Raheel Aquil: Search Engines Marketing Specialist: 2009

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog » The Next Wave of Search

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog » The Next Wave of Search: "The Next Wave of Search

Yahoo! Search Advertising Enhancements That Deliver

With all of the events that Yahoo! has gone through in the last several months, one of the questions I get is: “Does Yahoo! still care about search?” The answer is: Absolutely. In fact, Yahoo! is delivering a series of enhancements that deliver value to consumers and advertisers alike.

Our new search enhancements fall into four major areas: innovation, transparency and control, value, and consumer relevance.

Innovation
Only Yahoo! can combine the power of search and display to provide great value to our advertisers. Our search retargeting and Rich Ads in Search products are great examples of just that. Our initial testing suggests that Rich Ads in Search can help improve click-through rate by as much as 25%, and some advertisers have even more impressive results.

Later this month, we’ll build on the success of Rich Ads in Search and let some of our large brand advertisers bid for Rich Ads placement and pay by the click. Those advertisers will be able to manage Rich Ads and their budgeting, targeting and reporting directly from the Sponsored Search interface and our APIs.

Transparency and Control
You want to be in control of your ad campaigns. You want to know where your ads are showing, and you want better tools to manage them. That is why we just rolled out the Ad Delivery Report, which lets you see where your ads are showing on our various partner sites and how their traffic is performing for you. You can use our Blocked Domains feature to block sites that aren’t working for you.

You’ll have even more powerful tools to control where your ads show with Network Distribution. Network Distribution will let you run your ads on either Yahoo! or its partner network, and set bids separately for each channel. We expect to launch Network Distribution in the first quarter of next year.

Also next year, you’ll be able to get a look at our Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop tool, an offline tool designed to help sophisticated search advertisers create and manage large campaigns. The tool will help you complete search advertising tasks easier and more quickly. If you’re interested in it now, please contact your account representative or sign up to inquire about our beta program.

Value
We know it’s all about value and results so we want you to get the most out of your investment. That is why we recently adjusted our pricing model to better align what you pay with the value of the clicks you receive. And we keep going. Later this year, you’ll see enhancements to our ad selection technology that are designed to improve the way ads get matched to consumer queries. Better matching means better results, and should lead to better return for you.

Consumer relevance
More personally relevant searches translate into more qualified leads for advertisers. Our new search results page gives users tools to discover new information, explore related concepts, and filter search results by specific sites and types of content such as people, videos and discussion forums.

We are also creating search that learns. Using search science that detects user intent by studying search behavior over time, our search technology is designed to better understand what people are searching for by looking at their previous searches.

If you haven’t noticed, our new marketing campaign puts the consumer at the center of everything Yahoo! does, and we’re backing that up by investing heavily in the consumer experience. Our success is tied to attracting more engaged consumers who, in turn, search more frequently. And that’s good news for you."

Friday, September 11, 2009

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog » Do You Know Where Your Ads Are?

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog » Do You Know Where Your Ads Are?:

"Do You Know Where Your Ads Are?

New feature helps you see how your traffic performs

Would you like to know where your ads are running? Yahoo! is launching some new features that will let you know which Yahoo! partners are providing you traffic, and charge you according to the performance of the traffic you receive.

There you are
You probably know that your ads can appear not only on Yahoo, but on partners throughout our distribution network, and that you can block them if they’re not performing for you. But until now, if you didn’t have a pretty good head for web measurement stuff, you probably didn’t know which traffic sources were working for you. Now our Ad Delivery Report will let you see how your ads are performing on various partners, and use that information to block the partners who don’t give you what you need.

The Ad Delivery Report shows you not only your traffic sources—whether that be Yahoo! or some of our partners—but also how your traffic from those sources converts. Combined with one of our analytics options, you can track measurements such as impressions, click-throughs, conversions and return on ad spend. You can also filter the results by account, domain, distribution channel and tactic.

If you find traffic sources that you don’t want, you can enter the domains in our Blocked Domains tool. Keep in mind that you can block a maximum of 500 domains, so pick the domains that are most important for you to block based on the amount and performance of traffic. Make sure you’re getting enough traffic on those domains to make informed decisions about their performance, and keep in mind that when you block domains you reduce the traffic you’re likely to receive, too.

You can get started with the Ad Delivery Report by clicking on the “Reports” tab in the Sponsored Search interface, or learn more about how to use it in our help center.

Pay for what you get
As you’ll see when you start looking at your Ad Delivery Report, not every partner will perform the same for you. We’ve discounted our click charges accordingly for some time now. We’re now expanding the adjustments we make to our click charges based on our assessment of the performance of traffic coming from sources within our distribution network.

This will include deeper discounts on click charges for lower-performing traffic, and potential premiums on click charges for higher-performing traffic—in other words, your click charges will be more closely aligned to the performance of the traffic you receive.

How does it affect you? Based on our analysis, we expect that most advertisers will see click charges drop or remain unchanged, while a small fraction of advertisers may experience an increase in click charges. These adjustments are based on the performance of the traffic source, and won’t be affected by the quality of your ads. And, as always, you will never pay more for a click than the amount you set as your bid.

Now in a town near you
Sponsored Search has several new features that let you manage your billing and account information more easily. You can now edit your payment methods more simply, such as when you want to swap a credit card out for another, and more easily set an appropriate automatic charge amount to fund your account when your balance gets low. If you’ve just signed up with us using a promotional code, the system will let you see which credits are being applied to your account, along with their status. For more details about these changes, see what’s new in Sponsored Search.

We’ve also updated our geographic targeting feature. It already let you get specific in your campaigns by allowing targeting down to the city or ZIP code levels, and it’s now even more specific with the addition of 746 new cities. So, if you were dying to target the good folks of Beverly Hills, Calif. or San Benito, Texas, today is your lucky day."

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Product Search Engines Offering Free Retailer Listings

Google Shopping – Google offers a free product listing to e-retailers. Retailers can upload a feed of their products or input product information individually including image URL, product URL, price and various other product specifics. Google Shopping visitors can sort products by relevance of their search terms, price, brand names, product ratings and store ratings. Products listed in this free price comparison engine expire after 31 days.

Live Products – Live, a Microsoft Corporation website also offers e-stores free product listings. Advertisers can upload their product information manually or in bulk via their FTP. Visitors of Live Products can search by product brand, category & price range. When visitors find the product they are looking for they then click to compare prices, which brings up a list of retailers and the product price for each. Visitors can click on the retailer they are interested in buying from and are brought to their website to purchase. This Product Comparison site offers visitors the ability to quickly and easily compare prices from different retailers. Items listed in Live Products expire after 30 days.

MSN Shopping –An affiliate website of Live Products offers retailers free product listings. MSN Shopping products are submitted and updated through Live Products. Visitors of this Shopping Comparison Engine can filter results by category, brand, seller and price range. They can also sort their results by price, ratings and alphabetically.

Price.com – Price.com offers e-stores the ability to list their products free of cost. When a visitor searches this price comparison engine for a product they are given a list of items along with images. When a visitor clicks on the product they are interested in they are given a list of stores, the store rating and their corresponding prices. When a visitor finds the store they want to buy from and click on the name they are brought to that advertiser’s website to purchase.

TheFind.com – E-stores can add their products with ease and free of cost to TheFind.com. When searching for a product visitors are offered the choice of filtering results by brands and stores. After finding the product they are looking for they are given all the product results with prices and store names and are listed in no particular order. Once a searcher finds the product and price they click on that store and are brought to their website. Retailers submit their products and this price comparison engine will crawl their website to constantly update product listings.

Shopping Search Engines with Cost Per Click Retailer Listings

About.com Shopping – Products are listed on this price comparison engine for a cpc basis which is powered by PriceGrabber.com. Retailers interested in being listed on About.com need to submit their information to PriceGrabber.com. Visitors of this shopping site find the product they are looking for and click on compare prices to view prices of all listed e-stores.

Amazon.com – Amazon.com allows retailers to list their products for a fee of $39.99 per month. In addition to this shopping search engines listing fee, retailers also have to pay Amazon a percentage of sales. Percentages paid by retailers are dependent on the type of products they sell. The obvious advantage of Amazon is the mass amount of traffic it receives, but in many cases the costs of listing outweigh profits. When visitors search for products they are offered an assortment of filter options to find the product that best suits them. E-stores can upload their products either one at a time or in bulk.

AOL Shopping – The popular website AOL, has a shopping comparison site which is also powered by PriceGrabber.com. AOL Shopping allows visitors the ability to filter searches by brand and price range. These filter options allow users to locate the product they want quicker and compare retailers easier than most other product comparison websites. Retailers wishing to be listed on this price comparison site should submit their data through PriceGrabber.com.

Ask Shopping – This product comparison site is powered by Pronto.com. Retailers can submit their product listings in bulk to Pronto.com and pay on a cpc basis. When visitors find the product they want they are given a list of retailers and their corresponding price. Clicking on a price will bring you to that retailer’s website and they will then be charged a cpc fee.

Bizrate – This product comparison site is an affiliate of Shopzilla. All listed products were uploaded in bulk through Shopzilla. Bizrate has the same filters and listing practices as its shopping comparison affiliate, Shopzilla.

DealTime – Part of the Shopping.com network, DealTime allows retailers to list their products on a cpc basis. Retailers wishing to be listed on this shopping comparison engine can upload their data through Shopping.com. This price comparison website offers the same search filters as most other shopping engines.

Excite Shopping – Products on this comparison site are listed on a cpc basis and are submitted via Pronto.com. This shopping engine offers the similar search filters as other comparison sites, including: price, brand and merchant. Stores which carry the searched product are listed along with their prices and when clicked on visitors are brought to that merchant’s website.

Lycos Shopping – Lycos Shopping is another affiliate of the price comparison site, Pronto.com. Retailers wishing to list their products on this shopping site must submit their data through Pronto.com. Search filters on this price comparison site include: price range, brand, product features and merchants. When a visitor locates a product and a price they like, they click on a price and are brought to that retailers site and that e-store is charged their cpc fee.

MySimon – MySimon is yet another PriceGrabber.com affiliate. Merchants interested in submitting their products should do so through PriceGrabber.com. When a searcher locates the product they are interested in on this shopping site they can compare prices of all e-stores carrying that item, allowing them to locate the best price. After clicking on the best price a visitor is brought to that advertiser’s website.

NexTag.com – Retailers can list their products on this price comparison engine on a cost per click basis. When a searcher clicks on a product the retailer is than charged a fee based on the product being sold. As with PPC, a person can click on an ad go to the retailer’s website and they not buy, costing the e-store money and lowering profit margins. This shopping comparison site accepts bulk product uploads but in order to set up an account be ready to deposit $150.00.

PriceGrabber.com – This product comparison website allows e-stores to list their products for a cost per click fee. When visitors find a product they are given a list of online retailers and their corresponding prices. After the searcher finds the price they want they click the product and are brought to that retailers store and the retailer is charged a small fee. Although the cpc fees are minimal, if they are clicked on numerous times it can become quite expensive. For retailers to list their products in this comparison engine they must deposit $50.00 and upload their data via a bulk feed.

PriceRunner – Retailers are able to list their products at a cpc rate on PriceRunner.com. E-stores can upload their products to this product search engine in bulk. PriceRunner does not offer all the search filters for visitors that other price comparison engines offer. Searchers can only filter results by brands and types. When results are listed they show an image, store name and product price. When a visitor finds the product they are searching for they click the store link and are brought to that e-store.

PriceScan.com –PriceScan.com offers e-stores the ability to list their products on a cost per click basis. Visitors search for a product and are brought to a page with various search matches. Clicking on a product bring visitors of this price comparison site to a listing of retailers along with their prices. When a searcher clicks on the retailer they wish to purchase from they are brought to their website to buy and the retailer is charged a fee. To setup a retailer account with PriceScan, be ready to deposit $50.00.

Pronto.com – E-Stores can list their products on this comparison site on a cost per click basis. The cpc fees paid vary depending on the type of products being listed, but are pretty consistent with other cpc comparison sites. Searchers of this shopping site can filter their search results by price, brand and merchant. After locating the product they want, visitors can compare prices from all retailers listing that item and when choosing a merchant are brought to their website and the merchant is then charged their cost per click fee. Retailers can upload their products in bulk to this product search engine.

Shopping.com – Retailers can list products on this price comparison engine on a cpc basis. Visitors of this popular shopping site can filter product results by price, brand and store. Product searchers can also view reviews of site retailers. When visitors are interested in a product they click on a price and are brought to that merchant’s website and the retailer is charged a fee.

Shopzilla – E-stores wishing to be listed on this price comparison engine pay based on a cost per click fee schedule. Products listed on Shopzilla can be uploaded in bulk and are listed on numerous other affiliate shopping sites. Searches can filter products by brand, price, store and numerous other filters depending on the product. All products which match a category are listed in no particular order and include the store name and their corresponding price.

Yahoo Shopping – CPC pricing is used for retailers wishing to list their products on this very popular shopping engine with fees varying depending on product categories. Retailers can also pay to be a featured merchant and have their products listed on top of searches. Along with the normal search filters, this comparison site offers visitors the ability to compare product listings side by side, allowing them to easily find the best deal.

Even after reviewing the list of shopping search engines you may still be asking yourself “which ones are the best to list in”? Although all of the above comparison sites are popular and get a lot of traffic it is expensive to list in all of them. Aside from listing in all of the free product comparison sites there is no real answer to which of the cpc comparison sites are best to list in. The best way to find the right solutions for your business is to just try them one at a time. By reviewing the cpc comparison site statistics for your account you can tell how many clicks you received and through further reviewing analytics you can track which products were purchased. The comparison site which drives the most traffic to your website and gives you the most purchases is the best solution for a successful e-store.

Ad Extensions - Introduction - AdWords Help

Ad Extensions - Introduction - AdWords Help: "Ad Extensions - Introduction
Print

Ad extensions expand a standard text ad with additional business information such as an address, helping web users easily find out more about your business. Ads will appear as normal across Google and the Google Network, but the additional information may also appear on Google.com and its properties, such as Google Maps, in an enhanced format. For example, if you own a bicycle repair shop in downtown Tokyo, a customer near your store searching for bicycle repair shops or tools to repair their bicycle is a local user you could more effectively reach with ad extensions. The user will see your text ad, along with your business information.

Pricing and traffic

You're charged in the same way for ad extensions as you are for a standard text ad. However when your ads are shown on Google Maps, you won't be charged for clicks on your ad that expand the info windows on the map interface, but you will be charged for clickthroughs from the info window to your website.

To learn more about ad pricing in your location and currency, please see the account fees finder.

Where ad extensions appear

Your expanded ads are eligible to appear on Google and its properties (including Google Maps) and the Google Search Network. You can use ad extensions to target multiple locations wi"

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Microsoft, Yahoo agree on long-sought search deal by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Microsoft, Yahoo agree on long-sought search deal by AP: Yahoo! Tech: "SUNNYVALE, Calif. -

Microsoft has reached a deal with Yahoo for an Internet search partnership, ending years of back and forth negotiations.

The agreement announced Wednesday gives Microsoft access to the Internet's second-largest search engine audience.

It adds a potentially potent weapon to Microsoft's Internet arsenal as the software maker girds for an online assault against Google.

Yahoo is teaming with Microsoft following years of financial decay. In the process, Yahoo hopes to recover some of the money that was squandered in 2008 when it turned down a chance to sell the entire company to Microsoft for $47.5 billion.

Microsoft wants to process more search requests because the inquiries have become a critical lever for selling Internet ads."

Say Goodbye to the Dell Mini 9" Netbook

Say Goodbye to the Dell Mini 9" Netbook: "Dell announced that the Mini 9 Netbook was officially discontinued after about 9 months on the market. (Hmm.. did they plan that?)

Netbooks are quickly becoming very popular! And why shouldn’t they? They’re great for travel, perfect for bloggers, and an excellent computer option for kids. So, why is Dell discontinuing?

The good news is that Dell did expand their Mini line and they have a few 10 inch options available for you to choose from if Dell is your preferred computer manufacturer. The Dell Mini 10v (pictured here in green) has a starting price of $299.

If you’re still on the fence or undecided you can always refer back to the video comparison of some of the most popular netbooks around."

Setting Bids - Yahoo! Search Marketing Help

Setting Bids - Yahoo! Search Marketing Help: "Managing Bids

A bid represents the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You cost per click, or CPC, is the actual amount you pay for a click. Bidding is a key part of managing your Sponsored Search account. An effective bidding strategy can help you:

* Better manage your bids.
* Allocate your advertising spend to help you receive the maximum amount of targeted traffic.
* Gain a higher return on your advertising spend.

Bidding at two levels

You can bid at two levels:

* keyword
* ad group

* At the ad group level, you set separate bids for Sponsored Search and Content Match campaigns.
* At the keyword level, you can only set a custom bid for that specific Sponsored Search keyword, or use the default bid from the ad group.

For example, if you set a custom bid of $0.50 for a keyword, it will set the bid for that keyword at that price. But if you set the keyword to use the default bid, it will use the bid you set for the ad group.

Bidding Adjustments

Bid adjustments are available for use with your account’s targeting capabilities. This feature allows you to add a premium to your current bid in the form of a dollar amount or a per"

Yahoo! Announced Panama Launch : See My Notes About Panama Directly From Yahoo! Search Marketing's Headquarters

Yahoo! Announced Panama Launch : See My Notes About Panama Directly From Yahoo! Search Marketing's Headquarters: "Pricing Model, once cent above the guy below you is what you pay, that is if quality index is equal. If someone is paying $1 and an other is paying $0.75 and then an other is paying $0.60, so if the one bidding $1 is highest quality and the rest are equal, then one bidding $1 will pay $0.61, and one paying $0.75 will pay $0.51 and the one paying $0.60 will pay $0.26."

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