Reasons Yahoo is better than AdWords

Posted: September 19, 2005

Yahoo Search Marketing has taken a lot of flack (many of it deservedly) over the past couple months for the API and DTC being down routinely.

It’s become such as issue that many have forgotten that there are those users who prefer YSM to AdWords. Thought I’d toss a list together of why some people really enjoy using YSM over AdWords. (Personally, I like them both, I think of them as different - not better or worse)

1. Advanced match is much more predictable than expanded broad match.
2. You can see your position.
3. You can bid to position.
4. You know what you’re paying per click (no odd formula you have to reverse engineer).
5. You can see average bids for keywords.
6. Keyword suggestion tool has counts.
7. Bid tool shows what everyone is bidding.
8. Your account is off or on - if your bids are highlighted in bold, then your account is currently online.
9. The ‘easy track’ feature makes it easy for a tracking system to grab variables.
10. The API doesn’t have a query limit.
11. It’s very easy to reorganize an account.
12. Separate bids for content vs search.
13. The ability to use a separate title/description for every keyword (especially when you’re in the 10k range) - try making an AdWords account with 10k AdGroups.
14. Reps usually answer the phone.
15. Reps often call back within an hour (and often minutes) if they were on the phone when you called.
16. Multiple reps (many agencies work with a ‘team’ so if one rep is busy, you have a team leader, backup reps, and horizontal members).
17. I can get someone on the phone in minutes for API support.
18. Overture will give click and billing estimate proposals for new clients.
19. ‘Bounties’ or ‘Affiliate bonuses’ for opening new accounts.
20. Have local PPC distribution which doesn’t require a website.