Negative Keywords in Yahoo - What, Where & How

Negative keywords are known as Excluded Words in Yahoo's Search Marketing platform (YSM). See how to use Excluded Words to best effect with this What, Where and How guide.

What match types?

Unlike AdWords negative keywords, which can be assigned a Broad match, Phrase match or even Exact match, Excluded Words cannot be assigned a specific match type. In practice, Yahoo appears to interpret negative keywords using its Standard Match setting. Standard Match expands on keywords to capture singular and plural variations, as well as common misspellings. If you were to add 'free ticket' as an Excluded Word, Yahoo would automatically prevent your ad from showing for any queries that contain either 'free ticket' or 'free tickets'. While than can save time, it does prevent you from excluding only singular or plural variations on your keywords.

Where?

You can add Excluded Words only at the account level (under the Administration tab) and the ad group level (from the Ad Group settings page, under Tactic Settings) - however, Yahoo will not allow advertisers to set negative keywords at the campaign-level. Excluded Words set at the account level work across all campaigns and ad groups. Excluded Words set at the ad group level work hand-in-hand with account Excluded Words

How many?

You can add up to 250 Excluded Words both at the account and ad group levels. In practice, a Yahoo ad group can hold up to 500 negative keywords. This is significantly more than adCenter, yet below AdWords limits.

Negative Keywords in adCenter - What, Where & How

adCenter allows advertisers to add negative keywords at the campaign, ad group and even keyword level. Check this What, Where and How guide to negative keywords in Microsoft adCenter, and see how they compare to AdWords.

Search Query	Ad showed?
free tickets	No
free tickets online	No
find free tickets	No
tickets free delivery	Yes
free theatre tickets	Yes
free theatre seats	Yes
cheap theatre tickets	Yes

What match types?

Negative keywords cannot be assigned a match type in adCenter. In practice, negative keywords in adCenter work in the same way as Phrase-matched negative keywords in AdWords, preventing your ads from showing whenever that term appears in the search query.

The table to the right shows whether or not your ad would be displayed if your negative keyword were 'free tickets'.

Where?

You can add negative keywords at the campaign, ad group and even keyword level. However, unlike AdWords, adCenter negative keywords are mutually exclusive. Adding negative keywords at any one level will disable those set in higher levels.

• Campaign-level negatives apply to all keywords in your campaign, unless you apply negative keywords at the ad group or keyword level.
• Negative keywords at the ad group level replace any campaign negative keywords.
• Negative keywords at the keyword level disable any negatives set at the campaign-level and adgroup-level.

How many?

Each negative keyword can contain up to 100 characters. The entire negative keywords list, including commas, can contain up to 1024 characters. Given that the average length of an English word is five characters, adCenter allows on average up to 170 negative words (including commas).

Negative Keywords in AdWords - What, Where & How?

Getting your keyword negatives right can make all the difference between successful and failed paid search campaigns. Check this What, Where and How guide to negative keywords in Google AdWords.

What match types?

AdWords offers three match types for your negative keywords: Broad, Phrase and Exact match. Sounds familiar? Think again. There are subtle differences between matching options for negative keywords, and matching options for all other keywords.

• Broad match prevents your ad from showing when a search contains your negative keyword. If your ad targets 'cheap theatre tickets', you may want to use 'free ticket' as a Broad-matched negative keyword. Searches containing the words 'free' and 'ticket' would no longer trigger your ad. You should also add 'free tickets' to your list of negative keywords, as AdWords will not expand a Broad-matched negative keywords through plurals, synonyms or related words.
• Phrase match is helpful when word-order matters. In our last example, setting 'free ticket' as a Broad-matched negative keyword could prevent your ad from showing on relevant searches such as 'theatre ticket with free delivery'. Adding 'free ticket' as a Phrase-matched negative may have been a wiser choice, in this instance. When choosing negative keywords, it is helpful to review traffic logs and your AdWords Search Query reports to get a feel for actual search patterns.
• Exact match prevents your ad from showing when a search contains only your negative keyword. However, your ad will show for all other variations on your negative keyword. If your keyword is 'avatar' as a Broad Match, and you add 'avatar' as an Exact Match negative keyword, your ad will show on all 'avatar' related searches, such as 'avatar dvds' or 'avatar review'. This is a powerful way to carve out traffic. Neither Bing nor Yahoo allow such minutia.

Where?

You can add negative keywords both at the campaign and ad group level, with campaign negatives effective across all associated ad groups. Negative keywords added at the ad group level work hand-in-hand with campaign negatives. Together, they can work wonders.

How many?

AdWords does not set a fixed cap on the number of negative keywords you can use. However, overall keyword count restrictions do apply at the ad group and account levels across negative and positive keywords alike. Advertisers may add up to 2,000 keywords per ad group, and about 50,000 keywords per account. If you were to add 10 keywords to an ad group, the same ad group could hold up to 1,990 negative keywords. In practise, we would not expect these limits ever to be an issue.

YouTube Keyword Research: 3 Essential Tools for Video SEO

With 20 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute*, it's just got harder to connect with your target audience. YouTube has introduced a raft of tools that provide more insight into what viewers are searching on. Use these 3 essential tools to perform keyword research ahead of a paid search or video SEO campaign on YouTube.

YouTube Keyword Tool

The YouTube Keyword Tool is a powerful resource. It allows you to generate new keyword ideas in much the same way as the AdWords Keyword Tool. Simply enter descriptive words or phrases, or point the Keyword Tool to an existing YouTube video for keyword ideas. The tool returns keywords related to the ones you entered, together with monthly search volumes for the language and country of your choice. You can switch between match types to see how search volumes change with broad, phrase, exact and negative match types. You can access the YouTube Keyword Tool even without a YouTube account.

Why use it at all? While YouTube is the second largest search destination on the Web, ahead of Bing and Yahoo!, the searches performed are different from that performed on traditional search engines. Users are searching for video content, often with specific search interests. YouTube itself recommends that you "choose your keywords accordingly: names (celebrities), titles (movies, shows), quotes, actions/verbs, objects in the video (cars, etc.), emotions (funny, hilarious, etc.) etc."

How to use it? The Keyword Tool returns valuable information about keyword search volumes. Use this intelligence to structure your ad groups around popular keyword variations. It can also provide ideas for negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level. Build on keyword search volumes to forecast costs and size your campaign's budget.

YouTube Suggest

YouTube Suggest is an interface enhancement to the YouTube search box. As you type, YouTube Suggest returns searches similar to the one you're typing, in the same way as Google Suggest. Start to type 'madonna' and YouTube will return search suggestions, such as 'madonna celebration', 'madonna hung up' and more.

Why use it at all? YouTube Suggest is a powerful way to research long tail search queries. Where the Keyword Tool returns 'Not Enough Data' for words with low monthly search volumes, YouTube Suggest will show are far richer set of options. Use it to expand on the Keyword Tool for long tail keyword research.

How to use it? Use relevant keyword suggestions in your video title, description and/or tags to get your content out to as many searchers as possible. You could also use it to generate ideas for new video content.

Keyword research with YouTube Insight

The Discover tab shows how viewers discovered your content. For each video, YouTube shows the source of views, identifying clicks from the 'Related Videos' box, a YouTube search, a Google Search and up to 5 other sources.

• Click the 'YouTube Search' section for the list of phrases viewers searched for on YouTube to find your video.
• Click the 'Google Search' section for the search queries that lead users from Google search to your video.

* YouTube, Zoinks! 20 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute!, May 20th 2009

Top 6 AdWords Ad Writing Tips

Give your Click-through-rate a lift with these top 6 tried and tested AdWords writing tips. Test these in your own ad groups and find the ones that work best for you.

Have a strong call-to-action Book Flights Book your flights with Opodo and save money on your holiday today! www.opodo.co.uk/late_deals Always add a call to action to your headline or ad text. The call to action should encourage visitors to click through and complete a conversion action on your site. Powerful generic calls to action include 'Buy', 'Book' and 'Save'. However, you should ultimately experiment with ones better suited to your industry.	Highlight special offers Discount Dell Laptops Save up to £234 on Laptops with Intel® Technology. Ends 22.12.09 www.Dell.com/uk Everyone likes a bargain. Special offers, exclusive deals and price promotions are fantastic attention-grabbers. Limited time offers could also work well. Experiment with offers either in your headline or prominent places in your ad text - towards the front and end of your copy.
Mention big brands New Windows® 7 Laptops Sony's VAIO laptops now feature the latest version of Windows® 7. www.Sony.co.uk/VAIO Adding a strong brand to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. Symbols of authority such as ©, ® and ™ also help convey trust and authority. Please check the AdWords trademark policy for your region before adding brand names to your ad copy.	Use price points Australia Flights inc Tax Sydney from £564, Perth from £499 Melbourne from £555. Book now! www.DialAFlight.com If you operate in a price-driven industry, adding prices to your ad copy could lift your Click-through-rate. For larger ticket items, price points help pre-qualify clicks, ultimately delivering more targetted traffic. AdWords advertising policies require that prices shown in your ad be displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page.
Capitalisation Women's Evening Dresses Top Brand Dresses at Low Prices. Free Returns. Buy Online Now! www.very.co.uk Use capitalisation to make your ad stand out and focus attention on words that convert (such as Key Selling Points and calls to action). Please note that AdWords guidelines only allow advertisers to capitalise the first letter of each word.	Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) disney world florida tickets Prices Slashed For 2010. Book Now. We Will Match Any Cheaper Price. www.Example.com DKI ensures that sections of your ad text (the headline, the copy and even the display URL) match a user's search. However, your landing page should also deliver on your ad's copy it you are to keep bounce rates down. Note: it is best to avoid DKI if your ad group has misspellings.

However, writing effective copy is about more than boosting your Click-through-rate. While effective ad text should draw attention, it should also set realistic expectations and prompt people to take a conversion action on your landing page.

Google ads gone wrong

6 Google ads gone unintentionally wrong. Search marketers: beware when keyword matching options and Dynamic Keyword Insertion get out of control.

It only took a few minutes to find these. Send us any other funny Google ads you may have come across!

YouTube: a leading search destination ahead of Bing and Yahoo!

Everyone knows that YouTube dominates the online video market like no other. However, it’s a little known fact that it also commands a large share of all online searches, ahead of Yahoo! and Bing.

An analysis of top properties where search activity is observed reveals that YouTube is the second most popular search destination in the U.S. after Google.com. YouTube experienced 3.9 billion* search queries in November 2009, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion queries and Microsoft Sites with 1.5 billion searches.

This alone suggests YouTube is a player you should build into your search engine marketing strategy. YouTube now offers a wealth of advertising formats, from Promoted Videos displayed on search results pages, to ads shown in, on and around video content. And with more analytical tools available than ever before, from keyword research to viewer insights, you can optimize your video marketing for conversions and ROI.

Source: comScore qSearch, Expanded Search Query Report, November 2009

* comScore qSearch figures aggregate YouTube search queries with that conducted on other Google properties which are not on the core Google domain. When we enquired about YouTube standalone search volumes, comScore confirmed that YouTube accounts for almost all search queries in the ‘YouTube & All Other Google Sites’ bucket.