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Sensis BidSmart is Soft Launched

At least it looks live now

         

anallawalla

12:49 am on Aug 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



[bidsmart.sensis.com.au...]

I haven't received the official notification email but the site looks ready for business.

Some snippets:

Will your software detect if my competitor tries to click on my links?

Yes. BidSmart will detect if any user or robot repeatedly clicks on an Advertiser’s links, and will record them as non-valid.

Keywords are assigned a minimum ‘floor price’ depending on the industry-type they represent and search frequency. The first advertiser to purchase a Keyword pays the minimum price. Thereafter, the dynamic auction system determines the value and price of any Keyword as advertisers compete for position on it.

Then positioning is by the usual bidding scenario based on your max CPC.

There is a monthly spending cap, which is good.

It is not fully ready. Apart from typos, there are errors if you bid below $0.10 such as:


The minimum bid for widget is $0.00. Please enter a valid bid.

This is a good feature:

I want my listing to appear when users search for:

* My keywords with and without locations I select. For example, 'flowers' AND 'flowers in melbourne'
* My keywords only with locations I select. For example, 'flowers in melbourne' but NOT 'flowers'
* My keywords only without locations. For example, 'flowers' but NOT 'flowers in melbourne'

Krapulator

2:25 am on Aug 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Any idea what the distribution channels will be? This info is a blinding omission in this site. Are they only selling positions on the Sensis search engine or will they display them on relevant yellowpages and whitepages searches?

If they are distributed to the yellow pages - I can see this becoming a hugely competitive business for advertising local businesses.

anallawalla

3:09 am on Aug 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



> Any idea what the distribution channels will be?

Not sure if it answers your question.

Distribution & Syndication

Sensis® is partnered with a number of other popular Australian Websites that also display Sensis® Search Results including BidSmart™ Featured Listings. The Listings you create for your BidSmart™ Campaigns will appear not only on Sensis® but across the Sensis® Distribution Network, including Telstra and BigPond. Your Listing will be published on any new site added to the network. The ‘look and feel’ of your Listing may vary across sites within the network, but your Listing Titles, Descriptions and Keywords will not be altered.

Warren

3:17 am on Aug 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Great find Anallawalla

I had heard that this was due to be launched "soon" but wasn't exactly sure when.

Distribution on the Telstra network - what a great way to gain immediate reach. Althought with Telstra's ADSL networking that keeps going down, the BigPond users will never get to see your add ;-)

Chris_D

9:26 am on Aug 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Any idea what the distribution channels will be?

I'd guess the Sensis 'properties' ie whitepages .com.au, yellowpages .com.au, citysearch .com.au, whereis .com, tradingpost .com.au would be the main channels. Most other market channels are already aligned to Google or Overture.

Warren

1:51 am on Aug 20, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Chris_D

You missed all the BigPond sites and Telsta.com.

anallawalla

12:13 am on Aug 21, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I would have liked the searches at partner sites to be transparent just as is done with major search portals that get feeds from several PPC sites. Try going to search.telstra.com and choose "all Telstra sites" - I can't see my own ad when I try my keywords - or any results for that matter.

From bigpond.com's search box one has to explicitly choose Sensis, and then the normal Sensis serp appears.

From Citysearch, I don't see my ad either because I chose International as my scope and Citysearch only gives you regions within Oz, or it is simply not yet linked to Sensis. Being a soft launch period, I can live with that. However, upon looking at the top of the screen, there is a separate search box for Sensis, and this one works fine.

From Tradingpost, there is no search box I can see, but after choosing a state, the search box does not see Sensis results. Yes, there is a logo that I can click.

Still, it is early days.

Woz

1:02 am on Aug 21, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It would indeed be useful to obtain a complete list of partners seeings as they just lost Optusnet [webmasterworld.com].

Onya
Woz

Chris_D

10:20 am on Aug 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Telstra subsidiary Sensis is really not doing itself any favours at the moment. Lots of hype - but little in the way of hard details.

Most search marketing consultants recommend that Australian companies use Google and Overture. The Sensis search marketing service is in its early stages and does not yet attract a lot of traffic.

[australianit.news.com.au...]