5
2008
Aug

Yahoo will make every effort to not optimize my account at a future date

I don’t think that it’s a secret how I feel about the companies that sell PPC ads also optimizing them for you. I don’t like it. It’s a conflict of interest and I think it’s awful and usually does more harm than good. There I said it.

How is someone that 1) has never talked to you and 2) knows nothing about your business, going to effectively market it? I realize that marketing is not an exact science, but optimizing blind to the actual goals of the advertiser? C’mon! You can’t do that!

It used to be that Google was really the only one that I had to worry about offering new “innovative” ways to automatically optimize more of my adspend into their wallets if I forgot to opt out. Now Yahoo wants a piece of this PPC ignorance tax Google has been charging with their budget optimizer and automatic matching. The problem is Yahoo is one upping Google when it comes to sneaking in with the “optimized” goodness. They put together an automatic opt-in system with no easy way to get out. At least Google gives you a check box!

We’ve been aware of the impending program for a little while now and some of our clients are starting to get e-mails about this new service that they never asked for. I would be very unhappy to get an e-mail from Yahoo saying “Surprise we optimized your account! Aren’t you excited?”

No. As a matter of fact I’m not.

SMS has already traded some e-mail with Yahoo over this whole debacle. Our first volley was something along the lines of: why on earth would you try to optimize the accounts of businesses that you don’t know anything about? We think you’re nuts. Leave our accounts alone!!!!

It came out slightly nicer than that but not much.

Here’s a snippet of what we got back:

    We can understand your concerns about our program. Rest assured that the program is designed to help optimize your account to its fullest potential. While we may not understand the intricacies of certain businesses, we do optimize accounts on a daily basis and are in tune with dynamic changes in the marketplace. We know the tactics and strategies that have proven successful on the Yahoo! network. Any changes we make to your accounts are carefully selected, and are designed to help you become a more successful advertiser with Sponsored Search.

    While we do feel this will benefit your accounts, we understand that the service does not appeal to every advertiser. This is why if you request that we not make any optimization changes in the future, we will gladly note this in your account records and make every effort to not optimize your account at a future date.

    Since you’ve indicated that you would not like the service on this account, we have noted your request to opt out on your account. We will make every effort not to perform the optimization.

First off “We will make every effort not to perform the optimization.” Wow, thanks for your efforts. Seriously, I can’t even opt out completely? So even though I asked you nicely to mind your own business you might still optimize my account just for fun? Notice how they had to say it twice to really sell me on not worrying about it…

Secondly, increase performance and make me more successful according to whose standards? Every automatic optimizer program I’ve seen tunes to click through rates, I tune to conversions. One puts money in Yahoo’s pocket and the other puts money in my client’s pocket. Don’t try to pick on little advertisers to pump up your earnings with sneaky programs are advantageous to you in the guise of free help.

So I would like to politely request to Yahoo that you make this a true opt-in process instead of forcing people to figure out how to opt-out so that you will “make every effort not to perform the optimization.” This is a weak move and if you want to gain search market share this is not the way to do it.