Lee Odden

Panama Geo-Targeting Update

Lee Odden     Online Marketing, Yahoo

Yesterday I posted a link to aimclear’s blog about his frustrations with getting Yahoo geo targeting features to work for him. A thread had also been started at Search Engine Watch forum which apparently has been pulled, but thanks to Google cache, I was able to grab some of the info.

Basically, ackmnmn from aimclear says that a support person at Yahoo informed him that Yahoo recognized some aspects of geo targeting were not working and that Yahoo would be disabling geo targeting or parts of it.

In the same SEW forum thread, YahooSarah chimed in with:

“We are seeing DMA targeted ads are not showing up in more specific sub-DMA geo-modified (geo-tagged) queries. Example: ‚ÄúPasadena hotel‚Äù will not be matched to Los Angeles DMA targeted keyword, ‚Äúhotel‚Äù. You should start to see improvements the week of January 15.”

She also replied with another comment stating specifically that Yahoo was not disabling or shutting down geo targeting.  Just to be sure, I confirmed this with my contact at Yahoo Search Marketing.
So I guess it’s a matter of interpretation, “making enhancements” vs “shutting down”, but Yahoo was very specific that nothing was being shut down. I do suspect (my own opinion) that Yahoo is taking a serious look at the detailed feedback provided by ackmnmn in their process of enhancing the geo targeting feature.

When you run into issues with search engines as an advertiser, you have options on how to handle it – rant and complain or provide feedback so they can fix it. For the most part, I think ackmnmn was trying to provide feedback, but with the edges a little rough due to his frustrations. But then again, maybe it was the rough edges that got Yahoo’s attention?

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Lee Odden About Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of Online Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he's the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on integrated content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he's likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Comments

  1. Simon Heseltine says:
    January 17, 2007 at 10:40 am

    Good to know. I didn’t see how they could turn off geo-targeting without upsetting a lot of people, which is not something that you want to do when you’re launching a big upgrade.

  2. Lee Odden says:
    January 17, 2007 at 12:40 pm

    Thanks for the update Marty

  3. ackmnmn says:
    January 17, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    Thanks for the post Lee. I voluntaraly pulled the thread down. Chris Bogs was going to repost it after review with a disclaimer but I thought it would be better to move the chat to the backroom.

    m

  4. Chris Boggs says:
    January 18, 2007 at 3:51 pm

    Hey Lee, the original thread with the request for removal is up at SEW in case you want to adjust that link: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=15686

    Thanks!

    CB