Welcome to the Yahoo! Search Marketing Advertiser Workbook. This comprehensive guide will introduce you to everything you need to know to get the most out of your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. Think of this as your “owner’s manual.” It contains a lot of information in fine detail, so you’ll probably want to read it once for an overview, and then refer back to it again and again in the future.
Each chapter includes exercises to help you fully understand the information and apply it to your own business, as well as action items that act as a checklist for what to do with that information. In addition, we have provided a glossary at the end of the workbook. Words included in the glossary are shown in italics.
This workbook will help you to:
• Build a set of relevant keywords
• Develop better search listings
• Track your results
• Bid more effectively
• Manage your account more easily
• Form a marketing strategy
XGAMING CASE STUDY
XGaming, a company that develops, manufactures and markets high-end electronic gaming products for serious video gamers, is a long-time advertiser that has made Yahoo! Search Marketing an integral part of its online marketing efforts. In 2003, the company was selected as the first participant in Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Advertiser Makeover program with the desire to expand its online business. Throughout the Workbook, look for examples of how Yahoo! Search Marketing has improved results for XGaming.
Yahoo! Search Marketing is a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, providing new and more powerful ways for businesses and customers to connect online. In fact, our advertisers can reach over 80% of active Internet users.* To facilitate this reach, Yahoo! Search Marketing offers a full suite of Internet search products and search-related services. In addition, Yahoo! Small Business offers a number of related services, including web hosting, domain registration, ecommerce solutions and more.
In This Section:
• Sponsored Search
• Content Match™
• Search Submit
• Local Sponsored Search
• International Markets
• Manage Your Account
• Resource Center
Yahoo! Search Marketing’s flagship product is Sponsored Search, which lists your site in search results across the Web, helping you connect with customers searching for what you sell.
This could be your search listing.**™
• Portals: Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, InfoSpace, Sympatico.ca
• ISPs: Juno, NetZero
• Metasearch engines: DogPile, Metacrawler, webCrawler, Alltheweb
• Browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Content sites: CNN.com, ESPN.com, KnightRidder
• And thousands of other web sites
Advertising in the top positions for a keyword enables you to appear on more search sites and reach 80% of active Internet users*, while lower positions reach approximately 40% of users. For the most exposure, bid into the top positions on as many keywords as possible.
Yahoo! Search Marketing has a sophisticated click protection system that is designed to protect advertisers from unqualified clicks. You can learn more about click protection in the Appendix.
Our search listings appear across the Web. See below for examples of how your search listings may appear on sites like Yahoo! and MSN.Yahoo! Search Marketing listings
Yahoo! Search Marketing listings
*Nielsen//NetRatings, September 2004 (Custom aggregation of the many sites included in the Yahoo! Publisher Network).Content Match™
Content Match enables you to place your listings on even more locations on the Web and potentially drive more traffic to your site. For example, when a user goes to a site like Yahoo! and views content pages (such as articles and product reviews), Content Match provides relevant listings on the same page. In this example, if you have listings for the search term “Travel,” your listing might appear in a lifestyle article on the Caribbean. As with Yahoo! Search Marketing’s traditional listings, you pay your bidded amount only when a user clicks on your listing.
Content Match listings currently appear on many of Yahoo!’s content areas (including Entertainment, Finance and Shopping), MSN content areas (including Money and Tech & Gadgets), and other online destinations.
Benefits of Content Match:• Sponsored Search advertisers can edit existing listings, while bidding separately and independently tracking results through our proprietary tools, providing more insight into performance and greater control of spend.
• Relevant listings are displayed to interested users, increasing visibility.
Travel related listingsSearch Submit
Search Submit gives you additional coverage on search results pages by providing inclusion into the Yahoo! Search Index, which powers standard or algorithmic search results (those appearing in the main body of the page) across Yahoo!, AltaVista, AlltheWeb and other portals.
Search Submit provides an easy and time-saving method for submitting web pages to the Yahoo! Search Index, eliminating the guesswork and chance often associated with appearing in standard search results. URLs that are accepted into the Index are refreshed every 48 hours and receive detailed reporting of search engine performance. There are two Search Submit options, depending on the number of URLs an advertiser wishes to submit:
• Search Submit Express is offered to customers with 1,000 or fewer URLs. Account enrollment and management occur online. Pricing is on an annual subscription basis per URL.
• Search Submit Pro is a managed account program available to customers with 1,000 or more URLs. Customers provide content via an XML feed. Pricing is on a fixed cost-per-click basis, based on content category, e.g. automotive.
Local Sponsored Search
Local Sponsored Search enables businesses to increase sales by precisely targeting customers who are searching online for local products and services, but prefer to purchase in person.
Whether your business has a web site or not, you can drive customers from the Web into a physical store location or generate service calls.When customers go to sites like Yahoo! and search for the products and services you sell, your Local Sponsored Search listing may appear. Local Sponsored Search listings are currently available on Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, InfoSpace and AlltheWeb.
How Local Sponsored Search Works1 You select keywords that apply to your business and write a description that accurately describes the products or services you offer. Then, you choose a geographic area (0.5-to 100-mile radius around your location) in which your ad will be seen.
2
When a customer interested in your area goes to a search site such as Yahoo! and searches for a product or service you sell, your listing appears.
3 When the customer clicks on your listing, they see your Locator page, which contains key details about your business, a map of your location and a link to your web site, if you have one.
4 As with Yahoo! Search Marketing’s “national” Sponsored Search listings, you only pay your bidded amount when a customer clicks on your listing. Local Sponsored Search does not require a monthly minimum spend.
International Markets
Can your business benefit from gaining customers outside the U.S.? If you think it can, take advantage of Yahoo! Search Marketing’s strong partner networks around the world to increase your customer reach.
Europe
United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark
Japan, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong
North & South America
U.S., Canada, Brazil
To create an additional account in any of these marketplaces, please call 626-685-5700 and press 1, or visit http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com and select a country from the menu on the top-right corner of the web page.
The number of Internet users worldwide was expected to reach 935 million in 2004 and top 1 billion by mid-2005. As the Internet continues to spread at a phenomenal pace worldwide, Yahoo! Search Marketing’s growing network presents a significant global opportunity for your business. Many of our U.S. advertisers expand their reach by advertising in our two other English-speaking markets, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Year-end 2004 Internet Users (#K) Share %
1. U.S. 185,550 19.86
2. China 99,800 10.68
3. Japan 78,050 8.35
4. Germany 41,880 4.48
5. India 36,970 3.96
6. UK 33,110 3.54
7. South Korea 31,670 3.39
8. Italy 25,530 2.73
9. France 25,470 2.73
10. Brazil 22,320 2.39
11. Russia 21,230 2.27
12. Canada 20,450 2.19
13. Mexico 13,880 1.49
14. Spain 13,440 1.44
15. Australia 13,010 1.39
Top 15 Countries 662,360 70.88
(Computer Industry Almanac, September 3, 2004 Press Release)
Manage Your Account
Yahoo! provides an online interface that allows advertisers to manage all aspects of their Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts. Once you are logged in, you can:
• Manage your budget
• Add new keywords
• Set bids
• Take listings online/offline
• Change contact or billing info
• Review reports
• Track keyword performance
• And more
Advertisers commonly use the Manage Bids page to view keywords, associated bids and more. Statistics are updated daily.The Resource Center
Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Resource Center, located at
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/index.php, is a portal to all of the information we offer to help you learn how to use your account and improve your results.
The Resource Center provides:
• Product information
• Tutorials
• Guide to managing your Yahoo! Search Marketing account
• Listing guidelines
• Articles about optimizing your results and improving your site
• Case studies
• Newsletters
• Special offers
• FAQs
Page 12 — Overture Advertiser WorkbookAction Steps
Think about ways you can broaden your reach to take advantage of the growing areas of sponsored search, including Local Sponsored Search, Search Submit and Content Match.
Visit some of our partners in the network and type in a search query (perhaps keywords you might use) to see the various treatments of Yahoo! Search Marketing listings.
Consider whether your product or service can be effectively marketed overseas, and take advantage of the international markets that Yahoo! Search Marketing offers. Log in to your account and familiarize yourself with the interface.
© 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.