Assisted Yahoo Search Marketing Account
A thread at DP got my attention earlier today regarding Assisted Yahoo Search Marketing accounts. Basically you pay $199 for Yahoo to set up an initial account for you. According to the promo page this is what you get:"With Assisted Set-Up, Yahoo! Search Marketing can help create a Sponsored Search campaign for you customized to your business goals and budget. We will help choose relevant keywords, write ads and suggest maximum bid amounts that work within your budget. You can expect to receive your proposed campaign within 2 to 5 business days, and we will contact you to discuss it in detail. This is a one-time set-up service to provide you with a strong foundation from which to manage your account and from which to model future campaigns."Just like I don't let my banker write my checks, I've always been leery of having a paid search provider set up my campaigns. I've also seen work from account specialists at Google in the past and was less than impressed...to say the least.DavidK1 from DP had this to say about Yahoo's Assisted accounts:"Hmmm.. Glad I found your thread. I actually just got a call from YSM yesterday sayinig they wanted to provide this service to us for free because we had reached the "Gold" level. I thought that was funny, because we only have a small test campaign that has been running since early March. "Followed by:"UPDATE A couple of days ago I noticed some new campaigns had been created in my account. Today I get a call from the YSM rep I have been working with, and he said he should have the complete proposal very soon."And then again followed by:"This service is completely WORTHLESS!! I couldn't believe at all the inappropriate and broad keywords, and how they were all jumbled together in one campaign. There were also a lot of keywords for things we DIDN'T sell! We have maybe 10 different leather lingerie products total for men, and they had this whole campaign with words like "boxer shorts", "underwear", and "vests". The word "leather" was only used in 2 terms.Everything was also set at .20 clicks. It didn't matter if it was a very broad and general term, or a more specific and detailed one."Sounds like things I've seen in the past. "Account experts" that barely understand paid search....at all.To me the lesson is simple - no one cares about your business and it's success like you do. While it may sound appealing to spend only $200 for "expert" service the old saying is more often than not true...you get what you pay for.Anyone have a good experience with allowing a paid search company like Yahoo or Google access to set up your account(s)?
Labels: yahoo assisted set up, yahoo search marketing, ysm
comments: 2 so farposted by: Jeremy Mayespermanent link: Assisted Yahoo Search Marketing Account
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

AdWords: Show Ads Evenly Over Time Setting Not Working
I posted about this at DP but figured I would mention here too to see if others are seeing the same thing. Basically, the daily budget I have set for one of my campaigns, despite having the option checked to show ads evenly over time, is being used up very early in the day.Someone else just posted that they are now seeing the same thing.I've literally checked hundreds of campaigns and don't see the issue anywhere else except for in the one campaign I've posted about.I just sent a message to support about an hour ago to see if they can shed some light on the subject. If you're seeing the same thing or know how to fix it please post in the comments.
Labels: adwords
comments: 5 so farposted by: Jeremy Mayespermanent link: AdWords: Show Ads Evenly Over Time Setting Not Working
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

AdWords is Stealing From You (or you just don't know what you're doing)
I'm sometimes amazed that people will immediately jump to conclusions and pass blame without doing any real research or significant statistical sampling to arrive at their conclusions. In this post, I'm referring to people who present wild theories as fact in relation to AdWords. The majority of the time the people making these claims have very limited experience and it's obvious they have spent no time actually reading about the product they are using - AdWords. AdWords is marketing and why people think they should just be able to press the "make me money now" button and watch their bank accounts grow is beyond me.This morning a thread at DP caught my eye - Google AdWords is Stealing from You!. You can head over and read the whole thread if you like, I'll just highlight some of the more "interesting" comments from the opening post. Comments from the post in bold."In case you were wondering why your campaign budget's always reach the specified max each day, here is the answer: IT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF BY GOOGLE."Here's the thing...not all my campaigns reach their max budget everyday. Actually, the majority don't. I guess that means I'm not being ripped off by AdWords:-)"I have used adwords for 2 and a half years and was spending $65 per day which was always reached without fail. Then a funny thing happened. Due to a mix up with their new my client center, I was forced to open a new account with a different email address but using the same campaign, same keywords and same bids per click. I didn't transfer it but rather typed in the details again from scratch into the new account. I ran this for the last couple of days and my total costs for each day were around $7 as opposed to $65. This is even though the ads were sitting in the same position as the previous campaign. "Lots of important details missing here but that's pretty normal for these types of posts. I don't expect the poster to actually present relevant details, they most likely don't even know what's relevant to the discussion and what's not.Basically what I get from the above is the person created a new account and then recreated all the same ads/keywords and other account info. My assumption could be right or wrong...again, a lot of important details missing. After this new account went live they were only spending $7 vs $65 they had previously spent on a daily basis. Without any data or info my hunch would be the $7 represents what they spent on the search network (goes live quick) and the balance was spent on content ads. When you create a new account with new ads and everything else it can take awhile for everything to get approved and running and to this day there are still reports of additional delays with new AdWords accounts.The person posting message thinks there's another reason for the drop in spend though...it's because AdWords has been ripping him off for the past two and half years and this new account is showing the "real" data!"As such, if you feel you are being overcharged, re-open a new account and type in your campaign details from scratch."That's just all around bad advice."You will be both shocked and horrified with the outcome."Probably, as you're going to start over and lose any good history that was associated with your account."And don't worry about their trying to tell you that longer term customers have better standing as it is a lie."Wrap an extra layer of tin foil around the hat please..."The only reason you are told this is they have suckered you in to believing that you really are receiving $65 worth (or whatever your max is) of clicks per day."Anyone who is not validating numbers with their internal system is just foolish."Have a look back at your payment history to Google and ask yourself why it seems to have increased in cost gradually whilst business hasn't."If that's what you're seeing it's because THE ACCOUNT IS BEING POORLY MANAGED."The answer is Google's click fraud."No, the answer is THE ACCOUNT IS BEING POORLY MANAGED."That's right they are stealing from you with a program designed to mislead you into believing you really are receiving that amount of traffic. As soon as you open another account, you will see how many clicks you really are receiving. "That's so foolish and inaccurate I'm not ever sure how to respond. So I won't. Besides this:-)"I am never going to keep open another campaign for more than two months with them and suggest you all consider doing the same. If you are skeptical, just try it for yourself."See what I mean about misinterpreting data to arrive as inaccurate conclusions? Following that advice you would consistently be dealing with new account headaches...not to mention the never ending line of unique credit cards and other info you would need to produce to keep opening new accounts.The bottom line, at least for me, is this: AdWords is working for tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people and companies. If it's not working for you check the variable you have the most control over - the person/people running your campaign(s). Hammers don't build houses, carpenters do. Wrenches don't fix cars, mechanics do. Stoves don't prepare meals, chefs do. AdWords doesn't make sales, marketers do.
Labels: adwords
comments: 5 so farposted by: Jeremy Mayespermanent link: AdWords is Stealing From You (or you just don't know what you're doing)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

AdWords Search Query Performance Report (New)
Received notification today of a new AdWords report called "Search Query Performance" report. According to the info I received the search query report "is a new report type that shows performance data for search queries which triggered your ads and received clicks. Search query performance data provides insight into how users find and react to your ads. "According to Google the purpose of this tool is to help you;1) Select the correct match type (i.e broad, phrase, exact or negative) for existing keywords.2) Identify new keywords you may want to add.3) Identify existing keywords you may want to delete.Search query performance reports will include search queries on the search network from May 2, 2007 and onward.You can select this report from the reports tab:Interesting report - check it out in your account if you haven't already.Edit - I also found this page that goes into a lot more detail in the AdWords support center.
Labels: adwords, adwords reports, adwords search network
comments: 4 so farposted by: Jeremy Mayespermanent link: AdWords Search Query Performance Report (New)
Friday, June 08, 2007

Super Secret AdWords Landing Page Quality Score Update
Via Search Engine Roundtable there was a landing page quality score update last night.I really didn't notice any abnormal changes in any of my accounts except for an affiliate campaign I've been running. Even though that campaign was doing well for me in terms of conversions the landing page is just a affiliate loaded piece of junk. I'm not surprised it's getting hit with high minimum bids...I actually expected this to happen weeks ago.Has anyone running a clean landing page (no ads or affiliate content/links) been hit with high minimum bids?Update aside, it seems odd that the only place that announced it was SER. Is the AdWords blog broken or something;-)