January 28, 2009

Yahoo may not know all the reasons why an advertiser or their PPC manager has decided to do things a particular way. It is reckless for them to change things without asking first. That will reduce trust.

Yahoo should propose changes and then contact the advertiser for approval. That's a chance to have dialog with a customer and would tend to increase trust.

I am shocked that Yahoo has regressed to behaving like a pre-Internet company. This may reflect a need for changes in their executive leadership.

Just an FYI, Yahoo: I represent millions of dollars per year of PPC spending, and am definitely going to think twice before trusting you with any of those dollars. I also provide feedback to Wall Street analysts on a regular basis, as do some of my peers in the search marketing industry. Do you really want to alienate us?

Can you say, "sinkin' ship stealin' whatever it can to stay afloat?" There's really no better explanation.

Yahoo! is simply raising the price without raising the price, spending client's SEM dollars without their authorization. Maybe there's a reason bids are set where they are. Maybe there's only so much $$$ to play with. Yahoo can't assume that the budget set in the account is the actual client budget.

Maybe the client rides the wave of television traffic. There are so many strategies that go in to SEM that for Yahoo! to assume that the client wants their campaign "optimized," Yahoo! must believe themselves to be omniscient.

Maybe "optimized" means "the max traffic they can handle" as opposed to "the max traffic they can generate". Maybe the client is running CPA and their bids are set to where they have the best profit margins. Yahoo! wouldn't know that. Especially given the inaccuracy of their conversion tracker coupled with the fact that most clients wouldn't let Yahoo! know what their CPA payout is.

Yahoo!'s pompous approach to client SEM accounts proves their lack of understanding of their diverse clientele who use their service. The only alternative answer to Yahoo!'s "spend your money for you" approach is that they do know their clientele but need the money that badly.

I don't know if that's true, but that is sure how it feels.

Microsoft, I'd hate to say this but please put them out of their misery before they make the rest of us miserable.

Bottomline is this, Yahoo does not know my business, my products, my goals, nor what is converting and generating NET revenue me. Yahoo writes, “It is intended to help raise the performance of accounts.” What is their definition of “performance?”
Their only metric for performance is click thru rates (which, by strange coincidence also means more money for Yahoo). Higher click thru rates does not mean higher conversions or net revenue.

I agree with the other comments - Yahoo is clearly flailing here.

The silly thing is, all they'd need to do to make this ok with most advertisers is to upload the "optimized" campaigns in a Paused status - and make sure to actually notify us that it's there (which they say they do, but do not really do in my experience). Then we could review and approve or deny the optimization. I'm glad to take suggestions, but I do NOT want changes made to client accounts without my knowledge or approval.

Yahoo's cavalier attitude about this is insulting at best.

Kevin, thanks for posting and thanks for the shout-out to my blog post on this issue!

Kudos to Yahoo for taking steps to help advertisers get better performance.

It must be exasperating for Yahoo (or Google or MSN or anyone else) to sit idly by while clicks and revenues are wasted as each second goes by because of inefficient campaigns.

Acknowledging Yahoo's good intentions, I think it is inappropriate for Yahoo (or anyone else) to meddle with an advertiser's account without their prior permission. Legal mumbo-jumbo and assertion of rights in the T&C's. Such a unilateral approach seems self-serving, born out of desperation and unnecessary.

While Yahoo certainly knows what keyword volumes and has theories about ad copy tactics that can drive higher click-through rates, they certainly can never understand their advertisers competitive nuances and advertising objectives - without engaging them first.

Wouldn't it be more gracious and less contentious to simply ask permission upfront?
Why not take time to properly package and promote this idea?

I certainly agree that Yahoo has mishandled and poorly-communicated a situation that could have worked to their benefit.

I have no doubt that some people within Yahoo were motivated by a sincere desire to help advertisers, and derive fair value for that work in the form of increased click revenue.

And I agree with those who say the service should have been offered with the option to opt in.

It's interesting to me that the terms of Yahoo's service are not too different from Google's - possibly differing only in that Yahoo claims the right to alter the advertiser's ad copy. Google does the equivalent of "adding keywords to the advertiser's campaign" in the form of its Expanded broad Match, for which there is no opt-out provision.

I hope both search engines take the lessons of this episode to heart: you shouldn't force advertisers to accept your "help." Let them weigh the options and choose to participate, or at the very least easily opt out, for any "feature" that might have a significant impact on performance and spend.

Matt, you are ever gracious. It is interesting how Google sent about six of their people to meet with us last night in Newton, MA. "Us" included Matt, myself and about 100 other search marketers from the New England area.

Has Yahoo! been out in the field helping us? I've never been able to get any reliable support from them. My account rep changes so often I can't even remember his or her name without checking my records.

Yahoo's approach here is unfathomable. They have their customer's email addresses and phone numbers. Are they scared to communicate with customers? When not deepen customer relationships by offering help? By email Yahoo can list recommendations and say "click here" to implement these changes (one click). That would create a much better impression.

Hi, my name is Andy and I work for Balestriere Lanza, a trial and investigations law firm in New York. Our firm has been investigating potential misconduct on Yahoo's part for some time now, and I would be very interested in hearing your stories and experiences. Please feel free to contact me at your convenience at andrew.detty@balestriere.net or at (212) 374-5400 x 134.