Comments on: Yahoo Is Going to Automatically Optimize Your PPC Account Without You

By: ECOMMERCE - Bloggers Digest - 6/6/08

ECOMMERCE - Bloggers Digest - 6/6/08 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:49:10 +0000

[...] up, Yahoo Search Marketeers - did you hear the news? Yahoo is Going to Automatically Optimize Your PPC Account Without You. Unless you [...]

By: Shellybelle

Shellybelle — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:03:08 +0000

Hey, maybe do a better job of setting up your accounts? How ’bout that? Or try to find a nice balance between CTR and conversion. What a thought.

By: Jestep

Jestep — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:33:22 +0000

We’ve had Yahoo “Optimize” our account several times. Each time ended up with a high CTR and a much-lower conversion rate. Add that to about 10 cease and desist letters each time for trademark violations, and I would stay far away from Yahoo’s optimization service. The only one that will benefit from this is Yahoo.

By: J N Gross

J N Gross — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:00:32 +0000

Google actually filed for a patent on this concept, you can see all the gory “optimization” details as well at:

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080065620%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080065620&RS=DN/20080065620

Yahoo just seems to be copying this concept.

By: Bloggers Digest - 6/6/08 | Get Elastic

Bloggers Digest - 6/6/08 | Get Elastic — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:11:48 +0000

[...] up, Yahoo Search Marketeers - did you hear the news? Yahoo is Going to Automatically Optimize Your PPC Account Without You. Unless you [...]

By: Phantom Yahoo Spending not an isolated incident | PPC-Advice.com

Phantom Yahoo Spending not an isolated incident | PPC-Advice.com — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:11:49 +0000

[...] over at PPC Hero dropped me a line and confirmed that it is not an isolated incident. Apparently, Yahoo is optimizing campaigns automatically, which could spell disaster for your analytics and conversion spending. What’s surprising [...]

By: Garry Przyklenk

Garry Przyklenk — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:00:17 +0000

Good call on this one, I had thought the issue to be isolated and didn’t think much of it until you pointed it out. Luckily I don’t have many Yahoo accounts under management or this could have been a really big problem. This won’t be good for agency confidence, that’s for sure.

By: Pablo Palatnik

Pablo Palatnik — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:27:21 +0000

I can see why this would offend MANY advertisers, especially those who handle client accounts that now the client thinks they can just probably have Yahoo do the work for them.

Either way, I was offered this as a Beta test I believe about 6 months ago or longer and it took them a RIDICOLUS amount of time to get the campaign back to me by excel and I had to approve it.

I don’t see anything wrong with Yahoo saying, “hey, we think your campaign can perform better and let us show you what we can do” but that should be the end of it.

They shouldnt bound advertisers by any terms & conditions and bs corporate crap.

I see a blog post coming out of this for me =).

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:37:23 +0000

Well, I’m gonna say that the overwhelming response is negative to this discovery! Anyway, we may have a solution for you guys so please stay tuned. We’re gonna try to post some additional information today or tomorrow!

By: JB

JB — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:42:11 +0000

I see this and Google’s Automatic Matching as ways that Yahoo and Google are trying to help their average, stupid advertisers. This may actually work for them, but it comes at the expense of smarter and more sophisticated advertisers.

Short-term padding to the bottom line that hurts and angers your best customers does not seem like a good long-term strategy.