Microsoft & Yahoo! Update PPC Algorithms

October 3rd, 2007

Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing have both announced updates on their paid search platforms. AdCenter’s updates focus on quality based ranking, while Yahoo!’s update is focused on improving the overall quality of traffic delivered via their PPC platform.

Microsoft adCenter

Quality based ranking from Microsoft adCenter determines which ads can be displayed in the top 3 positions, directly above the algorithmic search results. The algorithm sets a threshold and only ads that have a quality score above this threshold are shown above the organic results. The system has now been updated to relax the criteria.

Advertisers can now get their ads to appear in the “mainline” above organic results by controlling their maximum CPC and their ad quality. Over time, Microsoft plans to continue to improve the paid search listings on Live Search, specifically focusing on:

Quality of ads – that the ad copy aligns with offer, landing page and search term
Quality of advertisers – that the advertiser is offering unique and valuable goods, services or information
Quality set of overall listings – that the overall result set is unique, extremely relevant, high quality and the best value for the searcher

Yahoo! Search Marketing

Yahoo! is taking traffic quality seriously. In August they launched the traffic quality center, a site aimed at combating click fraud. Yesterday’s update is taking this a step forward by introducing new features in their pay per click advertising platform that allow advertisers to combat click fraudsters:

Discounts - pricing discounts for low quality traffic from the partner network
Click protection - a system to track and identify fraudulent click that advertisers should not be billed for (wasn’t one already supposed to be in place??)
Blocked continents - excludes traffic from outside North America

Tags: adcenter, advertising, microsoft, ppc, yahoo