Overture Enforcing Major Editorial Guidelines

[glenv]

Well I knew it would be coming along. I just hoped it wouldn't.

I received emails today for two platinum accounts we manage.

For both accounts I received this:

"We will not accept listings for web sites whose primary purpose is the collection of personally identifiable information to be used for consumer or promotional marketing, or related purposes. We will also not accept listings for advertisers that link to or redirect to such sites."

My Overture accounts / campaigns do not link to any form or page that asks for personal information. However, as is the case with the majority of us here, I am in the lead generating business. That is, I advertise products for companies that may be giving away a free sample ort discount and of course they want to collect the consumers demographic information. For God's sake, that is what advertising is all about.

I am fed up with the whole overture/yahoo system. I spend tens of thousands of dollars a month with them and my budget with Google Adsense is triple what I spend with Overture. For you that will jump on that and claim you do not believe it, too bad. Get your head out of the sand. There are many many that spend much more than me on these PPC engines but stay quiet because if you are smart and have a measure of success it is prefered to fly under the radar. However, I am sick of Overture and just could not stay quiet.

Yes, I have already called and emailed platinum services. There are only one or two people there that really care. Of late it seems like when I call them I get the same calibre people when I call my credit card company. I mean I can imagine a room full of hirees they hired overseas to read canned responses to me.

If they are honestly trying to clean up their system and turn it into tral search results, more power to them.

The truth is though, this new editorial rampage is another one of their blunders they stumble into where they do not think it through. They allow editorial gurus to make decisions that haven't a grain of common sense or business savvy. All they can do is read a dictionary or a thesaurus.

Ok, I am ready for the wrath of the opposing viewpoints.

[ScottG13]

Are the majority of the users here really in the "lead generation business?"

We simply sell products on our website.

I'm not exactly srue what this policy is trying to curtail. What are the perceived negatives associated with these types of advertisers?

Is Yahoo trying to dump ads that are not sell a product or service directly? I think I can see some value in that. I'd prefer not to be endlessly redirected if I'm looking for some widgets to buy. I simply want to buy them, not fill out forms.

[glenv]

That's true, I do not know the statistics as to who primarily is in the lead generating business.

[shorebreak]

GlenV, the reality is that Yahoo has decided incentive-based marketing is bad for their business, and while some of my clients may be hurt by this as well, there's no arguing with data. The beauty of Yahoo is it's a public company and is making decisions with long term revenue maximization in mind; therefore you can know they're only going to make a decision like this if it becomes clear to them that incentive-based marketing hurts their business. In my opinion, the large amount of testing they do on their search results, plus advertiser and user surveys, have led them to conclude that incentive-based marketing lowers user confidence in paid search results. The poor user experience leads to lower CTR's, and one thing Yahoo cannot have is lower CTRs.

Yahoo realizes that if they continue to let incentive-based marketers fill their PPC ad space
a)users will block out ppc ads; and
b)retailers selling products on their merits will cry foul

While (b) might not hurt their share price, (a) certainly will. No rage here, then, but I fail to see how you can't agree with that logic. Everyone wants to make a buck, including Yahoo.

[ryanfromaustin]

glenv -

We are also in the lead generation business and have not received any notification of policy changes from YSM. From my interpretation of this message, you would only be affected if the information being taken was used for spamming, telemarketing, or any other marketing for which the consumer did not specifically subscribe. Most "lead generation" companies just provide a specific service for people who have requested it (ie legal services, real estate, insurance quotes, etc).

Any thoughts?

[glenv]

We do absolutely no mailing. Now we had all our sites wiped out for only one reason:

Reason(s): Other
Note(s): data collection guideline violation

Several of our sites are education/college targeted.

[RailMan]

>>I'd prefer not to be endlessly redirected if I'm
>>looking for some widgets to buy. I simply want to
>>buy them, not fill out forms.

same here
google adwords is full of ebay redirects and junk advertising
as a consumer, it's not worth clicking on an ad that won't find me the goods i want
as a business, the junk ads simply increase competition and cost for certain keywords

which is why i no longer click on adwords and no longer spend money on adwords

overture is much cleaner - it has real value to my business and i get clicks that lead to sales, and at a reasonable cost - i think overture have taken a sensible approach and hope it stays that way

[AlexMiles]

>They allow editorial gurus to make decisions that haven't a grain of common sense or business savvy.

Thats why they have to work as editorial gurus, they aren't busness gurus.

[cagey1]

I am fed up with the whole overture/yahoo system. I spend tens of thousands of dollars a month with them and my budget with Google Adsense[sic] is triple what I spend with Overture

I can relate. I have never seen a company say "no" to so many potential customers who just want to give them their money. It's like watching a Greek tragedy.

They have continously strengthened the monster (Google Adwords) that is now devouring them.

[ScottG13]

One of the most important parts of our advertising is that if you come in from one of our ads, you can evaulate and add a product to your cart within 2 clicks. To me, this is what I want from a search ad. A product or service that I can evaluate and price very quickly. It seems that Yahoo appretiates this approach too. It think it will increase the relevance and conversion rates of their advertising and is probably a good long-term decision.