TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- A significant number of online advertisers are missing key techniques for optimizing campaigns in the "world beyond Google," -- a world that includes the often-underestimated second-place player in search, Yahoo. This represents hundreds of millions of dollars in lost opportunity for advertisers and Yahoo, says the author of a new report that teaches advertisers how to navigate Yahoo's new search marketing platform, code-named Panama.
Mona Elesseily, author of Mastering Panama: A Special Report on Yahoo's New Search Marketing Platform, said: "The media focus on Google, the industry leader in search and search advertising, has overshadowed Yahoo's efforts to build a solid alternative. Advertisers were caught flat-footed by the release of the new 'Panama' platform -- it was significantly more powerful than many expected. Depending on the business you're in, Yahoo can still account for 30 to 40 percent of an online advertising budget. Rather than chasing the next big thing, I think online businesses can benefit most from optimizing something they already know about: Yahoo accounts."
Ms. Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy at Toronto-based Page Zero Media, spent ten months researching, writing, and refining the 100-page report, consulting advertisers, agencies, and a wide variety of Yahoo insiders. Her day-to-day work in search marketing strategy on behalf of large brands and fast-growing midsized retailers and B2B niche enterprises fueled her desire to share tactics and methodology with a wider audience.
"Mona's Yahoo report fills a huge gap in the marketplace," said Andrew Goodman, Founder and Principal of Page Zero Media. "Over the past year I've talked to many advertisers who recognize they aren't maximizing their Yahoo search buys and plan to get back into the new platform. 'Mastering Panama' is the perfect tool to get advertisers off to a running start," added Mr. Goodman.
Page Zero estimates that at least 60% of small to midsized Yahoo Search Marketing accounts are running significantly below their potential, a much higher proportion than witnessed with Google AdWords. "If a reasonable number of business owners took action on this front, by year end, tens of thousands of business owners would have added 30-40% to their overall traffic volumes from paid search." Mr. Goodman estimated the amount of current unrealized annual ad revenue for Yahoo, based on cautiously-managed accounts that are currently under-optimized, at $500 million.
Ms. Elesseily's report contains insights into unique features of the Panama platform, including keyword matching options, forecasting tools, the new quality-index-based ad ranking algorithm, ad testing, analytics and tracking, budgeting, geotargeting, and content network distribution. To help advertisers sort through the details it contains key action items and helpful hints.
Matt van Wagner, President of Nashua, NH-based Find Me Faster, a search marketing firm, praised "Mastering Panama" for its comprehensiveness: "Being a busy practitioner in the field, I know how hard it is to complete an article, let alone an entire book covering all the major features and tactics. This is a major contribution. Mona's report gets deep into the tactics, showing what works, and what doesn't."
Advertisers will spend close to a combined $20 billion USD in 2007 on paid search advertising through the two leaders (Google AdWords and Yahoo Panama) alone, based on financial statements from Q1 and Q2 for the two companies. Online advertising and e-commerce as a whole continue to be fast-growing sectors, growing 20-30% per year in North America.
"Online advertising is gathering steam globally," adds Ms. Elesseily. "In 2007 and 2008, Panama will be enabled in several international markets, and geolocation options will be improved. It's important to be ready."
Mastering Panama is available for purchase at www.page-zero.com.
About Page Zero Media
Founded in 2000, Toronto-based Page Zero Media is an online marketing agency specializing in paid search campaigns and strategic online marketing plans. With service offerings ranging from their groundbreaking "Paid Search JumpStart," to full-service campaign management, to "Landing Page Juice," a multivariate conversion improvement methodology, Page Zero is recognized as an innovator in online marketing. Page Zero founder Andrew Goodman is author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005) and co-founder of Traffick.com, a respected industry blog. Mona Elesseily, author of Mastering Panama, joined Page Zero in 2003. She is widely recognized as the go-to expert on the Yahoo Search Marketing platform, and speaks regularly at industry events.