the PPC Book|Pay Per Click Blog | Long Tail Thoughts in a Short Tail World

An early Christmas present was waiting for me today when I arrived at my computer. Our Yahoo Panama upgrade had been activated on one of our MCC accounts. I don’t know why I was so excited given all the frustrations with Yahoo over the last few years. I guess I just really hope that this upgrade gets Yahoo back in the game.

So, what’s it like? I can’t tell you just yet because I haven’t had time to thoroughly check it out. Doh! Stay tuned!

G-Man at SEOMoz posted an interesting interview with Shoemoney yesterday. The most interesting part of the interview to me was the very frank and accurate assessment of what it takes to succeed with a campaign in Yahoo (currently):

Yahoo - I think Yahoo search marketing is crappy. It’s really the red headed stepchild of all the big 3 ppc engines. Their quality control is so hit and miss. Basically, the key with Yahoo is you just have to hammer the piss out of it. Upload 10,000 keywords and 8,000 will get denied. Upload those 8,000 keywords and 6,500 will get denied. Upload those and, well, you get the point. I guess it just depends on who is looking at your keyword to see if it’s denied or not. Keep hammering away and you will get in tons of 10 cent keywords.

Secondly, and most people will ignore this tidbit, but he talks about automating the transfer of search logs from his site and turning them into keywords.

Ok, check this out. I have a ringtone site that I log searches on (searches people do in the site); this is live data. I know what is hot in the ringtone industry in like 0 second time. I can automate this with apis so that it bids 0 second too on ppc->affiliate.

eCommerce sites should pay special attention to this strategy. If 90% of searches are unique, the ones you see on your own website are the most valuable you can find anywhere. And, they’re yours!

Yes, we’re making a drinking game. Why do we need one? Because some days I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog day, reading the same SEO posts over and over. So from now on, when you need a break and want to have a little fun, gather 2 or 3 of your favorite SEO spammers around your monitor, get a case of your favorite adult beverage, and prepare to get Toe Up

Ready?

Here we go….

Every time an SEO posts about:

Whether or not there is a SANDBOX: 2 shots

Latent Semantic Indexing: 1 shot

When is the next PR UPDATE: 1 shot

How to create good LINK BAIT: 1 shot

Just build good quality content and all your problems will be solved: 3 shots

So and so is a genius: 2 shots

If you’re still standing after 30 minutes of this, then head on over to a forum:

Everytime a member starts a thread about:

Google Adwords is making me pay $10 for a keyword with no competition: 1 shot

What kind of CTR do you get: 1 shot

How much money am I going to make: 2 shots

What’s the best way for me to do no work whatsoever and make millions of dollars: 3 shots

Care to add any more? There’s plenty o’ ammo out there…

Call your shot!

I’m sure there will be more of these to come:

Ppc
We manage them so you
don’t have to Save time,
money. Free Trial!
www.adisem.com

The problem is that within this particular adsense layout, the description portion of the adcopy is compressed horizontally into 3 lines. This causes the lines to break where you don’t necessarily want them to.

Lesson: Use periods at the end of your sentences whenever possible.

All queries are really nothing more than someone asking a question. At least, that’s how I approach pay per click advertising. What I find often is that advertisers are so concerned with giving consumers the hard sell on their business that they forget that they are there to help the consumer. At least, that’s what you should be doing if you ever want to get anywhere with your business.

Case in point…

I have been wearing contacts for 20 years. They are expceptionally fussy when I sit in front of the monitor 14 hours a day. They get dry, sticky. In short, it’s a pain in the **. My wife is always encouraging me to get Lasik surgery. She thinks I’m a wuss for being afraid to cut my eye with a laser, that it’s a routine procedure with virtually no risk. I disagree. So, I go out today on the World Wide Interweb to get some stats, and make myself a little more comfortable about getting the procedure.

My first query at the Google web: lasik problems

Obviously, I’m afraid of lasik. My query tells you that. If you are a smart advertiser, wouldn’t you take advantage of this? Speak to my question. My question is: Is Lasik safe? Are there potential problems with Lasik? Etc Etc.

What do I find for paid search ads?

Free LASIK Program -Mich
Wavefront and Bladeless intra-Lasik upgrade.
Hurry reserve your spot.
www.yaldoeyecenter.com

Um, I don’t live in Michigan and cost is not my concern, thanks though.

Top 10 Lasik Surgery
Lasik Centers Ranked for you. Leading Lasik Centers.
www.aLasik.org

Doesn’t address my concern

Marina Del Rey Lasik
0% Financing, Free Consultation!
As low as $99 per month.
www.marinaeyecenter.com

Hmm. Chicago must be closer than I thought to Marina Del Rey.

Lasik Problems
Affordable Laser Eye Surgery By The
Top Surgeons. Optimax, Lasik, Lasek
www.bertybuzzard.com

Bad use of Dynamic Insertion

Lasik Problems
All About Lasik Problems
Get Informed Before You Decide.
LaserEyeSurgeryReviews.info

Even though it’s a double dynamic insertion trick, the copy comes out reasonably well. Too bad it’s an MFA arbitrage site. Bummer.

Lasik Problems
Lasik Problems. Learn
about costs, risks, and procedures.
www.TheVisionGuide.com

Again, good ad copy, obviously dynamic insertion. Another MFA. They do seem to write the best ads though.

Avoid LASIK Complications
A guide to risks and complications,
and steps to take to avoid them.
AllAboutVision.com

This is a good ad, well crafted, it addresses my query directly without generic dynamic insertion, and the site is actually a good resource for information. Well done!

So, what have we learned? Copywriters need to take the time in the campaign creation stage to carefully craft detailed ad copy that will speak clearly to the query being performed. Don’t rely on dynamic insertion so heavily. It does save time, but in the end, it can produce boilerplate ads that don’t really engage the user.

Take the time at the beginning and it will pay off down the road!

Yes, at one time I had a soccer mullet. And yes, I thought Van Halen was the greatest band ever. OK? We’ve got that out of the way. That’s what upsets me about this whole Yahoo Panama debacle. Yahoo is forever going to tarnish the name Panama. To me, it’s one of the seminal videos of the early MTV days (for those of you old enough to remember), from one of the greatest bands of that generation.

How are they ruining it? Granted, we haven’t actually seen Panama yet, but while I twiddle my thumbs waiting out the delays, I get this when I log into an account this morning.

“Can’t insert page ‘/acctSummary.do’ : EJB Exception: ; nested exception is: javax.ejb.EJBException: nested exception is: weblogic.rmi.extensions.RemoteRuntimeException: Unexpected Exception - with nested exception: [java.rmi.ConnectException: This RJVM has already been shutdown 4739529820904241518S:10.21.119.149:[31337,31337,-1,-1,31337,-1,-1,0,0]:cms-domain:appsc49]”

Oops.

Here’s the message from Yahoo on the dashboard:

“SEARCH LISTINGS MANAGEMENT ISSUES:
We are aware of current difficulties in adding, modifying or deleting listings and are working to correct the problem. Please check back for updates. “

Like I said. Eddie would be pissed.

Wow. I’m excited and speechless with disbelief at the same time. I think my old pal Don Ho said it best, so I’ll let you be the judge:

(to the tune of, well…tiny bubbles:)

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I’m gonna
Love you till the end of time

So here’s to the golden moon
And here’s to the silver sea
And mostly here’s a toast
To you and me

So here’s to the ginger lei
I give to you today
And here’s a kiss
That will not fade away

words & music by Leon Pober

hype & over valuation by the stock market in general

inability to execute on anything but core competency by google

This was actually announced some time ago in a meeting with agencies, however, you might not have seen them. This is an excerpt from the Yahoo newsletter detailing the new account structures, a la Adwords. So, if you’re frustrated with the current Yahoo interface, just sit tight, a new and improved version is on the way.

“Current Account Structure vs. New Sponsored Search
When your account is upgraded (these transitions will begin in fourth quarter 2006), some of the account structure terminology that is currently in use will change, and we will add some new terminology. Here is a summary of those changes and additions to the way your ads are organized:

Current: Listings
“Listings” have been the combination of keyword, bid, title, description and URL.

New: Ads
The marketing messages that your potential customers see will be “uncoupled” from keywords, and be known as “ads,” but they are similarly comprised of a title, description and URL.

New: Ad Groups
“Ad Groups” are the combination of multiple ads (your creative) and keywords. You may set one bid for your entire ad group, or use individual keyword bids.

Current: Categories
Categories have served as the organizational structure you assigned to groups of keywords that are similar in a particular way, for purposes of bid management or reporting.

New: Campaigns
“Campaigns” replace categories, and will consist of a combination of one or more ad groups that share the same budget, schedule and geo-targeting criteria, usually created to achieve a particular marketing goal.

After your account is upgraded, you won’t need to manage your account at the listing level anymore. Instead, you can manage and optimize your account performance at the account, campaign ad group or keyword/ad level. We recommend starting out by managing at the ad group level, in which you can use multiple versions of your creative (titles and descriptions). The benefit of using ad groups is that you will be able to test different versions of your creative, and have more impressions shifted to those ads that provide you with the highest click-through rate.

Preparing for the Account Upgrade
When we upgrade your account, we will move your account categories into campaigns with the same names. So if you haven’t already done so, it’s very important that you start to group your current listings that are related to each other into categories.

By completing this organization before your upgrade occurs, your ads should be much better organized after we move your account to the new structure. Then you’ll be able to “hit the ground running” as you take advantage of our new interface and tools.

Example: If you sold “SeeClearly” televisions, under the new Sponsored Search you would probably want to have a “SeeClearly” campaign that included ad groups for the models “SeeClearly X100″, “SeeClearly X200″, “SeeClearly HDX1000″, etc. Using this example, we recommend that you set up a “SeeClearly” category now that would contain all of your SeeClearly listings.

Summary
1. Keywords still serve as your foundation.
The keywords that describe your business can remain the same. These are still the connecting point between you and customers who are searching online.

2. Individual titles and descriptions will apply to multiple keywords.
Titles, descriptions and URLs-known as “ads” in the new Sponsored Search-may apply to more than one keyword. This should cut down on the time you have to spend generating advertising messages.

3. Keywords and ads will be organized into ad groups.
Ad groups can contain multiple keywords, along with up to 20 ads (titles, descriptions and URLs) that apply to those keywords. This will allow you to test multiple ads to find the message that works best with prospective customers.

4. One or more ad groups will make up a campaign.
Campaigns may contain multiple ad groups. Some new features will enable you to set up geo-targeting, scheduling and budgeting at the campaign level. This should give you more control, and help ensure that your campaigns are working as efficiently as possible.

5. Your account will be comprised of all your campaigns.
Your campaigns will make up your new Sponsored Search account, which will still apply to one market only, i.e., the United States (which includes English-speaking Canada). To advertise in more than one market, you will need to have multiple accounts.”