Yahoo! Search Marketing Panama Update YSM underwent a total overhaul of its pay per click program, called the Panama update. Accounts in the old system have been switched over to a new bidding system and are slowly being converted into the new user interface. The new system has a lot of features including a new bid tool, watch lists, analytics, and more. However, the main changes are geo-targeted campaign options, a new bidding system, faster editorial approval, and the reorganization of accounts so they can include multiple campaigns with AdGroups that can circulate multiple ads for a group of keyphrases.
Geo-targeting
Geo-targeting works by locating a user by his/her IP address or geo-specific terms in his/her search query. It applies both to the content network and the regular search network. Advertisers can choose to target an entire market region (the US and English speaking Canada) or regions. Regional targeting is broken further into either state/province/territory targeting or targeting by DMA. Advertisers are not able to target by radius around a specified point.
For local businesses, the most viable option for targeting is by DMA; however, this probably won’t be narrow enough for companies that have one location and are looking to reach a local audience. DMAs typically span large, state-sized regions.
Geo-targeting is still a step up from previous options. Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search (to be discontinued) was too restrictive with ads, ad positioning was largely a mystery, and the program typically wasn’t a good source of traffic.
New Bidding System
Yahoo! Search Marketing’s new bidding system takes into account a quality score, similar to Google AdWords. This is a switch away from a straight bidding system. Advertisers can still see a range of competitor’s bids for top positions.
Presumably this is a more competitive bidding system that raises costs for advertisers. It makes it impossible to tell how much a click will actually cost or what the best bid for the position is. It also creates other uncertainties about value, which can cause advertisers to overbid.
An advertiser could previously look at competitors’ bids in detail, set his/her bid, and know from competitors’ bids how much a click would cost. An advertiser could also eye-ball the range of bids. So, for example, an advertiser might see that there is a bid gap of a couple dollars between the number three and four positions. He/She would then be able to see that the number four spot would probably earn him/her the most bang for the buck, and locate there. The new bidding system doesn’t allow for this kind of immediate decision making. If an advertiser is going to do a detailed analysis, he/she would have to run reports and look at bidding history to get an idea of where they should locate ads.
The Rest
The rest of YSM’s features also sprout from Google AdWords successes. Advertisers can get listings approved for non-controversial keyphrases almost immediately, although they still get manually reviewed by editors later.
Advertisers can setup multiple campaigns - some of which can have regional targeting, some of which can be targeted only to the content network. Advertisers can A/B test multiple ads to see what works the best.
Panama Update – Conclusions
New features offered by YSM makes their pay per click program match up better with AdWords, though it has become more complex in its bidding system. Overall, it is more challenging to advertisers but provides better advertising options.
Steve Loszewski is a Google AdWords qualified professional and has passed the Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador exam. He actively manages pay per click accounts at Pure Visibility, an internet marketing services company.
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