2006 Overture Change?

Hope not -

[johnnydequino]

I just spoke to a search marketing guru who said Overture may change it's current auction bidding system to the google CTR x CPC method - around March 2006. It seems to be a rumor, not sure.

If true, I don't believe this would be a good move for Overture. Overtures PPC results are much more relevent than Google. With Advanced match, I see a PPC ad on every search like google. Anyone hear of this change? This seems to be a major change - what to do with current keywords? Change is at least six months away, so it's a big change for sure.

I spoke to Overture directly, and they said it's just a rumor. YahooSarah, care to comment?

jd

[Tropical Island]

This could be Over's last gasp to recover income that they will inevitably lose through MSN.

IMHO it is a terrible decision. You can't trust them or their programmers to run this kind of system fairly. They just don't have the resources or knowledge to make the program work. They can't make the current system work much of the time.

In the end it will be the advertisers who will have to endure the bugs and breakdowns.

[johnnydequino]

I honestly think overtures method, with advanced match, works the BEST for the long term. To scrap the entire model does not make sense. It's probably just a rumor anyway.

I think what more likely to happen overture will raise it's bids for certain high converting terms. That will replace the MSN loss. Any opinions?

jd

[cabowabo]

Until you see an official announcement from Overture (yahoo) I would leave it as rumor. March is a long way off and many things can change in a heartbeat in this industry.

Cheers,

CaboWabo

[oldpro]

Please let this rumor be true. The only ones that will complain are those with poor performing (low CTR) ads. Google's adwords algo is way more bang for the buck. Overture soaks the "rich"...google rewards success.

[johnnydequino]

Google = Irrelevant

Overture = Relevant

That is my take. Looks to be a rumor anyway.

jd

[TheGuyAboveYou]

Hi

CTR x CPC is better for advertisers. Yahoo's costs are way higher because it is just a leap frog game. I can pay less than the add below me on google if I know how to write a good ad. I wish they would change. I think Googles alogoithm is better for the advertiser.

[vinnie2227]

Unforunately, I think the rumor is true. There is a thread over at SEW where a member just returned from a YSM focus group.

[bostonBeans]

Unforunately, I think the rumor is true. There is a thread over at SEW where a member just returned from a YSM focus group.

I have asked focus groups many things that (1) never were implemented and (2) in some cases never were meant to be implemented. Sometimes it is just due diligence.

Even if they were to implement a change to the ranking algo, a March rollout is impossible given the Overture (i mean Yahoo!) track record. Not to mention the massive logistics associated with reeducating a customer base along with sales, support, marketing, etc. staff.

[johnnydequino]

I spoke to overture directly, and they said they make more money per click in the auction method. Their problem was the tail; ie small search queries that did not display any PPC ads.

Now with advanced match, I don't see any queries without a PPC ad. Seems like things are running great from an oveture company standpoint, so I can't see them changing anything.

I also asked if they would have higher bids for certain 'converting' keywords, and there was no comment.

Let's see what happens next year, probably nothing.

jd

[Sweezely]

Whatever they decide to do, we'll still have a week where we can't log in for "system upgrades."