Yahoo! Search Marketing have sent out an email to all advertisers to forewarn them about the upcoming switch in their ranking methodology that is due to be put into effect on 23 July 2007. The letter from Yahoo! is as follows:
Bid Amount and Ad Quality will Determine an Ad’s Rank in Search Results in the UK the week commencing July 23rd, 2007.
Dear Advertiser,
With new features like ad testing, geo-targeting and fast ad activation, the new Sponsored Search gives you more ways to connect with customers searching for what you sell.
During the week commencing July 23rd, 2007, we are introducing a new ranking model in the UK that considers an ad’s quality and bid amount. The new model is designed to help you spend less time in bidding wars with other advertisers and more time creating the most relevant, effective ads, which can help drive better results for your business.
Here’s a quick summary of this important change:
- Both bid amount and ad quality will determine an ad’s rank in search results the week commencing July 23rd, 2007.
- This will replace the current method, in which ads are ranked by bid amount only (bid-to-position).
- This is designed to allow you to focus less on competitive bidding practices and more on the quality of your ads.
- By improving the quality of your ads and making them more relevant to users, you may be rewarded with a better ranking and/or a lower cost for your ads.
Example of How Ads May be Ranked
The graphic below helps illustrate a scenario that may result from this change:
Note: The graphic above is provided for illustrative purposes only, and will not actually appear in your account.
What is “Ad Quality”?
Ad quality is determined by:
- The ad’s historical performance – its click-through rate relative to competitors and normalised for position.
- The ad’s expected performance – determined by various relevance factors considered by Yahoo! Search Marketing’s ranking algorithms, relative to other ads displayed at the same time.
Overall ad quality is displayed in a graphical form by the quality index.
Other Important Things to Know
- We recommend that you review your current max bids. Keep in mind you may be charged up to this amount.
- Standard match type ads will no longer receive priority placement over Advanced match type ads.
Once you’ve upgraded to the new Sponsored Search system, you’ll be able to gain an understanding of your ad’s overall quality by looking at its quality index.
Regards,
Yahoo! Search Marketing
