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Yahoo Can Still Alter Your PPC Account And This Time You Can’t Opt OutPosted by Joe on July 14, 2008 in Yahoo! Search Marketing |
If you are running a Yahoo search marketing campaign: you have to read this post. Don’t mean to cause a panic, but this is import folks.
Last month I reported that Yahoo was going to automatically optimize your search marketing campaign without you. Just last Friday I ranted on how Yahoo’s new market reserve price killed one of my campaigns. The hits just keep coming as I unearthed a new, highly-questionable tactic employed by Yahoo: Ad Profiling.
The background: I was doing some research within one of my Yahoo accounts because since July 1 there have been a series decrease in performance. Basically, I was looking to find what I had broken because my performance had taken a nose dive (let’s face it, it happens). I checked my upload history to see what I had uploaded recently that may have caused the change and this is what I found:
Obviously, my curiosity was peaked: what was Yahoo uploading into my account without my consent? I had already opted out of the automated optimizations that Yahoo is now implementing. I called my Yahoo representative and I found out about ad profiling.
Ad Profiling definition: Yahoo will go into your account to pause poorly-performing keywords (keywords with a low click-through rate), insert new ad texts, and make other undetermined changes to your account (Still doing some research on this, but bid changes and keyword insertion may also be part of Profiling). The goal of these actions is increase the click-through rate and spend within your account.
How does Ad Profiling differ from automated optimizations? The goal of the account optimization is to make your account work better and the goal of Ad Profiling is to increase your spend and click-through rate, but their tactics are vaguely similar.
Who implements these changes? The Ad Profiling project is implemented by Yahoo’s account quality team. The automated account optimizations are implemented by the Yahoo editorial team.
However, there is one core difference between the two that you need to be aware of: you can not opt-out of Ad Profiling within your Yahoo account.
This means that Ad Profiling will be implemented within your Yahoo account without your prior knowledge. And you will not know (unless you specifically ask your account manager) what has been changed within your account. So, please monitor your Yahoo accounts closely as this new system may have already affected your campaigns or it may soon enough.
- Our Greatest Hits for July!
- A Few Items You May Have Missed – That Will Surely Affect Your PPC Account
- The Rogue Gardener: Yahoo’s Ad Profiling May Kill Your Weeds And Your Roses
- Flying Blind with Ask.com
- You Will Never Write the Perfect Ad Text, but Here Are 2 Ways To Keep Getting Closer
July 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
This definitely is going to anger some PPC users… will be interesting to see if other PPC programs follow suit.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
If I see this happen to me, that will be the last straw. Unbelievable.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
This is very disturbing. I don’t want anyone messing with any of my ppc data. It’s like my credit card company buying stuff for me simply because of my previous spending pattern. It doesn’t make sense.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
[...] PPC Hero is reporting a new practice at Yahoo! that could seriously affect your PPC account there. The practice is called Ad Profiling. [...]
July 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
[...] Yahoo Can Still Alter Your PPC Account And This Time You Can’t Opt Out, PPC Hero [...]
July 16th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I’m curious to see how businesses react to this change if yahoo plans on expanding this process more. In my mind that seems a bit unethical, especially if they can change your bid price to something that would waste your budget getting you undesired clicks.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Joe, I’d love to see more follow-up on this. Is this something they are doing with select clients (10%)? Or this a new “feature” for everyone?
July 16th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Greetings everyone. Thanks for the comments. I agree; it will be interesting to see the extent to which Yahoo alters accounts, and how users advertisers react to this.
JB: According to my Yahoo rep, this is a new feature for everyone. The client for which I noticed the change wasn’t necessarily “special” in any way.