Yahoo – More Like Ya-Noooo! – Part 2

Exhibit 3 – The Deposit

I know it’s in the terms and conditions when you sign up to a Yahoo Search Marketing account, so perhaps I am being a little unfair, but I still think the hefty deposit you are expected to pay when you open a Yahoo account is extortionate!  Signing up to Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter will set you back the grand total of five English pounds.  Opening a Yahoo account for PPC, will set you back £60.  Now admittedly, the fees charged by Microsoft and Google are non-refundable one-off “activation” fees but it is explained that these are to avoid lengthy credit checks and that this is the standard practice for all Pay-Per-Click providers (except Yahoo obviously).

Now, the deposit in your Yahoo account can be used against your first campaign, but along with all the other little inconsistencies presented by Yahoo, I get the uneasy feeling that this just gets cash into the Yahoo pot.  It also suggests that Yahoo aims to make sure you use their service whereas Google and Microsoft, who by charging such a small amounts, don’t coerce you.

Exhibit 4 – The Staff Training

My Yahoo agency team offered to look through my account and suggest a plan of optimisation.  Not being one to turn down free advice, I readily agreed and asked if they could put forward a proposal relating to optimising conversions.  When I received the report, everything pointed towards optimising for more traffic with no reference to ensuring that the traffic was specifically targeted to ensure maximum conversions. When I queried whether any information about conversions would be forthcoming, I was told that Yahoo doesn’t provide conversion analysis as getting people to the website is more important – words to the effect of “conversions depend on the quality of the website rather than the quality of keywords or ads”. Now whilst I agree that having a quality website can significantly improve campaign results, the fact that Yahoo staff have been trained that “Traffic is Key” without any regard whatsoever for the humble conversion, quite frankly staggers me!

OK, now I’ve got that out my system I’m feeling a little better. And as a nod towards a slightly more balanced piece I would like to mention one excellent idea that Yahoo supports. http://www.goodsearch.com/about.aspx is a search facility powered by Yahoo and is set up so that a charity of your choice gets donations whenever you search for something online through the Good Search page. I could cynically mutter about tax write-offs here; but that would just be uncharitable!