Overture Canada

French listings only

[Umbra]

I am very perplexed the way Overture has set up its accounts for Canadian and American advertisers:

1) With Overture, one can advertise in English in the U.S. market and pay in U.S. Dollars
2) With Overture Canada, one can advertise in French in the Canadian market and pay in Canadian dollars
3) With Overture Canada, one can NOT advertise in English in the Canadian market and pay in Canadian dollars

This make no sense whatsoever. What about the majority of Canadian clients who advertise in English and prefer to spend Canadian dollars?

In combination with all the other criticism lately, it seems that the people at Overture are really out of touch with the needs of their advertisers, and doomed to always be second-rate to Google.

[Umbra]

Ironic. According to dictionary.com:

yahoo

n 1: not very intelligent or interested in culture

[eWhisper]

If you give Overture Canada a call, they'll explain to you the best way to reach the Canadian marketing through the U.S. Overture interface. Very nice guys over there.

You can also use Canadian specific geographic keywords in Overture US to reach the Canadian market as well.

[Umbra]

Sure, but a Canadian business cannot pay in Canadian funds for advertising to a Canadian market. While many Canadian businesses do have expenses in US funds, it is generally more favourable to pay in CAD$ whenever possible. What blows my mind is that Overture/Yahoo invested all the time and effort into creating an Overture Canada that really only embraces French Canada. It was a bad marketing decision not to reach out to all Canadian advertisers.

[redart]

I'm a Canadian advertiser trying to reach the Canadian marketplace <snip> and I use the US interface account.

I can't seem to get our most effective phrases listed for different reasons each time I submit.

One phrase is Calgary Used Cars, which is targeted to people who want to search for used cars in Calgary Alberta. A pretty simple and common phrase you'd think.

First they say "we don't know if the prices mentioned in your site are US or Canadian dollar". It is clearly a Canadian site, the prices & cities and regions are Canadian and our search term ad specifies Canadian city, province and country. Fine so I try to specify the ad even more.

Second time I submit they say "these terms are considered French speaking Canada" And that we have to create a Canadian Account and resubmit our listings in the French language. No where in the ad, keyword, website, etc does it target French speaking Canada.

It's targeted to Alberta, which is exclusively English. In fact, most of Canada speaks English and advertises in English. It would do us no good to submit in French.

The main issue is, we were able to submit these no problem before, and only recently were we declined for these listings. They're making it very hard for Canadian advertisers.

[edited by: werty at 10:12 pm (utc) on Sep. 12, 2005]
[edit reason] Removed URL - Please see TOS #13 [/edit]

[Tropical Island]

As a Canadian (I don't live there) I always chuckle at American ignorance of what is north of their border.

It's not entirely their fault. I would bet that Canadian history and geography are not real big subjects in US schools.

This, given my personal experience in dealing with Over / Yahoo reps who are in charge of approving ads, does not surprise me at all.

Of course your ads are aimed at French Canada if they mention Calgary. I meet many Americans who are surprised that I don't speak French (I'm from Toronto). When I explain that Canada's French population is only 18% of the total they are utterly surprised.

Why not send the rep who is turning you down a link to a map with the French area and English areas highlighted (there must be lots of the net). Ask him / her to post it in the office so others can see it.

This is all in humour, of course, but indicates again why Over / Yahoo will never break out of their niche.