Yahoo Sponsored...Success?

[JamesR]

This thread is a break off of our other discussion here [webmasterworld.com] and is intended for the sharing of experiences using the Yahoo sponsored sites program. All those who are using the program, please let us know if you feel the value has been worth it and what return you feel you are getting for the investment. Thanks in advance.

[2_much]

good thread to start...it should be interesting to compare notes..
we've definitely seen an increase in traffic for the sites that we sponsored...unfortunately, we still can't track this so it's hard to tell exactly what the effect has been...along with offering the sponsored listings, they also restructured the category so this may also be a factor in the increase of referrals...
so far, this seems to be a good investment for us...
there are still glitches in the system, so if the fee you have to pay is high I'd reccommend waiting a little bit...
they're still very disorganized with this at yahoo and are still trying to figure out how to deal with this new program...
I spoke with a representative this morning and she said the following (this has already been mentioned):
for categories where you don't contact a representative, the maximum is going to be 20 sites...for categories that you have to talk to a representative, the maximum number of sites listed will be 5.
So if you notice that your categories are filling up, I'd suggest that you include them now or you may be left out for 1 or 3 months...

[rpking]

...Success?

Well here's an email we got yesterday...

> Thank you for participating in Yahoo!'s Sponsored Site program.
>
> We are writing to notify you that we have decided to discontinue this
> program in certain areas of the Yahoo! Directory, including
> the category
> where your site is currently sponsored.
>
> We will be removing the sponsored listing and issuing you a
> full refund.
>
> We appreciate your interest in working with us and are very sorry for
> any inconvenience this change may cause you.

I'm not sure why they did this... our $100 category was very popular. At $100 dollars a pop, they would have made $2200 this month.

Wait a minute I here you say... how do they make $2200 at $100 a site, maximum 20 sites? Easy, allow 22 sites to have sponsored listings.

All through this program there has been at best confusion, at worst cover-up and mistakes from Yahoo! I think they launched a very flawed scheme which they have now pulled from categories where the errors showed up.

If it wasn't for the massive traffic they sent everyone...

[dogboy]

ok I'm back...hard to tell, but I would say I got back the 1K already. (It is pretty hard to say for a fact but I'm pretty sure.)

things that may have helped:

- a good professional looking/functioning site
- a good clickable title and description
- I was the only one of 5 to focus on one very specific area... the others were very general.
- I think the top listings are like newbie bait... easy to convert
- there is quite a bit of money in that cat... high profit margins pay off ads quicker.

... so I think it was a good move for me. Depending on what area you are in, it may or may not be good for you.

[dogboy]

wow, I just got the new pricing for another cat.... $1500 a month.... that is a lot of cash... I guess the $1000/3 months really was a deal compared with this....

[dogboy]

....I just got my stats from Yahoo

Start Date:16-Feb-2001
End Date:15-May-2001
Today's date: March 8, 2001
Page Views:12,927
Clicks:354
Click Rate:2.74%

Home > Business and Economy > Business to Business > Communications and Networking > Internet and World Wide Web > 'Keyword1 Keyword2'

estimate~
531 clicks a month X 3 months = $1000
1593 clicks = $1000
therefore: 1 click costs about $1.60

...the same $1.60, for the same keywords ('Keyword1 Keyword2') @ goto.com would get me in 7th.... much more expensive than I thought

in any case, the Click Rate is at 2.74% so far... how does that compare to any others out there? And how do these compare to other types of advertising?

[tedres]

The typical banner ad response averages about 0.3% (though I've seen some rare banner results in the 5-10% range when they were well designed and targeted - definitely not the norm though...)

You might want to check the google thread for their text ad results. Not sure what other ad forms are comparable.

Another question is how many clicks did you get for your regular listing before the sponsored link program started? Does the 354 clicks include both the sponsored link and the link in the regular list below?

[eljefe3]

I started on the Google ad words program a while ago and I'm getting a 5% click through rate which comes to about $.23 per click. Much cheaper than these same positions on goto.

There are a total of 8 adword sponsors where I'm advertising, and the click through ratios from the different spots are about the same.

[2_much]

So how are people faring with the Sponsored listings?

We tested it out with a few keywords but the results have been extremely poor. I can't provide any data or numbers because we were never able to track this specifically, but we implemented other methods of tracking based on comparisons.

Any thoughts or opinions on the effectiveness of sponsoring sites?

[dogboy]

crap! I lost my stats link... but I just got the call today to renew at the new $1000/month...no way.

[dogboy]

ok found it...

start 16-Feb-2001
end date 15-May-2001

present date 4-April-2001
page views 46,575
Clicks into my site 1,220
click thru rate: 2.62%