Overture, now owned by Yahoo, has changed the name of their PPC services from Position Tech to Precision Match. Your paid ads go not only to Yahoo, but also to MSN, CNN, AltaVista, Alltheweb, Infospace, Go2Net, Excite, Dogpile, Sympatico, Metacrawler, and more.
To get started, just go to
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
and sign up for a Sponsored Search. This costs a minimum of $30, but you can apply it as a deposit for your click-throughs. You may wait and explore a bit before signing up. For a client we worked with this week, we did not sign up until the very last step when we were actually bidding.
Overture is the only major system in which you can actually purchase a position in the search engine. The three highest bidders will show up at the top of the page in positions 1, 2, and 3. Other high bidders are shown in a column at the right.
To start, go to:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
and enter a sample keyword phrase you wish to bid on. This will return all relevant phrases and how many times each of those was used in searching the last month. Print this out, as this is a good list to work from.
(Below updated 7/11 for changes in Yahoo in June)
For the next step, you want to see what it would cost you to use any of those phrases. To do this, enter Yahoo’s search marketing site:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
Click on Manage My Accounts (upper right of page), which takes you to a secured page. Then choose Sponsored Search, which takes you out of a secured page. Under Tools on this page, choose Use Bids Tool. This will open a window to enter a phrase to check the bidding on that phrase.
Sponsored Search -> Manage My Accounts -> Sponsored Search -> Tools | Use Bids Tool
Enter one of the keyword phrases from your competition list and check the current maximum bids. Play with this tool to find a keyword phrase with good popularity but a low bid. You don’t have to shoot for the #1 position - the second or third position will still put you at the top of the listings.
Now go back to:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
and wind your way down through the Sponsored Search wizard. Choose the free route for now. You’ll see a page for entering your keywords phrases. Enter yours on the right side of the page and then the wizard will show you current bids for all the top positions. It will estimate your monthly cost.
Note: Don’t let them set it up (paid route). It’s expensive, and they set it to maximize your click-throughs. You want to set it to maximize your qualified click-throughs. That’s different.
Our advice is to start slow. Delete all but a single phrase for now. Don’t let the price to capture all your clicks scare you. You can bid where you want and then set the budget for that bid. Your site will rotate on the listings to keep you on budget, but always be at the bid position when it is there. You are paying for position.
It takes a maximum of 5 days before your site is active. Before then, go to:
http://dtc.overture.com
and log in to your account. Turn Content matching and Advanced options OFF for starting. This will minimize your unqualified click-throughs as you start up. You can always edit this page and your ad at any time. Yahoo also has lots of tools available.
This will get your started. We are available on a consulting basis if you need it. We just got one site up to their bid position (#2) in three business days. It’s fun!
