Forum Moderators: skibum
I posted this on the Yahoo Search Marketing forum, but think it's more appropriate here.
If there are any other Commission Junction publishers actively promoting Yahoo Search/Overture, I'd appreciate some feedback. We have been an active affiliate for Overture, sending them approximately 25 to 35 new advertiser sign-ups per month for the last couple of years. That is until they changed their links and name to "Yahoo Search Marketing."
Before April 20th, our conversion rate was around 13%. Specifically, in Q105, from 555 clicks through from our site to Overture, we had 74 sign-ups for new Overture accounts. Since then (since the name and site change from Overture to Yahoo Search Marketing), our conversion rate has dropped to below 1%. And we have had confirmation from at least one advertiser who signed up for Yahoo from our link that we were never accredited with their sign-up (CJ took care of this when we enquired about it, but if one person happened to contact us, how many have not?).
Our Yahoo search sign-up offer offer used to be a $40 credit on self-serve accounts and $50 on Fast Track. Now we have a $50 self-serve, $50 FastTrack credit offer on the site. So, if anything, our conversion rates should be higher than ever.
I'm about to give up on promoting Yahoo Search Marketing entirely because it's still costing *US* money for our own PPC promotions to get traffic to our site, but we're no longer getting paid for sign-ups on Yahoo/Overture. We *are* still seeing sign-ups from Enhance, FindWhat, Search123 and Kanoodle, so I know it's not a quality of traffic issue.
A couple of points - Yahoo did acknowledge a tracking problem shortly after the change, and made some a small account credit to our CJ account. But they claimed this was fixed over a week ago... it is not fixed (at least not for us). We *have* updated our links to point to new offers and new landing pages since the changeover.
Has anyone else had similar (or different?) experience with the CommissionJunction/Overture/Yahoo Search affiliate referral program, specifically since the name and URL changes?
Thanks,
-Chris
Personally I've never been very happy with the way they've converted my traffic, so with the start of the month I've dropped their ads and replaced them with ads for another network program.
What first tipped me off to the problem was that our existing links and landing page were no longer reflecting the correct offers. But then they sent me details for the $50 self-serve/$50 FastTrack offer so I updated our pages with new links.
I expected the conversion rates to go up not down, but it just hasn't been the case. Something is definitely amiss...
Now they're running a "win a trip to Hawaii" fromo for the top publisher, but it's going to be awful hard to win that without getting credits on sign-ups!
Anyone else care to comment?
-CB
Send them an email, tell them when they get it fixed (with compensation for current losses), you'll put them back.
They probably won't fix it. Just switch and move on.
I'd also look into competing programs. Google has a beta now where they pay $20 for each signup (AdWords and AdSense). It's in a limited test run right now, but there is a page where you can sign up to be notified if/when they expand the program.
The only direct competition to Yahoo PPC is Google and Google is apparently only offering their AdWords affiliate referral program to "invitees only." And so far, we have not been invited...
We are already promoting the second tier PPC guys like Kanoodle, Enhance and Findwhat and doing well with them. We have done well with Overture/Yahoo in the past so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer before I pull them.
Thanks,
-Chris
Our Yahoo Search Marketing page already says "formerly Overture" all over it and we promote the program using both brands. I saw (and filled out) the sign-up page for Google's referral program a few days ago, but that's invitation only apparently.
Thanks,
-Chris
