Optimization Settings

[SEMblahblah]

Hi,

Can anybody explain how the optimization settings work on Yahoo. Basically, I need some clarity on these three points that are seen under the 'optimization settings' section under the analytics tab

- Allow conversion data to be used for campaign optimization.
- Allow conversion and revenue data to be used for campaign optimization.
- Don't use conversion and revenue data for campaign optimization.

What if the 'campaign optimization' is actually turned off? Would any of these 3 settings still be applicable? If yes, which one of these should I set it to? What is the function of each of these?

What if the campaign optimization is turned ON? Has anyone tried using it? Does it work well?

Thanks!

[Channel01]

I would not recommend using Yahoo's Campaign Optimization feature. It's basically Yahoo's version of Google's Conversion Optimizer. I've had great success with the Conversion Optimizer for Google so I decided to try out Yahoo's version last year for 2 clients. I used the revenue data piece which basically allows you to input ROAS targets by ad group and Yahoo's system takes control of the bids to try to hit the targets. Long story short, the end result in both cases for me was CPC inflation and worse conversion. In most cases, the targets weren't even being hit and I had set them conservatively.

I can't say I was terribly surprised by the results. This is a hidden feature in Yahoo and they do next to nothing to promote it. I was talking to my rep about it before testing and I honestly don't even think he knew about the feature. I'm a glutton for testing stuff out though so I wanted to see if there was any value to the setting.

So, yeah, you're probably best off with the Conversion Optimization turned off. Those first two settings don't apply then.

[J_RaD]

I agree don't do that.

Turn on conversion tracking and start tracking which keywords make conversions. Do this over the course of a week or longer depending on the case and pause all non-producing keywords and all HIGH cost per action keywords.