Yell.com Pay-Per-Click Is A Disappointment
I have been testing out Yell’s new PPC solution for a client and I’m not that impressed. They didn’t explain this very well to me so I only discovered AFTER I opened an account that they restrict you to JUST national and regional searches in the UK. This is really crap because the vast majority of people (and probably the best prospects) will put either their postcode or their town in the location box on Yell. People aren’t going to leave it blank and let it default to a national search. No way. At least not enough people to make it worthwhile for most advertisers.
I know why Yell are doing this. The regional directory business is their cash-cow and they want to avoid cannibalising advertising sales in their traditional directories. So in my opinion, they are just paying lip service to the idea of Pay-Per-Click because their institutional investor overlords are forcing them to play catch-up with big daddy Google.
Frankly, I think they should wake up.
Advertisers expect more these days. They want results based ad solutions, more control and less risk. With PPC, a smart advertiser can very quickly test a campaign and then decide whether to cut the losses or start pouring in more resources. You can’t do that when you’ve been suckered in to a “Sponsored Listing” advert on Yell.com or in the local Yellow Pages directory - you’re basically stuck with it for 12 months. And that sucks.
Here is some more info relating to this:
Emma From Yell.com Weighs In With Some Comments
Bruce Suggests Pay Per Impression
Scott Is Not Getting Good Results With Yell.com Ads
