Pay Per Click Search Engines Newsletter #66
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March 13, 2008

    CONTENTS:

    1. Slow loading Web pages and AdWords
        Quality Score
    2. Yahoo! changes minimum bid policy
    3. MIVA gets mobile
    4. Google and DoubleClick close deal


1. Slow loading Web pages and AdWords Quality Score
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Google has announced that landing page load time will now become a factor in the AdWords Quality Score.

The impact of page load time will be negative rather than positive. That is, if your page loads slowly your Quality Score will be negatively affected. If no problems are found with the page load time then it will have no affect on Quality Score, with one exception. If your keyword is graded "No problems found" and marked "Load time is faster than the average in your server's geographic region" your landing page Quality Score may be positively affected.

According to Google, the addition of this metric is to enhance users' experience. Of course, there's a spin-off for advertisers too. The quality of the landing page is something that's often overlooked by advertisers. Often, when visitors fail to convert the quality of traffic gets the blame. When pages are slow to load, people get frustrated and are less inclined to stick around to see what's on offer.

You will have the opportunity to make changes to your landing page before the new metric comes into play.

The AdWords FAQs say:

"Beginning in March 2008, you'll be able to see a grade for your landing page's load time in your AdWords account. 'Load time' refers to the amount of time it takes for a user to arrive at your functional landing page after clicking your ad.

"Four to six weeks after your load time grade becomes visible, it will begin to impact your landing page quality and, therefore your Quality Score. We recommend working to improve your load time during this interim if it's received a low score."

Google does provide some tips for improving load time.

  *    Use fewer redirects.
  *    Reduce the page size by using fewer, smaller, and more
        highly-compressed images.
  *    Do not use interstitial pages.
  *    Minimize the use of iframes on your landing page.
  *    Contact your webmaster or webhosting provider to discuss
       other ways of improving your landing page's load time.

You can also check out a list of best practices for improving your load time here:
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

.2.Yahoo! changes minimum bid policy
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Like Google before it, Yahoo is changing the way it will set minimum bids on some keywords in Sponsored Search Ads. Minimum bids will no longer be fixed at $0.10 but instead will be set based on ad relevance, the number of bidders and bid amounts This means that in some cases minimum bids could be higher, in other cases bids might be below $0.10.

Yahoo is instituting a system of alerts and a grace period when the bid on any keyword is about to fall below the minimum. Advertisers will be notified in their Account Dashboard if a bid is about to drop below the minimum, and will be given a grace period in which to raise their bid to keep the keyword active.

Reaction to the change has been very mixed. Rosalind Gardner thinks that the change "may prove to be an excellent opportunity to save some money on your pay per click advertising". She recommends that "you do a thorough review of your Yahoo! Search Marketing ad campaigns soon and beef up the quality of those ads that have so far been under-performers".

Other commentators aren't nearly so optimistic, Comments on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog suggest that a number of advertisers see the move as a push by Yahoo to increase the costs to advertisers. A number have commented that Google's changes to minimum bid pricing in 2005 triggered their move to Yahoo, and they're not happy to see Yahoo following what seems to be Google's pattern.

It will be a while before the dust settles and we know for sure what the outcome of the change will be. In the meantime, current advertisers should check Yahoo's blog for advice on how to best prepare for the changes:
http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2008/02/26/minimum-bids/

Here's how to get $50 in free clicks:

http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/yahoo

3. MIVA gets mobile
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MIVA announced today that it has signed US and UK pay per click agreements with wireless technology specialist Greenlight Wireless. The agreements mean that consumers accessing mobile sites using Greenlight's services will see MIVA's pay per click ads.

Greenlight's network of partner sites includes national news, entertainment and network operate sites generating over 30 million mobile searches per month.

MIVA’s pay per click ads will also be displayed to mobile users who use Greenlight Wireless’ Skweezer service. Skweezer is a free service that compresses and reformats web pages to make them easier to view and navigate via mobile phones and PDAs.

Get a $25 bonus when you sign up with MIVA:

http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/miva

4. Google and DoubleClick close deal
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After finally obtaining unconditional approval from European anti-trust regulators Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick closed on Tuesday. Google anticipates that by combining the information it collects from users' search requests and DoubleClick's capability to track advertising viewership it will be able to serve up more relevant advertising to Internet users.

This poses a big threat to Yahoo which has dominated the display advertising sector.

Greg Serling, of Serling Market Intelligence, says that the Google-DoubleClick alliance puts pressure on Microsoft to close its acquisition of Yahoo.

Somewhat ironically, If Microsoft was successful in its quest to buy Yahoo the DoubleClick deal could strengthen its case with US and European regulators.

According to Serling, "Microsoft taking over Yahoo is now all but inevitable, I don't think Yahoo has any other options. And now we'll have two companies (Google and Microsoft/Yahoo) withenormous assets duking it out in the display space."

Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/11/BU10VHR0N.DTL

Interesting times ahead, I think.

All the best,

Glennys Faulds