As someone who manages a large number of PPC campaigns, across a variety of search engines, I must say that I’ve noticed an important difference in the customer experience between Yahoo! SM and Google.
The Google experience has been designed to make things very user-friendly, including the AdWords
interface, which makes campaign setup a breeze. But with Yahoo! SM, the setup process is far more complex and time-consuming, due in large part to the way they’ve organized their
account settings. In fact, to get around some of the limitations in the Yahoo! SM interface I began uploading campaigns as spreadsheets, instead of building them myself in the interface. And, even though Yahoo! SM handles the upload for me (a benefit of achieving Gold status) it remains a difficult process, because the communication I receive from Yahoo! SM during the upload
is sporadic…at best.
What really confuses me is how Yahoo! SM can lag so far behind Google in the development of its user interface. After all, they own the Overture patent that PPC is run on.
Obviously, I cannot recommend against advertising with Yahoo! SM on the basis of the limitations I experience in their user interface. Instead, I need to make my recommendations based on where my clients’ dollars are best spent (oftentimes, this involves using both Google and Yahoo!
SM). However, when it takes three times as long to setup an account in Yahoo! SM versus Google, I begin to ask questions about cost/benefit.
That being said, there are a few key improvements I’d recommend for Yahoo! SM, which I think would make the experience comparable to what Google offers its advertisers currently.
1. Make the Excluded Words feature more accessible. At
the account level the excluded words are hidden away in the administration tab
inside the tactic settings. To make things easier, they could be accessible as
a link directly to the right of the search link.
At the ad group, it would be helpful if this were accessible as a tab in the bar below the tabs. This way, the campaign manager could simply check the ad groups where they want to add excluded words, and then be directed to a page with a field for each ad group, all ready to be filled in.
2. Provide transparency for Geo-targeting setup. If you ever look deep into web analytics and try to figure out where visitors are located, it all boils down to the IP address. Yahoo! SM could start with the first layer of the IP and give users the option of targeting down level by level. This type of targeting would provide local businesses an alternative to AdWords, which allows very specific targeting, but really isn’t transparent with how it works.
3. Improve communication. Yahoo! SM should understand that their customer service department is THE most important department for PPC managers. Get them on Twitter, on Skype, on Social networks. Yahoo’s customer service people should be everywhere, and they should be willing to communicate in
whichever method the client requests.
4. Establish agency relationships. Even though the formal Ambassador
program has ended, Yahoo should still reach out to advertising agencies
that have dabbled in Yahoo! Search Marketing, to provide support. Yahoo! SM is a good deal as far as clicks go, but from an agency standpoint, the additional time needed to setup the campaign can quickly erode the PPC cost benefit. Better yet, a good editor program could alleviate many of the current problems inherent with manually uploading spreadsheets.
I admit that Yahoo has some tough choices ahead of them. But, if they remain focused on fixing some of these issues, they can better leverage the advantages they do have over Google.
