Yahoo’s Keyword Matching System

MoreVisibility - March 5, 2007

Yahoo’s new advertising platform, Panama, offers advertisers and online marketers many new features to increase a campaign’s effectiveness.

When it comes to developing a strong Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign, advertisers are faced with various decisions. The following is an example of a question advertisers face in the development of ad copy for a campaign:
Does the choice to use a specific matching type on my keywords make a difference in paid search?

The answer is yes. The keyword matching you choose plays an important role in serving ads. Keyword matching is a tactic advertisers can place on individual keywords inside a specific ad group. Keyword matching is prevalent throughout the many search engines’ advertising platforms available today. For example, advertisers can use keyword matching from inside Google’s Adwords advertising program. The keyword matching options available are broad match, Google’s default setting, phrase, exact and negative keywords.

Similar to Google Adwords, individuals who advertise on Yahoo can also utilize a keyword matching system. Yahoo has developed a highly intuitive ad placement system to aid in positioning ads properly for distribution in the Yahoo content and sponsored networks. Yahoo’s default setting is an advanced match, which is a combination of phrase and broad matches.

In the past, Yahoo sponsored ads were delivered only on a bid-to-position system. However, the new system now incorporates relevancy as a key factor when serving ads. Paying the highest maximum bid for a specific keyword may not help an individual gain the top position when ads are displayed.

It is important for Yahoo’s customers to choose wisely when building their campaigns. From within a search engine’s interface, advertisers can easily switch between keyword matching options. The key to developing an effective campaign is to create a specific keyword list and to alternate or mix match types to cover a breadth of search engine result pages (SERP).