Overture US to raise minimum bid as well

[heidibear]

Hello all,

I thought I would pass on that I heard at the end of this week Overture is planning on raising the minimum bid to 10 cents. Terms already bid at 5 cents will be grandfathered, but if you change the bid on these terms at all the minimum you can bid will then be 10 cents.

Has anyone received an email about this?

[webdiversity]

There is an update scheduled on the DTC for Thursday night/Friday morning so that is likely to be when the "system enhancements" will take place.

I suppose now is the time to look at the keywords that give good ROI and are non-competitive or minimum competition and get yourself top of the grandaddies, and just hope that you don't end up in a price war and end up getting grandfathered at 25 cents.....

It was inevitable that the US would follow suit.

[Mike_Mackin]

"system enhancements"

Good one WD

[heidibear]

Is it only me or have their "system enhancements" not really done much to enhance the client experience.

[sun818]

Any seniors in the house with the grandfathered $0.01 clicks? My initial thought to this was that the "little guys" are encouraged to go elsewhere with the minimum bid and $20 minimum. Does this mean Overture has maxed out on clients and its just raising "fees" for bigger profits?

[Mike_Mackin]

Love the grandfathered $0.01

My personal opinion is that this has nothing to do with "little guys" or clients [read advertisers] and everything to do with holding on to their partners.

[heidibear]

I think Overture already has many of the big players with deep pockets as clients so in that sense, they are maxed out.

However, I also think that they are doing this because they know they can. Even though many of us gripe about the changes, Overture knows that as much as we complain, we cannot afford to pull our listings.

Good point about working to keep their partners. Overture took a huge loss in their own revenue in order to keep partners happy when contracts were up. So, raise rates, raise the revenue for the partner, they make more too. Everyone is happy....but the client

[TomWaits]

"Any seniors in the house with the grandfathered $0.01 clicks?"

Accounted for and present. Yeah, I can't wait to see what they do with our 1 cent gems.

[JonnyWales]

Any ideas what will happen to bids where there are only three bidders as follows :-

1) 30c
2) 29c
3) 28c

Currently the third bidder would only be paying 5c. Guess that will go up to 10c and not be covered by grandfathering?

[heidibear]

The way I understand it, if 3rd place wants to continue to pay 5 cents, the bid needs to be dropped from 28 cents to 5 cents before the "system enhancements" take place.

[werty]

oh i am not a fan of this at all. looks like i will have to add a giant list of keywords tonight. hopefully get them listed before the 10cent minimum hits.

[Iknow2little]

Hi all,

For me it is seems that Overture wants to make more money from it's many smaller money makers...
Afterall, the large advertisers are doing plenty for them! Just read the following:

"Overture announced that its fourth quarter revenue will be nearly $200 million, surpassing the company's original forecast of $190 million, primarily as a result of increased traffic and click-through volume from the company's largest partners. Within this forecast, average price per introduction is expected to be in line with previous estimates of $0.35 to $0.36."
Source:Overture Services Inc. (ticker: OVER, exchange: NASDAQ)News Release - 1/13/2003)

Also I think that the 10 cent is just the start. Almost like a modest test, for our reaction. I think that it is the first step to bringing the minimum bids to the level of the average price per introduction (now at $0.35), so even higher...

So yeah! Get those granddaddies in while you still can! :D

[Brett_Tabke]

>I can't wait to see what they do with our 1 cent gems.

How long have you guys had that 1 cent "free ride"? Two years?

If going by what they are doing in the UK [webmasterworld.com], I wonder if it is about time for that bus to stop?

[TomWaits]

Those free rides pay for the overpayments we have to make elsewhere on Overture and Google. Bus schmuss.

[hooloovoo22]

i think overture bids are one of the first stops for new internet marketers.

i don't blame overture. if you're paying for visitors it's really important to know what each is worth, because as time goes on, more competitors will enter this space and trump your grandfathered bid by a longshot. for most of my keywords, i haven't seen 5 cents in a long time.

[karyam]

Can anyone confirm that Overture will actually increase the minimum bid to 0.10? I haven't received anything from them.

[snook]

so if we are at .05, and we can move up to .06, do we have to do that now?

[Mike_Mackin]

They started in the UK [webmasterworld.com]

Then they tell us:
The DirecTraffic Center® will be unavailable for approximately five hours, from 7:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, February 6 until 12:00 a.m. PST on Friday, February 7, while Overture performs a systems upgrade. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Confirm, NO
Probable, YES
Conculsion, we are next.
Informed info is coming to us from all over the world.
So do what you have to do.......

[profitpuppy]

This is a poor move. Some topic areas are not profitable for ROI much above 5 cents. It is stupid to lump every type of product into the same basket and say they all have to pay 10 cents. The market with determine how much people are willing to pay. For some product areas they will lose advertisers. Not that they probably care. I just hope google doesn't do this, because I get thousands of clicks on google cpc at 5 cents each.

[heidibear]

Snook,

You are probably safer making any changes you want to make now rather than waiting.

[AmericanBulldog]

I just phoned overture, the rep confirmed on the phone the increase, and then mentioned "I didn't say that"

[karyam]

Thanks AmericanBulldog, I just emailed Overture and was waiting for an answer...

[Rugles]

He didn't say what?

[heidibear]

Hey everyone.

I got confirmation it will be happening on Thursday for sure. If you are bidding between 5-9 cents you are grandfathered, but if you change your bid at all, it will have to be to the minimum 10 starting Thursday.

For us seniors with the 1 cent grandfathered bids, sorry...they now go to 5 cents.

[Strongbad]

I talked to them this morning, they confirmed the increase would take place on Thursday. They also stated that the old "Grandfathered" bids of $0.01 will go to $0.05 minimum. Bids under a dime will be grandfathered, at least until the next price bump or until they decide to end it.

I recommend checking your bids ASAP, their server will be unavailable early Thursday and bid traffic should rise as this gets out.

I may be focusing on Google for new clients.

[nell]

It looks like the INK listings will move up in a lot of search terms replacing those current advertsers who don't want to bid the minimum .10/click.

[Mike_Mackin]

Correct
An Ink listing will benefit from this move for obscure phrases.

[karyam]

Got confirmation from Overture too...

[johnraphone]

Hum, this looks like a bad move, there are so many new PPC search engines offering 1 cent clicks and other incentives Overture might be hammering the nail in the coffin. I was shocked when they went from 1 to 5 cents; now I extremely shocked going 5 to 10 cents. I don't think some keywords are worth paying 10 cents for.

[chiyo]

Yep im a 1c miserly grandfather. Will let the accoount run out and move expenditure to Adwords.