Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Yahoo recently sent out an email updating their Terms & Conditions. According to JumpFly’s dedicated Yahoo Account Manager, nearly all of the changes “are related to the dissolution of Overture Services, Inc., which Yahoo! acquired in 2003. Also, the notice provision in Section 12 was slightly revised due to a change to our international entities.”

I haven’t read them in quite a while, so I took some time to scan through the T&C. Pretty much dry, boring legal-ese except for one paragraph that I found very, very interesting:
“OPTIMIZATION. In the U.S. only, for those advertisers not bound by an Insertion Order, we may help you optimize your account(s). Accordingly, you expressly agree that we may also: (i) create ads, (ii) add and/or remove keywords, and/or (iii) optimize your account(s). We will notify you via email of such changes made to your account(s), and can also include a spreadsheet of such changes upon your written request. If you would like any of such changes reversed, please reply to such email within 14 days of the change(s), and we will make commercially reasonable efforts to reverse the change(s) you specifically identify. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you remain responsible for all changes made to your account(s), including all click charges incurred prior to any reversions being made. It is your responsibility to monitor your account(s) and to ensure that your account settings are consistent with your business objectives.”

Wow. You mean to tell me Yahoo can go ahead and make changes to an account whenever they want and without contacting you to find out what your goals are for your account? I’m sitting here, trying to think of a word that adequately conveys exactly what I think of this policy, and all the words I’m coming up with are not fit for posting. It seems extremely irresponsible to me that Yahoo thinks they can add or delete search terms, and write new ads for someone they’ve never even spoke to. And then have the audacity to notify that company by email and only send them the changes if they are requested AND THEN only give them 14 days to request that it be put back.

And if you do request the change, they will only put forth “commercially reasonable” effort. Commercially reasonable? What does that mean? What if they commercially screwed things up for that client? Whose definition of commercially reasonable applies?

All I can say is thankfully our JumpFly clients have been opted out of such a crazy possibility. I can tell you that if I was on the receiving end of some Yahoo change, I’d be pretty upset if it didn’t work and I couldn’t go back to how my account was.

More about Nikki

Yahoo to Partner with Microsoft on Search? 

According to regulatory filings, Billionaire investor Carl Icahn increased his position in Yahoo by 6.78 million shares between November 24-26 (at about $10 per share), raising his total to 75.58 million shares (about 5.5% of the company). I saw a recent presentation he made where he stated that he continues to believe Yahoo shares are undervalued, but admits that he also thought they were undervalued when he was last purchasing shares near $25 per share. So far, he is down about $1 billion on his investment. Ouch! He is still looking for some type of partnership with Microsoft on their search efforts which he believes could help save Yahoo a great deal of money. While there are no alleged talks going on at this time, I suspect these two will eventually work out some type of agreement. With Yang stepping down and both Icahn and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer expressing interest in a search deal getting done, I think something will eventually develop. I would also like to mention that I very much hope that Carl Icahn is a better investor than speaker because quite honestly, listening to him speak was a little painful. Sorry Carl, but it’s the truth.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Both Posted Impressive Increases Year Over Year

Sales during Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, saw an increase of 3% over the prior year. Last year’s sales of $10.3 billion on Black Friday increased to $10.6 billion spent this year. Though this gain appears promising for the economy, many fear that the increase in sales was at the expense of profitability. And though spending was up on this day, it may still be down for the Holiday season. One Gallup Inc. poll suggests that spending on gifts will be down 29% from a year earlier. We’ll soon know for sure.  

Online shopping saw a more dramatic increase in sales. According to data released by ComScore Inc., online sales for Cyber Monday, the Internet’s equivalent to Black Friday, jumped 15% from a year ago as Internet sites lured millions of consumers with offers of free shipping and dramatically reduced prices. Online sales increased from $733 million on Cyber Monday in 2007 to $846 million this year. Forrester Research expects 12% year-over-year growth for online holiday sales, or $44 billion in this November and December.

The US Economy Searches For Stability 

The US Economy continues to look a bit frightening and unstable. However, some good things are also taking shape. Gasoline prices are the lowest they have been in years, with prices at about $1.70 per gallon here in Illinois. That’s a far cry from the $4+ getting charged just 6 months ago. Additionally, mortgage rates are dropping and refinancing is rapidly picking up, enabling homeowners to lock in lower rates and lower monthly payments. Though we are clearly not out of the woods yet, there does seem to be shared hope that the economy will stabilize and business will pick up by the end of 2009. I suspect it’s going to be an interesting year.

More about Brad

New clients will often ask us here at JumpFly which search engine is the best to begin pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on. Clearly, Google is the first obvious choice if you are looking for the greatest volume of traffic. According to the latest numbers from Hitwise, Google received 71.7% of U.S. search queries in October 2008. That’s a huge chunk of online traffic and search volume moving through the Google search box. If you only had one search engine to choose, there is no question that you should choose Google.

Yahoo search volume is dropping consistently, down from nearly 22% in October 2007 to below 18% for October 2008. MSN took a drop from last year as well in their search volume, but it seems to be holding in the mid 5% range from month to month now. So that does beg the question, is it even worth running PPC campaigns on Yahoo and MSN? Clearly, there is some volume to be had on both of those search networks, so they definitely have some value to some advertisers. If your budget is tight, though, and you are testing the PPC waters, I would suggest starting on Google only and then see where you can go from there.

Another strategy to consider for Yahoo and MSN, which we have implemented and seen success with, is to start out strong on Google for a month or two and then only move your best performers over to Yahoo and MSN. Since Google does bring in the most volume by a large margin, their search platform can really give you a good indicator as to whether a certain product, or a certain groups of keywords, or specific ad copy, will bring you the ROI you are looking for. It isn’t always an apples to apples comparison, and what works on Google does not necessarily always work on Yahoo or MSN, but you can certainly get some strong indicators as to what might work on the other engines by analyzing what is working on Google first.

Learn more about Jack