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Yikes! That means all our lower bids for variations and our main search terms will be AUTOMATICALLY raised to our highest max bids of the most competitive variations, the "primary term".
And there goes the grandfathered $.01 misspellings, I presume? Somebody, tell me I am reading this wrong!
Also: "...match your listings to searches where we believe the intent of the user is to find your product" meaning our listing will be offered on search terms that the MatchDriver algo will decide that our highest bid should be shown. Without our control???
I am always amazed by the new tricks they pull out of the hat. Grrr...
From Overture:
*Note: The Match Driver tool is applicable to all advertisers, it is not an application that the advertiser needs to turn on and off.
In other words, we've got it, whether we like it or not...
Wonder if the MSN experience is partly driving this new "feature"?
Does this mean that if I receive a click where my max bid is .40 however in fact I'm only paying .15 because of "autobid" that they would charge me .40. Seems reallllly strange. Why not just allow us to list under mispellings like Google does with AdWords. I really don't like this.
This is the same type of contorted logic we saw coming from LookSmart before they started their downward spiral.
There are always consequences to Greed!
I was already backing off on my spending when the 'max bid' tool was introduced. Now I'm convinced. No more money from me for a while.
But it helps them monetize their inventory, raising the average earnings per click - and if you look through their statements about how much they spend of their earnings per click, every quarter you see that increase.
So they have to do something - because as they expand, their services are mostly human based - and their costs will increase as well. Thus the technological innovation - remap the 'cheap keyword here' to the 'expensive keyword here' and then there you go - instant revenue once it's implemented.
The way their rep pitched the 'new and wonderful tool for advertisers' to me earlier this week was that it would help me
......of course, he should have said, it would help me by saving me the trouble of looking for more targeted keywords that convert better - those lousy converting ones will conveniently replace the better ones at the higher cost.
Six percent inflation in the cost of doing business, combined with the loss of Ask to Google, right on the heels of AOL, has got to hurt.
Imagine if every quarter their cost of doing business went up by such a margin.
It's survival, basically - they must charge more, and since they now have serious competition, they can't afford to raise the minimum per click cost to advertisers - a lot of clicks make a lot less sense at .10 cents than they do at .05 cents.
Also is there any evidence that people are bidding less? Im seeing it casually and with our very limited terms. Maybe as a result of the SEC transparency regulations kicking in as advertisers (especially high bidding ones) start to drop out. Perhaps this is forcing them with this move.
IId be watching very carefully how quickly our money is being used up on OV.
One of the big differences between Over & Google is that in AdWords you can choose mispellings whereas with Over they usually revert to the main word. I would love to pick and choose the mispellings that I want.
Yep, it's a new way for them to increase their earnings per click
First, my commentary:
This program really bites.
Second, my observation:
Won't the bidding just auto-correct over a short period of time, anyway? I'm going to stop bidding so highly for "widgets" if they're going to combine it with "free" and "green" and "cheap" ... I'll factor in more bogus clicks. Isn't this what everyone will do, and in the end, Overture ends up making the same $$ as they did before this weirdo change?
There is for me where it doesn't work for me!
Why would you need negative keywords in Oveture when it matches the search term, correcting mis-spellings and pluralisations?
And that in my opinion is the moot point Chiyo.
In effect this reduces the granularization of their product: reduces its quality and increases its cost. In a market the benefits of this can only me short term. When the market adjusts, the vendor is almost invariably in a worse position than previously. Simple economics really.
But of course in this industry we have seen it before - often. A sort of 'grab some money today and forget tomorrow' philosophy.
They will pay the price for this of course, as they deserve to.
>> I can't believe there is no opt-out on this!? <<
Indeed. This would have mitigated the above, but of course reduced the size of the heist.
Then of course there is the question of ethics... but I won't get on to that as it easiy provokes me!
Won't the bidding just auto-correct over a short period of time, anyway?
It may to some extent, but in some senses Overture has a monopoly on their syndication properties. You want a top search placement on YAHOO!, MSN or other partner and haven't been able to get it with a regular listing, who ya gonna call? Overture or bust.
If they had both Overture and FindWhat appearing on YAHOO!, then there would be a choice and things would even out more quickly over time. Ultimately I think it will drive prices up.
This is a way to collect a check for virtually every query. For the advertiser it could be a good thing if you get clicks on terms that are more specific and relevant than that on which you bid.
They'll now be able to collect on all the terms with less than 25 queries/month or whatever the minimum threshold is. Anyone have any idea what percentage of searches that is? Probably pretty high.
It blows a hole in tracking systems like DART because you no longer know specifically how people are finding your site or what specific terms are converting. Will the keyword tool now group "solitaire engagement ring", "solitaire diamond ring", "engagement ring diamond solitaire" together? How will the PPC tracking companies handle it? Do their systems track the keyword based on what the advertiser puts in or will it extract the actual search term from Overture. There's probably gonna be some funky results for a while when the software is not able to correctly determine the intent of the searcher.
Welcome to the word of PPC where we charge you more, give you less, but dumb it down enough so if you have a big budget you don't need to understand anything.
[edited by: skibum at 4:36 pm (utc) on Aug. 22, 2002]
hehe, i printed that out and pinned it up in muh cubicle.
