Many search engine marketing professionals, have viewed Yahoo as a secondary search engine to Google; with fewer audience targeting options and no dayparting available, it has not been easy to synchronize online advertising efforts as with Google campaigns.  However, this may change very soon.  Later this week, Yahoo will unveil its enhanced targeting features for their Search Marketing program. 

Yahoo’s new enhanced options will finally allow advertisers to schedule their ads with day parting.  There will also be an option to select multiple states, cities, DMAs, zip-codes, and mix and match for each campaign.  The option to combine zip codes with specific states, cities or DMAs is not available on Google, or any other search engine for that matter.

Yahoo goes one step further with its targeting functions by allowing advertisers to target audiences demographically on a search campaign.  Audiences can be targeted by gender or age.  While Google also has a demographic targeting option, it is only available for content campaigns; Yahoo’s option allows for demographic targeting for both search, as well as content campaigns. 

These new Yahoo features only allow for advertisers to reach a more specific audience.  According to Michael Walrath, Senior Vice President, Advertising Marketplaces Group at Yahoo, ‘As the economy continues to put pressure on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for increased accountability for every dollar they spend. Yahoo!’s new targeting products significantly improve the ability for search and display advertisers to reach their target audience, providing increased efficiency and accountability.’

This is a new era for Yahoo Search Marketing; the enhanced functions and features are only the beginning.  It’s not clear whether Yahoo will become the next Google, but one thing is for sure, they are moving in the right direction.

Yahoo match types differ from Google and MSN, which have exact, phrase and broad.

Exact match allows your ads to appear when a user searches for the specific phrase without any other terms in the query.  With phrase match, your ads will appear when a user searches on that phrase. Searches can contain other terms before or after the query as long as the query includes the exact phrase of your keyword. Broad match allows your ads to appear when a user’s search query contains the keyword, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations.

These are the match types that we are all most familiar with. However, Yahoo’s match types, advanced and standard do not fall in line with the other major engines. Advanced (the default) selects and displays ads for a broad range of searches based on your keywords, ad titles, ad descriptions, and/or web content. Standard shows ads based on exact matches to your keywords. It also takes into account singular or plural variations and common misspellings of your keywords.

Why does match type even matter, you may ask yourself? Match types allow you the control to filter out irrelevant traffic, thus driving more specific queries to you. Each match type will have its advantages and disadvantages. For example, if you used advanced match in Yahoo, you will have an opportunity to generate high levels of traffic. One disadvantage is that your ads will be served on what Yahoo deems as related content. Even though you aren’t bidding on the specific word, your ad could still be displayed. For example, if your website had content related to shoe accessories, your ad might show when someone searches for “shoe repair”. Standard is the other option in Yahoo. It is more similar to exact, except your ads will display for misspellings and plurals of the keyword. One benefit to using this match type is you have more control of when your ads will be shown. Standard will limit the amount of irrelevant clicks. However, using standard will also limit your traffic.

When creating accounts in Yahoo, the default match type is advanced. If you are thinking about using standard, change the match type at the account level, campaign level and ad group level. Determining your advertising goals prior to setting match types will help you capture the amount and type of traffic you are seeking.

As a Client Strategist, I am often the person that my clients go to for advice about their CPC campaigns and reaching their target audience. Recently, I have had several of my US based clients interested in targeting the Canadian market. Their interest stems from the struggling US economy and a desire to broaden their targeting parameters.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past several months, you are aware that the US dollar is extremely weak right now. I am sure that many of you are experiencing the hole in your wallet while filling up your SUV and/or taking a trip to the grocery store. It seems that the cost of everything is increasing dramatically, while the US dollar decreases in value. Several businesses are feeling the effects of the weakened dollar and are desperate to market their product/service outside of the struggling US economy.

According to a recent article I read, the United States Department of Commerce released 2007 tourism figures that demonstrated how the weak US dollar is bringing more people from overseas to the United States, especially people from Europe. At the end of February, the Euro was trading above 1.5 dollars- which was an all time record. It seems that people who are coming from overseas are taking advantage of the weak US Dollar by buying property within the United States, going on shopping excursions, and traveling to different areas of the United States that they may not have traveled to before. I cannot blame them! The value of the Euro surpasses the Dollar, therefore resulting in more “Bang For Their Buck”, or in this instance their Euro.

Therefore, if you consider setting your target parameters to areas outside of the United States, Canada might seem like the next logical place due to the common language, but don’t forget about Europe. With the value of the Euro at a record high, it might be beneficial to reach this target audience, especially if you are a real estate or travel company. Some of the concerns one might face, could be: how a company from overseas will react to a US based company/product, how a US based company will handle the language barrier, and the ignorance about an international market in general. Although those are valid concerns, I think it is worth the effort to investigate the situation and evaluate expanding the target parameters. There are several people interested in coming over to the US right now for plenty of different reasons, such as the ones mentioned above. Capitalize on their interest and increase your sales revenue by testing and targeting different markets. You never know how it could work, until you try it!