Yahoo Panama

Ξ July 18th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Search Engines, Yahoo |

As I’m sure many of you are aware Yahoo! has completed the migration of UK advertising accounts onto Panama.

Panama - what’s that? In simple terms it is Yahoo!’s new system for managing and serving Pay-Per-Click adverts.

So does it live up to the hype? Errrm, well it does have a number of new features:

• account structures similar to Google,

• the ability to split budgets within one account,

• campaign start and end date setting,

• daily spend limits,

• the ability to run 20 different types of copy and optimise by click through rate,

• new reporting tools,

• geo-targeting,

• and the ability to upload copy directly via the interface.

So what’s the verdict? Well all these features improve matters, expecially the interface upload - which is making a big impact on the FMCG market, but the biggest impact by far is the change to the bid landscape caused by the quality score introduction.

This brings Yahoo! in-line with Google and MSN and from the outside looks like it is going to be a big success, but there is one problem. When the system launched some accounts were given an unfair advantage as not everyone was migrated onto the new system before the new ranking was activated.

Why is that a problem? It’s simple really - it realtes to the way the new algorithm works - using relevancy and bid price to determine your rank. Those accounts that were live on Panama when the new ranking was activated have had the opportunity to build clicks and history, whilst those left behind have not.

Bluntly, if you were one of the last accounts to be migrated, you may have to pay more.

Is there a fix? The simplest way is to create a level playing field by Yah00! pressing the reset button and clear all account history, resetting the ranking for everyone - but will they do this?