Being on very lean budgets can't afford big ad campaigns on every SE. So need to know whether advertising with Yahoo Search Marketing will result in decent conversion rates than with Google AdWords.
I advirtise on Yahoo SM just to get those few conversions.....but on average Google Adwods bring me 80% of my business. So if I had to choose one it would be Google. And their Adwords system is more user friendly, thay have greata analytics, and a much more complex system which allows you many features.
Google is certainly the big one, you wouldn't want to exclude that. However, you can get some quality traffic through Yahoo and on some products, the conversion rate is better. The volume is not always enough though.
I use YSM because of its 100 coupon, I supposed if I can get much more credit, I can attract more visitor but its seem most of the visitor were referred by some parking domain, and I do not whether they got credit if someone clicks one my site ads.
For ease of use; customer awareness; traffic, Google is WAY WAY ahead. A bit like an Aston Martin DB9 vs a Renault Clio. The only advantage Yahoo has over Google is that for some (not all), the conversions can cost less. I use Yahoo & MSN, but like someone above has said 90% of my budget us spent on Adwords. I do however use Yahoo & MSN as a cheaper way to test my ad titles. I then sometimes use that information on my ads in Google.
i was paying 11 cents per click on adwords for 30 clicks a day and i am only paying 8 cents per click with my sponsored search...so yeah, you can get better bang for your buck - just have to try it. I would also note that traffic from yahoo is alot 'dumber' then from google. I say that because if they were smart they would be using google. Dumber, means better CPM.
Yahoo's standard match is by no means like Google's exact match, as well. I have words in standard form and they still get included when people spell it incorrectly or have it pluralised etc. This means, where you should have a niche, if you bid for a keyword that is spelt wrong, you don't .. and end up paying top wack on a keyword that should have cost you like 0.03 for the click. I can see Yahoo going completely off the PPC chart in the not so distant future and I wouldn't be that bothered. Even if you put Yahoo & MSN's best points and stuck them together, you would still be short of Google. I'm not sure who is running Yahoo & MSN's PPC business, but one thing is for sure .. they aint the most cleverest people on Earth!
I have have much better conversions with Yahoo. The min CPC is much lower and less competitive than Google.
Conversions on Yahoo! search marketing cost 40% less than Google for my campaigns. Which means of course I spend more at Yahoo than Google. Also, different keywords convert on Y! better in comparison to Google, so I'd recommend running both. If all you're looking for is pure traffic, and don't have a daily budget (or your niche is so small you can't reach it) I'd recommend Google, but Yahoo has proven to be a wiser buy for my clients. Also, I've found Y! to be more strict with their editorial guidelines. There are keywords and ads I simply cannot run on Y! that I'm running at Google.
I think Yahoo SM is better for newbie . After getting experience Google would be better for big budget.