I'm new to yahoo search marketing. I know that for adwords you should bid high at the beginning to have high ctr and after that to decrease. Is this rule also for yahoo and msn? Thanks .
This will be applicable for all ppc networks which have bidding like Google adwords. You just need to be careful when bidding high... getting first position in PPC is not always good.
Yahoo doesn't work like Google, where you start off with a tax on your positions from regular bids. Start with normal bids in Yahoo. If you want to constrain spend, set everything to standard match so you're not matched to everything under the sun. Yahoo has a different matching algorithm than Google, so you'll find yourself matched upto some unique searches.
Be really careful with Yahoo. We aim to be in the top 4-6, and never the top 1-3. Actually, we work hard to avoid the top 1-3, because at 4-6 our conversion rates jump 400-700%. In the top 3 you open yourself up to much more junk traffic from partner search sites. We see less traffic at 4-6, but much lower CPC. We now see about a 1 in 30 click conversion rate, at a total cost of almost equal to our lowest priced service. The math now works for us in the 4-6 range, but in 1-3 we were losing money.