Comments on: If You Don’t Check Your Yahoo! Minimum Bids Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/ Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:42:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: John http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22054 John Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:01:33 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22054 @ Joomla, While I am certainly edging closer and closer to the "minimum bid is a total joke" line of thinking, I certainly haven't written Yahoo! off as a source of traffic and conversions. It all depends on your niche and putting Yahoo's performance in perspective with your overall PPC efforts. But if you find that it simply doesn't work, transfer your budget to those campaigns that DO work! As for nofollow - this is a part of our efforts to ward off SPAM. We don't want to give incentives for people to comment for the sake of receiving a link. We want honest, frank discussions! But rest assured, we have learned about SO many blogs and websites from our readers and their comments, and we do our best to link out to them within our posts each week. Thanks for commenting! @ Joomla,

While I am certainly edging closer and closer to the “minimum bid is a total joke” line of thinking, I certainly haven’t written Yahoo! off as a source of traffic and conversions. It all depends on your niche and putting Yahoo’s performance in perspective with your overall PPC efforts. But if you find that it simply doesn’t work, transfer your budget to those campaigns that DO work!

As for nofollow - this is a part of our efforts to ward off SPAM. We don’t want to give incentives for people to comment for the sake of receiving a link. We want honest, frank discussions! But rest assured, we have learned about SO many blogs and websites from our readers and their comments, and we do our best to link out to them within our posts each week.

Thanks for commenting!

]]> By: Joomla Web Design http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22023 Joomla Web Design Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:44:10 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22023 PS to John, why do you have the nofollow tag if I may ask? PS to John, why do you have the nofollow tag if I may ask?

]]> By: Joomla Web Design http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22022 Joomla Web Design Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:43:20 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-22022 This Yahoo minimum bid is a total joke. I never get ANY traffic from them anyways... This Yahoo minimum bid is a total joke. I never get ANY traffic from them anyways…

]]> By: Nitin Verma http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-20301 Nitin Verma Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:28:04 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-20301 >> @ Wasabi and all other readers: >> My test has been spectacularly anti-climactic! My uber-targeted, super-relevant >> keyword is still chugging away at $0.10 bid! It’s only been a week, so I’ll keep >> any eye on my bid and let you guys know if it wavers. Hi John, Is your keyword still serving? >> @ Wasabi and all other readers:
>> My test has been spectacularly anti-climactic! My uber-targeted, super-relevant >> keyword is still chugging away at $0.10 bid! It’s only been a week, so I’ll keep
>> any eye on my bid and let you guys know if it wavers.

Hi John, Is your keyword still serving?

]]> By: James http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-13639 James Fri, 30 May 2008 01:34:29 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-13639 This is so frustrating; I don't know why they're doing this. One of the arguments I've had with them is this. Since I'm an affiliate marketer, I can track the profit I've made on every keyword down to the penny. Also, I know exactly what position is profitable. A keyword might make me money in the 8th position, but lose me money in the 4th position. I recently had to bid a keyword up by $.40; the average CPC for the first few clicks I received were at the new minimum bid amount, but as the quality of the keyword increased, the average CPC went down. When I called my Yahoo account rep, she really tried to sell me on this and kept telling me "Yeah, but as your quality goes up, your click cost will actually go below the new minimum". What I tried to explain to her, but she obviously didn't get it is when I increased my bid price to the new minimum bid price, it made my position on the page go up by 4 positions. Now a keyword that was making me money at the #8 position is now losing me money at the #4 position and since I can't decrease my bid price, I can't get back to the #8 position by dropping my bid, I just have to hope other advertisers bid above me and push me back down. I had another keyword with a click through rate of 5.13 and an ad quality score of 4 bars and they want me to increase my bid by more than $.40. This is ridiculous, if the new bidding is to increase the quality of keywords and increase keyword/ad text relevancy, then why was the minimum bid price increased on my highly relevant keyword and ad? And when you call Yahoo to get some REAL answers, they have all their robot account reps programmed to say “There are a lot of factors involved” With an answer like that, they can get away with pretty much anything. This is so frustrating; I don’t know why they’re doing this. One of the arguments I’ve had with them is this. Since I’m an affiliate marketer, I can track the profit I’ve made on every keyword down to the penny. Also, I know exactly what position is profitable. A keyword might make me money in the 8th position, but lose me money in the 4th position.

I recently had to bid a keyword up by $.40; the average CPC for the first few clicks I received were at the new minimum bid amount, but as the quality of the keyword increased, the average CPC went down. When I called my Yahoo account rep, she really tried to sell me on this and kept telling me “Yeah, but as your quality goes up, your click cost will actually go below the new minimum”.

What I tried to explain to her, but she obviously didn’t get it is when I increased my bid price to the new minimum bid price, it made my position on the page go up by 4 positions. Now a keyword that was making me money at the #8 position is now losing me money at the #4 position and since I can’t decrease my bid price, I can’t get back to the #8 position by dropping my bid, I just have to hope other advertisers bid above me and push me back down.

I had another keyword with a click through rate of 5.13 and an ad quality score of 4 bars and they want me to increase my bid by more than $.40. This is ridiculous, if the new bidding is to increase the quality of keywords and increase keyword/ad text relevancy, then why was the minimum bid price increased on my highly relevant keyword and ad?

And when you call Yahoo to get some REAL answers, they have all their robot account reps programmed to say “There are a lot of factors involved” With an answer like that, they can get away with pretty much anything.

]]> By: Texmom http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-11311 Texmom Tue, 06 May 2008 21:22:24 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-11311 ALL of my keywords are now inactive with minimum bids from .50 to 3.00 per click.So do they want to go out of business? Because I hadn't been getting much from them this last six months anyway. This should drive the nail in their coffin. ALL of my keywords are now inactive with minimum bids from .50 to 3.00 per click.So do they want to go out of business? Because I hadn’t been getting much from them this last six months anyway. This should drive the nail in their coffin.

]]> By: John http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-10175 John Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:32:15 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-10175 @ Mack: What really kills me is Yahoo's admission that your bids could be based on "how much we think that keyword is worth." Yikes! @ Terry: So far most of my accounts have been spared from wide spread bid hikes (guess I'm practicing what I preach!). A lot of people have been hit hard, though, and it makes one wonder how thin the line is between relevancy and greed? @ Wasabi and all other readers: My test has been spectacularly anti-climactic! My uber-targeted, super-relevant keyword is still chugging away at $0.10 bid! It's only been a week, so I'll keep any eye on my bid and let you guys know if it wavers. @ Mack:
What really kills me is Yahoo’s admission that your bids could be based on “how much we think that keyword is worth.” Yikes!

@ Terry:
So far most of my accounts have been spared from wide spread bid hikes (guess I’m practicing what I preach!). A lot of people have been hit hard, though, and it makes one wonder how thin the line is between relevancy and greed?

@ Wasabi and all other readers:
My test has been spectacularly anti-climactic! My uber-targeted, super-relevant keyword is still chugging away at $0.10 bid! It’s only been a week, so I’ll keep any eye on my bid and let you guys know if it wavers.

]]> By: Wasabi http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-10019 Wasabi Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:50:05 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-10019 Hi John, Good article. Im very upset about Yahoo with their new politic. Im also very curious about how the results of your tests. How the results? Wasabi Hi John,

Good article. Im very upset about Yahoo with their new politic. Im also very curious about how the results of your tests. How the results?

Wasabi

]]> By: Terry Stanfield http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-9991 Terry Stanfield Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:21:21 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-9991 Thanks for the heads up. I checked all my clients with YSM and had no issues (Yet). Google is driving me crazy with one account on a couple of terms and we had to make a decision to either raise the bid or turn it off. Because the ROAS was so low and the cost was getting up there we turned it off. Some of the other terms we raised the bids because of the "branding" value. As you said it is all about the $$$ but that is how the game is played. Again, thanks for the update. Terry Thanks for the heads up. I checked all my clients with YSM and had no issues (Yet). Google is driving me crazy with one account on a couple of terms and we had to make a decision to either raise the bid or turn it off. Because the ROAS was so low and the cost was getting up there we turned it off. Some of the other terms we raised the bids because of the “branding” value.

As you said it is all about the $$$ but that is how the game is played.

Again, thanks for the update.

Terry

]]> By: Mack http://www.ppchero.com/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-9664 Mack Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:02:34 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/2008/04/22/if-you-don%e2%80%99t-check-your-yahoo-minimum-bids-now-you%e2%80%99ll-hate-yourself-later/#comment-9664 They said it couldn't be done. They said that Yahoo had reached the top of annoying time wasting features that add nothing but time and take nothing but money. How foolish they were. On friday when I received the first notice on one of my clients, I checked in to my account to find over 50 keywords "pending inactive" because of quality scores. Now to be somewhat fair to Yahoo, some of these keywords are not immediately recogniseable as relevant by the standards they probably use. But after reconciling all those new minimum bids, I log in today to find 38 new pending inactives. To me, the most irritating thing about their new minimum bid system is that it doesn't use a tiered quality score minimum in the way that Google does. This means that based on the fluctuations of the market, if you set something to the minimum bid, the slightest variation can send your quality score down enough that your minimum bid goes up a penny and what do you know, you've got an inactive keyword again. Good work, Yahoo! They said it couldn’t be done. They said that Yahoo had reached the top of annoying time wasting features that add nothing but time and take nothing but money. How foolish they were. On friday when I received the first notice on one of my clients, I checked in to my account to find over 50 keywords “pending inactive” because of quality scores. Now to be somewhat fair to Yahoo, some of these keywords are not immediately recogniseable as relevant by the standards they probably use. But after reconciling all those new minimum bids, I log in today to find 38 new pending inactives.

To me, the most irritating thing about their new minimum bid system is that it doesn’t use a tiered quality score minimum in the way that Google does. This means that based on the fluctuations of the market, if you set something to the minimum bid, the slightest variation can send your quality score down enough that your minimum bid goes up a penny and what do you know, you’ve got an inactive keyword again.

Good work, Yahoo!

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