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Just wanted to share my experience since I'm using both Google Adwords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search (+ Overture Site Match).
Starting with the good things, I have observed that if my ads are displayed much less often than with Google, the impression/click ratio is much, much higher with Yahoo!. Which means that the ad is probably displayed in a more relevant context (or that the click fraud rate is much higher which I can't determine :-))) ). Also, the average cost per click with Yahoo! is half the cost of an average Google Adwords click.
I must have chosen very good keywords since my ad is always displayed at the top of the search result list when the user enters the main keywords for my product. Very good. However, this good results only apply to my french campaign since setting up a campaign for other countries is nothing but a rip-off. See below.
Now to the long list of very bad things:
- With Yahoo!, you always have to pay in advance while Google charge you only when clicks are occuring.
- Setting up or modifying a campaign with Yahoo! takes too much time. With Google, it's easy and quick.
- My software supports 7 different languages and I need to advertise in all countries where these languages are spoken. This is a built-in feature in Google Adwords and I do not incur additional upfront costs for this. With Yahoo! I would have to open a new account for each target country and pay in advance for each country. Since I'm targeting all countries speaking spanish, german, italian, english, portuguese (2 flavors) and french, this could quickly becomes a financial nightmare. Ridiculous.
- Changing the campaign settings with Google Adwords is a matter of seconds and the changes apply immediately. Yesterday, I just wanted to fix a typo in the title of my Yahoo! Sponsored Search definitions and I had to enter, once again, the "editorial review process". That is, it will take days, if not a full week until the ad is displayed without the typo. Google Adwords is much more flexible and much more easy to use. Yahoo! obviously have a problem with their slow and awkward interface.
- I should not have subscribed to Overture Site Match. After registering 2 URLs, paying in advance for the clicks and letting the "magic" algorithm work during 3 weeks, I got an astonishing total of 13 clicks for both URLs for this period. This is merely lost money.
So my decision was to setup my foreign campaigns (outside of France) with Google Adwords and to maintain the french Yahoo! Sponsored Search campaign.
I'm interested in similar experiences.
Thanks.
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Patrick Philippot
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[edited by: werty at 3:24 pm (utc) on Mar. 13, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed Signature - Please see TOS #13 [/edit]
