Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

On June 12, 2012 JumpFly was invited to participate in Chicago’s first Yahoo! Search & Bing Advertiser Forum and I was lucky enough to be able to venture downtown to participate.
This was an amazing event that allowed attendees to not only get a sneak peek into planned enhancements, but to also provide valuable feedback to the development teams about how the products are used daily in our paid search centered lives.

Since the Search Alliance was formed between Yahoo! and Microsoft in early 2010, we have seen tremendous growth and success for our clients advertising on these platforms.  However, when the systems and support staff of two major companies merge, there are bound to be some hiccups and growing pains.  Thankfully both Yahoo! and Microsoft are fully committed to providing the best experience for agencies, direct advertisers and people doing the searching.  This commitment was solidified by the extremely in-depth, Yahoo and Microsoft moderated, roundtable discussion period.  During this time, three of the eight people at our table were representatives of the Search Alliance, with one being a dedicated note-taker for the group.

Within the roundtable discussion, we were encouraged to provide as much positive and negative feedback as possible.  It was extremely refreshing to have the captive ear of people who could actually do something with our gripes and suggestions.  Our table definitely gave our moderators what they were looking for, and then some.  There was some great feedback provided to the Search Alliance that I am confident will be taken back to their Product Managers, Engineers and Directors.

Not only did we provide valuable product input, we were also informed about enhancements that will be coming with future updates to the AdCenter platform and the programming that takes place behind the scenes.  These enhancements will help JumpFly manage paid search accounts in Yahoo! and Bing more efficiently and effectively. **Spoiler Alert:  There will be an MCC-type management platform coming soon and they are diligently working on increased data transparency and improved API functionality.  We also learned about the MAI (Microsoft Advertising Intelligence) Tool.  This is a powerful Excel extension for effective keyword research using Yahoo! and Bing data as opposed to Google’s Keyword Tool.  If you are advertising on the Search Alliance network and haven’t used this little gem, I strongly suggest giving it a whirl.  I know you will be happy with the quality of keywords it provides.

Another new feature we were given a sneak peek of is Yahoo Axis – the new search-oriented browser add-on and iOS app. With the browser version of Axis, when a user types in a search query they aren’t taken to a traditional SERP page, but rather a social portal that shows them whether their Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends are talking about what they need to know about.  If you have an iOS device, the experience is even cooler.  You can browse on your desktop, save your results and pick up right where you left off on your iPhone and/or iPad.  Very cool social search smashup that doesn’t have ads yet, but has the potential to be a great enhancement for paid search opportunities in the not so distant future.  Take a look at Axis, give it a whirl and see if your friends are talking about what interests you.

In conclusion, the Yahoo! and Bing Search Alliance is bringing us some pretty amazing innovations in the next few quarters.  I am truly excited to see how they implement the changes that were suggested at the Advertiser Forum.

Yahoo and MSN are in the midst of their big merge, and from a PPC standpoint, it’s really quite business as usual. Until you get the billing end of it and then it’s a nightmare.

MSN is supplying the results of the search, but Yahoo is handling all the billing. What that means is that all charges will come from Yahoo on your credit card statement, not from MSN. On its own, that’s confusing enough – I’ve had quite a few confused emails from my clients who wonder, if Yahoo is “going away” why are they still getting charges from them? But the nightmare end of it is what’s happening on those client’s credit cards – multiple, crazy billing charges.

Yahoo billed on a prepay plan (money in an account which click charges were taken from, like a checking account). MSN billed on a post-pay plan (accrue the charges, then MSN would charge you for them later, like Google AdWords). And that’s where the craziness is coming in – Yahoo is switching all these clients from post to prepay, and charging clients to build up their account so they have money to withdraw from.

One client I have was billed $1 on 10/1 and $25 on the 3rd, 7th, 11th, 14th and 17th. And I’m sure they’ll be hit again on the 21st.

A bigger mess is what happened to the client I heard from yesterday. They were billed $500, $400 and 13 times for $25 on 10/18. And yesterday they were billed another $600. That’s $1825 in two days.

The charges are legitimate, but the large amounts charged so fast are difficult for some to afford. Plus the $25 is such a low number and so many times.

While poking around in MSN, I was able to find a setting on the account details page for the Auto Recharge Amount. Looks like the default setting is $25. You are able to change that to whatever you would like. Why they picked $25, I don’t know. Why they didn’t require the client to select that amount, again, I don’t know.

We’re also having issues with clients where we’re unable to enter a billing credit card. Doesn’t seem to matter what we do, the card just won’t go in. It’s not that the card is declined, it’s just technically able to be entered successfully.

I am hoping that this merger will prove beneficial to my clients, but the confusion and amount of time being spent on fixing crazy issues is definitely beneficial to noone. Thankfully, the customer support is coming from Yahoo, which I’m grateful for. We have a fantastic dedicated Yahoo rep named Lynda who is doing her best in a really crazy situation. We’re talking to her multiple times a day with all these issues, and she’s really going to bat for our clients. I’m sure it will turn out okay, but for now, what a mess.

Allegedly, Apple is in the works to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone with Microsoft’s Bing. If this proves true, it is further evidence of the intensifying power struggle between Google and Apple. Bloomberg reports that,”the talks have been under way for weeks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. The negotiations may not be concluded quickly and might still fall apart, the people said.” Currently, Google is the default setting on Apple’s iPhone. If users want to search using Bing, they have to download an application and install it.

Nielsen’s latest data indicates that of those who use mobile search, 86% used Google compared to 11% for Bing. However, with iPhone’s dominance and potential switch to Bing, this soon may change. Apple could certainly breathe some new life into Bing, or someone.

Dare I suggest that Apple instead partner with or buy Yahoo? There had been speculation about this potential reality about a year back, prior to Yahoo negotiating a unique partnership with Microsoft. However, that deal does not necessarily prevent Apple from swooping in and taking over Yahoo. Apple could take Yahoo mobile and turn it into the mobile leader. Yahoo also offers an array of additional potential value to Apple. Now seems to be an ideal opportunity for Apple to make a move.

While Google is distracted in China and losing their search focus, they may be providing Apple a window of opportunity to get into search. Apple could then put Yahoo, or iYahoo, in position to potentially dominate the mobile market, which could carry back over to the wired world.

This clash of the titans is likely to yield some interesting results. Change is in the air as Apple and Google determine the technological fate of mankind. As the mobile market evolves, will Google and Apple co-share the entire future mega-mobile market? Will one emerge as the clear leader or will new technologies emerge to topple these seemingly invincible goliaths? Many a great company once dominated an industry, only to become complacent and fall to its doom. Google and Apple are anything but complacent, but the pace of change is rampant in the rapidly evolving online and mobile marketplaces.

Here’s a few interesting tidbits:

According to data gathered by HitWise, the leading global online intelligence service, searches of one word comprise 24.13% of all search queries. People are lazy searchers! This may be valuable information to consider for PPC Advertising.

Google is testing personalized search results by adding information from users’ “public social graph” and integrating it into the individual’s search results pages. Google is using everything they know from users’ profiles, social networks and more to provide a customized search experience. Along with real-time search, these developments certainly change the search engine optimization (SEO) landscape.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned.