Click Through Rate - YSM vs. AdWords

Hi everyone.

My company spends a lot of money with both Overture (YSM) and Google AdWords. One big difference I have noticed between the two accounts is the CTR we get on our keywords. While the average CTR on our AdWords account is a healthy 4%, we get less than 1% on YSM. Obviously this has a major effect on total clicks/sales, and as a result we spend much more with Google than we do with Yahoo.

I am interested to know if other people have had this same experience, and if so; what, if anything did you do to increase your CTR with YSM?

Please note that this is for search traffic only. Also, we use the same keywords for both campaigns and our average position is comparable.

 

~Adwords has tighter copy constraints than Yahoo. I'd be surprised if all other things were equal - rank etc - that Google could generate such a significant CTR advantage. Fraud?

 

No, I don't think it's fraud, it just seems to be a fundamental difference between YSM and AdWords. It's frustrating though, as we actually get more impressions from Yahoo right now, but due to the lower CTR our total sales are much lower.

Our YSM Ad rep seems to think that 1% is actually pretty good, but I'm still not convinced. Of course it's in their interests to sell us more clicks, so maybe he's right. If there was an easy fix he probably would have told me by now.

I guess I was just hoping to hear from other people that this is normal.

 

I could be way off mark, but for some campaigns i think that both Yahoo/Google might perform differently due to different demographics (tempted to type slightly but I'm not sure how slight it may be)...One thing i've wondered and tried to explore is whether Google might be used more by the younger generation than the older generation...I would love to explore this further....I suspect that MSN when they roll out their PPC platform might well be good for pitching products to executives, seniors etc...

What do you guys think? Am i way off mark?

 

A 1% CTR is good? That sounds about like the "answers" I've come to expect from the YSM team...

Are all factors in your analysis equal? i.e. are you using the same ad copy, landing pages and have roughly the same position in the paid results?

 

Ad copy is quite different due to increased character limit in YSM. However our click index is almost always 3 or 4 out of 5, so I don't think it's a problem with ad copy.

Position is fairly similar, although we're slightly higher in AdWords as our much higher conversion rate (double that of YSM) allows us more room to move. However the difference in position is not enough to justify the huge difference in CTR. Speaking of which, is there any way to work out average position in YSM?

Landing pages are exactly the same, so we have no idea why conversion rates for YSM are half that of AdWords. As James - AMWSO mentioned this could be due to demographic use of the engines, however that doesn't seem right, as a lot of our customers tend to be older generation; so you'd think Yahoo C/R would be higher in that case.

 

I've tested ads that had only one different word in them and have seen CTR vary by 40%+. Don;t underestimate the power of compelling ad copy. In some cases one word in an ad can make or break a campaign.

I've seen ad positions (+/- of 1) effect CTR by 30%+.

Could be demographic differences - although Y or G won't give out that info so it's hard to tell.

Any other differences between the two campaigns? Are you using the same matching options?

All and all, I'm not surprised you get a lower conversion from Y. 9 times out of 10 I see the same. You should try running the exact same ads with the same keywords (including matching options) on both engines to get a true apples to apples comparison.

 

Thanks for the advice, Guy - it is very much appreciated.

It looks as though I might have to overhaul my YSM campaign (again.) You mention running the exact same ads for both Y and G - have you found that short ad copy (that is, Google length) works well for Yahoo? I guess I've always felt the need to use up most of the available space in my YSM ads, although I do make sure the main message appears early in the ad to avoid the partner-site cut-off (...)

Also, what is your position on using the keyword in the ad title/body?

Thanks again!

 

My pleasure

More times than not, yes. I typically pilot all my ads in Adwords and then push the winners out to YSM & AdCenter using the exact same ad.

Of course there are exceptions here and there...but most of the time it seems less, in terms of ad copy, is more.

I always test at least 1 one ad that uses the keyword in both the title and body, and, on that just uses the keyword in each area. That plus a few "static" ads are the norm in my world. every new adgroup typically has at least 5 ads in the test rotation right from the start.

 

I have some comments questions on the above.

1st: Guy, thanks for all of your input...it was quite informative.

2nd: I am also curious as the the different demographics between Google and Yahoo. Although I agree with the younger generation using google...don't you think their IPO opened up their horizons to older investor type mean and women that may not have even have been Internet users?

As for your drastic difference in click throughs...my first thought was Fraud as well. Although it may not be, are you using some sort of click fraud program or a analytic reporting program that detects "same IP" click throughs?

 

Well, we're not as diligent as we should be with analysis, but we keep an eye on things and have never had a reason to suspect fraud. Besides, it's not Google's high CTR we're concerned with, it's Overture's LOW CTR.

I'm going to take Guy's advice and use the same copy for my successful Google ads and trial them on the same keywords for a small number of terms in YSM. If it works I'll change all my YSM ads. That's a pretty daunting task but it will be worth it even for a 1/2-1% increase in CTR.

 

Make sure to stop back and let us know how it's going. Good luck!

 

You've gotta laugh at the timing...just a couple of days after I change some of my Yahoo ads to feature shorter copy I get this email:

Dear Advertiser,

A new look is coming to the Yahoo! search results pages that will translate into more clicks for your listings...How this change impacts your listings:

* Yahoo! will display shorter descriptions for Sponsored Search listings
* You don't have to make any changes to your listings; they'll be automatically shortened for you when displayed on Yahoo!

Looks like you were dead on the money, GuyFromChicago!!

 

hehe, glad to see my research was on track with what they were seeing

 

GlenB,

an average CTR of 1% is lousy - unless you're down in the boondocks. 3 to 4% is more normal. With perseverance and copy testing I would have thought you could average closer to 5%.

 

Thanks for chiming in, dburdon. I think it's lousy too, and I'm working on it. You'd think I'd get more help from my rep, who doesn't seem to understand that more clicks for me means more money for them

YSM's editorial approval process is driving me up the wall though. Soooo...sloooow. Their interface is terrible too (grumble, grumble.)

 

Our click through rate is actually better with google, but we're getting more conversions through yahoo, go figure. I'd bet it has a little to do with what type of products we sell...possibly certain industries generally do better at yahoo?

 

Adwords is clearly better from my experience. Though yahoo ads have more content that I find is better for users... but they dont click on them as often.