Back in March we talked about Panama, Yahoo's new ad platform. Now that we've had a chance to work with it, we can report on five Panama attributes that really stand out.
1) Local PPC – The new system combined the old Yahoo Precision Match and Yahoo Local Match. The new Local features now include the ability to geo-target ads based on searchers within a specific area, conversions can now be tracked, local CPC (cost per click) prices went down, local traffic has spiked compared to the old Local Match system.
2) Site Performance – The Web site interface has greatly improved in terms of reliability and speed. The old Yahoo site/system was slow, unreliable and full of glitches.
3) CPC Range / Dynamic Positioning –The old system was strictly a bid-for-placement system, where you were able to see the exact cost for each position and know what your competitors were paying for each spot. The old system didn’t take ad copy or landing page copy into account when determining position. The new system includes dynamic positioning which calculates your ad position by a number of factors such as: ad copy, landing page copy/relevance, CPC price and daily budget. All of these factors are compared in real-time up against competitor conditions to decipher your position. The new system is doing a good job at removing irrelevant ads/advertisers along with spammers. It is also increasing ROI and improving CTR.
4) Improved Reporting Tools – The reporting interface has been given a facelift on the front and back ends. The front end features a smoother interface with better organization and graphing tools. The back-end reporting engine has been overhauled to serve up reports much faster with improved data points.
5) Customer Service – Yahoo customer service and support has been very helpful and timely in addressing any issues that occur. It seems the new system is functioning much better than the old one.
So far, Yahoo has delivered on their Panama promises. That's great news all around--more options for advertisers, more effective advertising, and more cost-effective advertising.
(This post is part of ProBlogger's latest Group Writing Project.)
A great post, Whoast. Do you think Panama has any chance of beating adsense?
Very interesting post, I believe it is great for the advertising market as well. There needs to be some more competition for Adsense as it might make them better. As of now...Adsense ads suck.
Hard to say if Yahoo can actually beat Google, but I agree with Jennifer that advertisers like options. Competition benefits everybody.