Goo-Hoo?
As I was reading through the SEC posting about the Google Yahoo search deal, (Nicely summarized at TechCrunch) I ran across one tidbit I find very interesting and something Google may not have thought all the way through.
This line in particular: “Yahoo! also has sole discretion to decide on which pages to display ads provided by Google”
Any advertiser with a grain of metrics turns off the Yahoo content network due to the huge volume of non-converting clicks.
Google is also known to allow partners to serve search ads in some really strange places as search not content.
So if Yahoo wanted to hurt Google - My quick read saw nothing that says Google has a buyout right - I would just serve search network ads to the Yahoo content network.
Advertisers would start seeing their Google returns diminish greatly, Google makes it almost impossible to opt-out of specific advertising partners, and most advertisers do not even know that the search network is an option that can be turned off. If in mass, advertisers lowered bids by even 5%, that would take a huge chunk out of Google’s revenue and stock price, almost certainly triggering some articles about how Yahoo seems to be a better ROI for advertisers etc.
Probably will not happen, but what if…
June 13th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Well, I know what you mean with Yahoo/Ask sponsored search results in the wrong places. Although, I think that the reason yahoo content doesn’t convert is because of the technology / content targeting system they have in place. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but with this deal Yahoo will USE google’s content targeting technology on a page to determine the ads to show and then if the ads will yield a higher cpc than their own yahoo content ads the google ads will be displayed.
So if the content network will get the clicks, I can’t wait
June 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I have been requesting more transparency in the search partners network from AWE on WMW for years now. If this is going to work, Google will HAVE to add another option to allow advertisers to opt out of Yahoo’s *spam” pages.
It’s hard enough to work with them already.
Adding further “dirty” sources of traffic will NOT help Google in the slightest.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Mmm… I’m w Diorex on this. While Yahoo’s targeting is pretty poor, that seemed more of a result of lack of inventory in my early tests. They just couldn’t get over the hump because the system was such a PITA to use and they then got desparate for publishers. Hence the network doesn’t convert because it’s mostly garbage MF…YPN site.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
As one who has been a very vocal critic of Yahoo’s distribution network over on WMW due to the amount of garbage traffic on higher CPC terms, I was instantly concerned when I heard the agreement. My first thought was, “Now my AdWords is going to suffer a similar fate?” While that remains to be seen, I know that Google is MUCH more proactive about these things than Yahoo.
It doesn’t seem to make sense to me that Yahoo would intentionally try to spike Google here. A - they stand to make more money long term from a successful arrangement. B - Google is all that’s keeping them from being torn apart. C - I don’t think they have enough power to have a significant impact.
And talk about a complete death sentence for Yahoo if Google gets hurt as a result of the arrangement.