Major Overture Interface Flaw

Has anyone else had this problem

[ccam96]

I recently submitted 400+ keyword to my overture account placing them into a category with a maximum bid of $1.25. I submitted the multiple keywords to one ad description, url etc. so the process was fairly quick. Unfortunately , I didn't update the individual bids for each keyword (since Overture doesn't allow you to place a maximum bid for all keywords prior to Editorial review, I'm sure this is on purpose..) so they apparently defaulted to the maximum bid for #1 positions. Since they were all being placed into a category with a maximum bid of $1.25, I wasn't worried.

I woke up this morning and saw that I just blew through $200 in about 3 hours. I stopped by account and called customer service. they basically stated in not too many words.. "too bad" and credited me a lousy $20. I suggested that they change the interface to ensure that this doesn't happen to any more publishers (.. which Im sure that it has..) and she basically blew me off.

Overture's interface stinks!

[bnhall]

You have to manually edit the max bid for every single keyword before submitting to avoid this from happening.

[ccam96]

I guess my concern is.. why do we have to do this? Why doesn't Overture have a "max bid" feature when placing keywords and ad's for review? What about companies who place thousands of keywords for review at a time? Does it make sense for them to hire someone to click through each keyword bid and press "ctrl+V" for every keyword?

If you place these keywords into a category with a max bid, then all these listings recently approved by the editorial review team should default to this max bid.

I think that this stinks! I know that I won't make this mistake twice, but they should SERIOUSLY consider changing this.

[bostonseo]

The fact that their system defaults to the Max Bid anytime you enter new words is so shady; don't get me started. I've never been burned, but I feel for people new to Yahoo(Overture). They have a good laugh I'm sure after the call.

[kaylowe]

I'm so glad to have this explained to me. I thought I was just a dummy that did not know HOW to change all bids at once, so I've been (not so)patiently changing EVERY STINKING KW manually!

Learn something everyday, huh?

Kay

[eWhisper]

What about companies who place thousands of keywords for review at a time? Does it make sense for them to hire someone to click through each keyword bid and press "ctrl+V" for every keyword?

Many of these companies are using the API or bulk upload to add keywords, so this isn't an issue for them.

[Hiccup]

*puts hand up*

I got burned by this. Well burned in a good way. It did put everything through at max bids, which did put me in number one position for every keyword, (186 of them), but it did get me a sale and I did have budgetting turned on, (thank god).

It is very shady for them to have it set up like this. I pity the poor fool who didn't even have budgetting turned on...

[joem]

To keep this from happening again just submit the changes or added keywords and turn the campaign off till the ad is approved. The little time down will not hurt anyway and this insures all is well so you can adjust the cost after approval of ad.

[bostonseo]

To keep this from happening just use Adwords :)

[BradleyT]

Great idea joem.

I too was burned by this!

[humblebeginnings]

"To keep this from happening just use Adwords :)"

Yeah sure, and pay 5 bucks for keywords like
"little green widget from Ohio"...

[bostonseo]

Google is always more expensive. I have plenty of keywords that are more expensive on Yahoo than Google. But also plenty of keywords more expensive on Google than Yahoo. It's really a term by term scenario regarding which program is more expensive.