we SHOULD be “salesy.” Let’s not go overboard, but there are “hotwords,” and facts can be boring.
I do try to avoid ampersands, but if I need the characters, then they’re in! I just think that they aren’t very visually “pretty.”
“For best results, focus on the customer, not your company.”
Perhaps they mean to use language that focuses on the user’s problem, rather than blabbing on about us, us, us. This is consistent with advice that I follow.
Google has also been guilty of making recommendations that benefit their pocketbook. The smart PPC marketer sees through these attempts.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
@ Sam,
Focusing on the customer is certainly priority #1. That’s great advice, but I was left wanting more! And yes, all of the search engines are guilty of making recommendations that benefit their pocketbook. And perhaps Google has been more successful at this then anyone… Lately I have felt that I consistently get mediocre advice from Yahoo! and this blog post pushed me over the edge. Give me a few more weeks and I may be turning my claws on Google. : )
May 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Ya know, I can’t speak for Yahoo’s SM Blog (as I don’t subscribe), but when it comes to Yahoo’s actual PPC reps, they’re pretty good at optimization - especially if you give them specific directions.
They should get those guys to write their blog. Oh yeah, they’re too busy working. Damn.
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:09 am
I was very confused over a lot of these points. Sure, we need to educate the newer SEMs and help them navigate different PPC engines, but the whole post seemed to contradict itself, especially with the salesy issue.
Totally agree with you about the ampersand - I don’t believe it has any bearing on how “professional” it looks.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
@ Michael,
Yeah, yeah, alright… I have received decent advice from my Yahoo reps (with specific instructions). Before I had dedicated reps, however, the advice I received from general support staff was far worse than the YSM blog post. I’d be interested to know who, exactly, writes for the YSM Blog?
@ Kerstin,
Thanks for commenting! You hit the nail on the head - contradictory and nonsensical. ‘Nuff said!
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
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July 3rd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I have been somewhat impressed with the attention I get from Yahoo, especially compared with what I get from Google. My rep is responsive and eager, though I do have to be vigilant about him rationalizing an increased monthly spend, of course.
I have found it interesting how the relative scarcity of traffic on Yahoo v. Google for certain terms affects my strategy; with Google i’m just dipping into this massive pool but with Yahoo, I feel like I have to be more aggressive.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:39 am
@ Shuyler,
By “aggressive” do you mean in terms of bidding? It may just be the industries I’m advertising for, but Google remains the most competitive search engine for me. For certain terms (general terms usually), I have to bid 2-3X higher in Google for strong ad positions. But when looking at Google/Yahoo! in relation to traffic, it is much more difficult to get volume from Yahoo!.
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