Yahoo Search Marketing Sponsored Search

Yahoo!'s PPC ("Sponsored Search") is still very much like "eBay for keywords." Set your maximum bid (the most you would pay) for a keyword to determine your position. The bidding strategy is very simple...

Find the niches and try to rank in the Top 5. But if there is a huge gap, bid a bit above the low side of the gap even if that puts you in the 6th-10th spot. For example, you will often see a bid, say of $1.00 for a top listing. This can get you the larger, more prominent top spot on Yahoo!'s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), as may the second highest bid.

However, while the exposure is superb, those top listings are obviously ads, which is a drawback. A #3 listing might give you the top spot on the text ads on the right hand side of the SERP -- an attractive location.

Bid a few pennies above the next highest bid, as your maximum bid. So, for example, if that happens to be $0.30, you may only be charged $0.31 to beat #2's maximum bid. But if it takes $0.36 to beat a maximum bid of $0.35, that's what you'll be charged... up to your maximum. (Your maximum bid for it might be as low as a third to a fifth of the top bid.) A best buy!

Yahoo! offers more information at...

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