Yahoo’s Eliminating Minimum Bids
I just got an email from Yahoo Search Marketing stating that in the next several weeks, the minimum bids for a number of Sponsored Search keywords will no longer be fixed at $.10. The minimum bid for Content Match keywords will remain at $.10.
Is this good news or bad news? For one, it could mean that Yahoo has worked on their quality score system, which could be good or bad news, depending on how you see it.
Anyone who’s advertised on YSM knows that it’s extremely easy to get a great quality score. Getting a good quality score on YSM is as easy as creating a new ad group. I swear, every campaign/adgroup I’ve started on YSM always had a good quality score. I have yet to see a quality score of 3 or less in any of my campaigns.
If this is the case, this would truly suck for all of us who like to test the waters on Yahoo before moving on to Google. I always start my campaigns on Yahoo because it’s very easy to start advertising. You never have to worry about paying a minimum of $5 per keyword because of a poor quality score. If they’re removing the minimum bid because they’ve tweaked their quality score algo, this could be a big slap in the face for all of us, a Yahoo slap.
If the price is being reduced, but the quality score system remains the same, this will be great news for everyone. But I just don’t think it could be that easy. You just don’t lower minimum bids without letting some people suffer and pay more.
Here is how the new model will work:
Keyword minimum bids are going to be set individually and will vary depending on different factors such as how much the keyword is worth. Yahoo will determine the value of a keyword by the number of bidders and bid amounts in the marketplaces, amongst other things.
Your keyword and ad quality will also play a great role in the minimum bid along with the relevancy of the keywords and ads, mixed with your ad’s CTR compared to your competitors’ CTR. Minimum bids will not be based on conversion data.
For your ad to display for a particular keyword, its bid will need to be greater than the minimum bid. If your minimum bid were set to increase, you will be given a warning with a grace period of up to several days to make changes to your bid before deactivating your keyword.
That’s interesting that they’re going give us several days to make changes to our bids.
Here is a copy of the letter that was sent out:
Pricing Update:
Minimum Bids will no Longer be Fixed at $.10
Starting in the next several weeks, the minimum bids for a number of Sponsored Search keywords will no longer be fixed at $.10. Your new minimum bids can be lower or higher than $.10. Content Match minimum bids currently will remain at $.10.This update is intended to align your minimum bids with the value and quality of your keywords. It also is designed to help improve the overall search user experience by rewarding advertisers for better quality with lower entry points into keyword markets.
The amount set as your minimum bid on a keyword in Sponsored Search can vary depending on multiple factors, such as:
• The relevance of your keywords (as measured by the quality of the ads associated with them)
• The number of bidders and bid amounts in the particular keyword market.A keyword term becomes “active” — switched “on” in the system and eligible for display — when your bid is equal to or greater than your minimum bid. If your bid falls below your minimum, your keyword will not be displayed. You’ll be notified of such changes and will have some time to adjust your bid.
What You Should Do to Prepare
• Get to know your keywords and their value.
Since minimum bids can vary by keyword, it is important to know which keywords work best for your business. Remember, you can check and set your bids at the keyword level. Learn more.• Improve ad quality to potentially receive lower minimum bids.
Your minimum bids generally take your quality into account. In some instances, higher quality means that you could have a lower minimum bid. Learn more.• Learn about updates to the account interface.
Become familiar with new tools that can make managing your keywords simpler.. Learn more.For more information on this change, please read our FAQs.
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