Yahoo Search Marketing Enhancements

For those PPC advertisers looking to make their lives easier, Yahoo! Search Marketing has added a couple new enhancements to their dashboard: a campaign import tool and the network distribution feature (and accompanying tools).

Campaign Import Tool

Now you can easily migrate campaigns from Google Adwords into Yahoo! Search Marketing. All you have to do is download your data into a .CSV file and save it to your computer, then import the file into the Yahoo! Sponsored Search program. You can import everything from campaigns on down to keywords.  However, you cannot import geo-targeting; this has to be manually added after the upload is complete.

Network Distribution

Target Yahoo! Partners, Yahoo! Search or both with this new feature. Continue to use PPC best practices by separating Search and Content Partners campaigns. This will allow you to manage the campaigns with more control. Here are some tools available to help with the feature:

• Conversion-Only Analytics – a conversion is, of course, when a web user completes a desired action, whether it's filling out a form, purchasing a product or downloading a PDF. Add programming code to your 'confirmation' pages (i.e., a "thank you" page or the order confirmation) in order to track conversions. In order to enable this, you must first activate conversion-only analytics:
  
  
  
  • Click the Administration tab, and then click the Analytics subtab. The Analytics Settings page will open. (If the analytics feature is disabled, click Enable Analytics.)
  • Select the Conversion Only Analytics option.
  • Click 'Activate.'
  
  
• Network Distribution Performance Report* – this reporting tool gives advertisers data on the best-performing keywords and ad groups within campaigns in regards to conversions, revenue and lead generation. Being able to identify the strongest elements of campaigns –  in both Yahoo! Partners and Yahoo! Search – means the ability to easily hone ads and keywords for even greater conversion.
  
• Filter reports by hierarchy level, name, event type, distribution channel and account.
• Track clicks, CTR, average CPC, cost, conversion and revenue.
• *Get the most out of this by installing conversion-only analytics.
  
• Blocked Domains – this feature allows advertisers to block their ads from showing on websites (up to 500 domains) within the partner network. If there are sites on which Sponsored Search or Content Match ads aren't performing well, it makes sense to block those and focus on the websites with the best return on ad spend (ROAS).
  
• Ad Delivery Report – advertisers can view reports detailing the information about the URLs on which their ads are displaying. See:
  
  
  
  • All domains/URLs where ads appear.
  • Metrics by URL for impressions, cost, conversions, etc.
  • Information about how individual URLs are performing, allowing better usage of Blocked Domains feature.
  
  

So there it is. An easier pay-per-click platform allowing deeper involvement, better tracking and a much easier way to implement campaigns from Google.