Exceeded Automation Limit

how to get around overtures bidding limits

[evolutionary]

Recently overture allowed several auto bidding bots to control bids.....on a limited (6 times a day) basis. Prior to this, it was nearly unlimited

In my industry, bids change 6 times in 6 minutes!

Bidright cant handle this, whos software or systems can?

Thanks

[Mike_Mackin]

[url=]http://www.overture.com/d/USm/about/advertisers/dtcfaq_bt.jhtml]How do third party bidding tool companies affect Overture's marketplace?[/url]

"In addition, our advertisers have reported being confused about the capabilities and authenticity of third party bid management tools. Therefore, we have amended our Terms of Use, Advertiser Terms and Conditions, and Advertising Agency Terms and Conditions Agreements to specifically restrict the use of automated bidding tools."

15.CANCELLATION OR TERMINATION: [overture.com]

"Overture may, in its sole discretion, terminate your account, and discontinue your participation in the Overture Marketplace (or on any Web site or Third Party Product that is part of the Overture Distribution Network )"

...legal stuff but it seems that Third Party Product may be the operative phrase...

[seth_wilde]

"whos software or systems can?"

None that are "overture approved".

It's obvious that overture dislikes non approved bidding software.. They have already taken steps to stop them from working with their system and have promised more in the future.

I guess my question is how will overture react to an advertiser who is using rogue software? I really can't see them banning a client that spending 10k a month with them. Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

[evolutionary]

I agree with Overtures policies.....
But don't make them if you cant enforce them!

Carrying a gun is illegal, but not carrying one in East St. Louis is suicide.

Thats whats happening here. Many overture bidders do not face bids which change every 30-60 seconds like we do. Without an equal playing field, we are loosing thousands and thousands. Our current bidding software cannot hold a top 3 position for more than 1 minute...

Until the field is swept of illegal bidding bots, overtures policies are killing the honest players.

[Brett_Tabke]

Here's the deal, if you have a large enough contract with Overture, ask them to manage the bids for you. I've heard talk, they will do that.

[PPCBT_guy]

evolutionary,

The thing to do is call Overture and make them aware of anyone that is updating their bids automatically more than 6 times per day. Continue to contact them about this.

They are making changes so that these things can't take place. But changes may not work immediately in every case. They will disable accounts that do not abide by their TOS.

[bodine]

But who can say for sure that your competitors are using bots to do the updates?

If you aren't exagerating when you say they are costing thousands, then it may be worth it to hire someone to sit at a computer and do the updates manually, which does not violate Overture's TOS...unless that person's name is "agents", "robots", "scripts", or "spiders". :)

Just a thought until Overture gets their bid management tool up and running, as rumored in another posting in "PPC Advertising Engines."

[bigjohnt]

Good point Bodine.
I know there is more than one company with banks of bidwatchers - similar to telemarketers- who watch and change bids all day long. They are humans, and if your margins are high enough in comparison with your bids, and you can find bidders cheap enough, this is a workable deal. Changing a bid 20 times an hour is not forbidden. Only if it is automated.
I cannot however see a highly paid webmaster, marketer or designer doing that level of work for more than a few minutes.

[evolutionary]

I appreciate the information. We have checked and rechecked our competitions bidding systems. They are changing bids under 60 seconds and gapping, 24/7. If that is not automated.....

We have also contacted overture and awaiting response. I have also learned there are ways of altering existing 'approved' software.

For now, we are manually bidding 24/7........and not happy about it

[gatotoo]

It's actually not too difficult to do "automated" bidding on a manual basis using approved software. Overture will let you do this as often as you want.. a click of one button will legally update bids on all of your search terms. I wonder if there is a program that automatically pushes the button.....hmmm???

[4crests]

There is software that you can load onto your computer to automatically update your bids every 1 minute if you want. However, Overture will log you out if you have been "inactive" for a certain amount of time. So, you would have to manually log into overture every so often and then use the special software to change the bids automatically. I am thinking that one of these software packages will come up with a way to update on an often enough rate that you don't get logged out. I'm not sure if the auto updating every 1 minute will keep you logged on to the system. I would like to hear from anyone that has NON-web based bid management software in use.