Yahoo! - Please Get Your Act Together
- by Chad Weaver on January 30, 2009 12:18 PM
If you haven't heard. Yahoo! earlier this month instituted a new TOS and "account optimization" feature. These two changes allow them to make any changes they see fit to your account to help it perform better. The PR debacle for these changes seems to have now reached critical mass. Here is a quote from Melissa Mackey who ran into issues with Yahoo! modifying her account:
Why the outrage?
Yahoo! notifies you within 8-24 hours AFTER any changes have been made. Don't count on a notice though, some people are even claiming that the notice never comes.
A few things Yahoo! has been observed doing with these features:
Don't bother calling a Yahoo! rep either unless you are spending megabucks, they won't change their TOS for you. Reports are spending $600k isn't enough to get them to change their TOS for your account.
There are many reasons not to advertise on Yahoo!. If you haven't considered dropping them as a partner for your business it may be time to do so. If you do take such action, or even if you just want to make your voice heard on the issue, comment on their blog here to let them know this is an unacceptable practice.
Yahoo, you screwed up once by launching this "feature" in the first place. You screwed up a second time when you violated your own principles by doing this to an account that is being actively managed by a professional SEM. You screwed up a third time by calling all of us SEM pros - A-list bloggers and long-time SEMs - liars.
Why the outrage?
Yahoo! notifies you within 8-24 hours AFTER any changes have been made. Don't count on a notice though, some people are even claiming that the notice never comes.
A few things Yahoo! has been observed doing with these features:
- Create entire new campaigns
- Create new ads, advertising products that do not exist
- Add irrelevant keywords to a campaign
Don't bother calling a Yahoo! rep either unless you are spending megabucks, they won't change their TOS for you. Reports are spending $600k isn't enough to get them to change their TOS for your account.
There are many reasons not to advertise on Yahoo!. If you haven't considered dropping them as a partner for your business it may be time to do so. If you do take such action, or even if you just want to make your voice heard on the issue, comment on their blog here to let them know this is an unacceptable practice.
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