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Online Advertising Alternatives: Yahoo Search Marketing
Though Google Adwords is the most well known pay per click advertising program to the lay person, there are viable alternatives in the PPC market for those who would prefer not to use it. Yahoo Search Marketing, an advertising program formerly known as Overture until Yahoo purchased it officially, provides users with a PPC alternative to the Adwords platform.
Overview of Yahoo Search Marketing
Overture was originally a pay per click platform, delivering its services to some of the largest clients on the web, including MSN, Infospace, Altavista, and CNN. However, its biggest client by far was always Yahoo, and so it seemed appropriate when Yahoo purchased the Overture service and changed the name to Yahoo Search Marketing.
The Yahoo Search Marketing platform centers around its Sponsored Search, the name for the pay per click program. Listings start at $0.10 per keyword as a minimum, and each subsequent bid is automatically set to a penny above the immediate next competition. For example, if The Widget Company bids $1.00 for a keyword that The Didget Company had bid $0.75 for, then The Widget Company bid would go in not as $1.00, but as a bid of $0.76.
Differences Between Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo Search Marketing requires a separate account to be registered for each region, country, and language marketed to, while Google Adwords does not require clients to organise its accounts that way. Yahoo Search Marketing also does not allow for the uploading of bulk keyword lists until an account has an established history with the network. While some may see these as weaknesses, these provisions keep the Yahoo Search Engine comparatively free of spam businesses and scams which originate from other countries.
Yahoo Search Marketing also has an option for advertisers known as Content Match, which allows clients to list quite specifically to high quality news and information sites, increasing the perceived value of the ad placement. Yahoo also targets ads in a way similar to Facebook with its userbase. For instance, users that express an interest in gaming will receive ads on gaming.
Yahoo is also a pioneer in the local advertising wars. As online business becomes more and more niche oriented, many clients of pay per click programs want the option to advertise only to local customers. Also, many businesses that are not interested in selling outside of their locale prefer the Yahoo Local Enhanced Listings and Local Sponsored Search programs. Enhanced listings currently cost around $10 a month, and includes use of a tagline, plus links to a coupon and special offers section. Included in this fee is an analysis program that allows the client to track the effectiveness of their listing, and access to a free website with 5 MB of memory included.
The local initiatives by Yahoo Search Engine do not stop there. Local businesses also can take advantage of a locator page, which gives potential local clients a business address, a map to the office, along with many other features that are not included anywhere in Google Adwords services.
Conclusion
Though Google Adwords is still the largest pay per click network by far, the Yahoo Search Marketing platform is privy to some initiatives ahead of Adwords, most notably in the realm of local search marketing. Yahoo is also less competitive, which may results in cheaper clicks, and lower overall ad spend, albeit at a trade-off for a lower amount of potential clicks. If you’ve never tried advertising with Yahoo Search Marketing, now might be the time to experiement.