Not Happy With Overture

[skyhawk133]

I signed up for Overture after they offered me a $100 credit last week. Today, I sent them this letter:

To Whom It May Concern,

Please cancel my Overture search account. I signed up just a few days ago looking forward to the recent improvements and competition with Google AdWords, however, I am very disappointed. The interface to add keywords is clunky and time consuming and it takes several days before even the simplest keywords are approved. If I wanted to target a current news event this would not be beneficial to me. Interface aside, the most disconcerting aspect of my experience with Overture was when I logged in this morning to find my credit card had been charged because in one day you used over $70 of my budget when it was set to $5.00/day. With my $5 deposit and the $100 credit, that should have given me at least a month to adjust and monitor the performance of my keywords. As this is not the case, I no longer wish to do spend my advertising budget with Overture. Please cancel my account.

It may also be noted that I experience a conversion rate of around $1.10 with AdWords, I'm currently showing $25.19 as the conversion rate with Overture. This is unacceptable, especially for similar keywords and ad verbiage.

It would appear you have a significant amount of work ahead of you to match the service Google provides me.

Best Regards,
Chris Kenworthy
MediaGroup1

Has anyone else used Overture/Yahoo Search Marketing?

[Dani]

Yeah, I am not a fan of Overture mostly for their slow, clunky interface, and the fact that you have to wait for all keywords to be validated before use. I'm all for instant gratification. If I happen to notice that traffic is slow one Saturday morning, I'll temporarily turn on my PPC campaign just for the weekend to get things flowing.

[shimon]

Not to defend Yahoo....But, if you are new to Yahoo, then it is quite possible that you forgot to check the "Budget On" radio button in your "Money Manager" section.
-Budget On
-Budget Off (Non-Stop Traffic)

Also, Yahoo makes it much easier to manage your bids because of their visible bid landscape.

As for your higher conversion rate, you may have had the content network on, and that would explain it.

True, their editorial process is a hassle, but depending on your business, it could be worth the wait.

Hope this helps:-)

[Dani]

Yahoo!'s editorial process is more than just a hassle for me. I much prefer Google's method of deeming keywords innocent until proven guilty and not the other way around.

[shimon]

Google's editorial process is not what it used to be since they introduced the "Quality Score". Your keywords that are deemed "innocent" are put into a "primary bin". They are the ones to go live immediately. However, the remaining keywords are put into a "secondary bin". They stay there until your "primary bin" proves itself. Many other factors are taken into consideration. Including how optimized your landing page is.

Also, take into consideration the amount of market share that Yahoo has (22%). Yahoo also is feeding search results to MSN (for now at least) which has 11% market share. For a combined 33% market share.

Hope this helps:-)