In which we answer popular queries from our advertiser webinars
Every month, we get great questions in our ongoing series of advertiser webinars. Even if you’ve never had a chance to attend one of these sessions, this info is too good to keep to ourselves, so with this post we’ll start sharing those questions and their answers with you. To hear the answers firsthand—and pose some Qs of your own—sign up for one of our webinars.
Q: What is the difference between a campaign, an ad group, and an ad?
A: A campaign consists of one or more ad groups that share the same budget, schedule and geo-targeting criteria. A campaign is typically created to support a particular marketing goal, such as a seasonal promotion, or a marketing initiative with separate budgeting or geo-targeting requirements.
At the next level down, an ad group contains keywords that are related to each other, plus a set of ads that can be displayed in response to searches that are relevant to the keywords.
An ad—containing a title, description and landing page URL—is the marketing message displayed to prospective customers searching for or viewing content related to your keywords. Often called “creatives,” ads can be frequently created or altered as you add keywords, or in response to ad testing that gauges ads’ appeal to searchers.
Q: What is the difference between an account spending limit and a campaign spending limit?
A: Your account spending limit allows you to set a budget for your entire account. Of course, you can have multiple campaigns within your account, and each of them can have a different spending limit. However, any one campaign spending limit should not exceed your overall account spending limit.
Q: Does it cost anything to use geo-targeting?
A: Geo-targeting is a free feature on all Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts. It allows you to target your ads to potential customers located or interested in particular geographic areas within the market selected for your account, and can potentially save you money. Geo-targeting permits you to target prospective customers by state, territory or province; or by Designated Market Area (DMA®), which typically means a city and its surrounding area.
Q: How does geo-targeting know where users are, or the area they’re interested in?
A: Geo-targeting looks at factors such as the user’s search query or Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine when to display your ads. For example, if someone in Arizona types in “Limo Service in Los Angeles CA,” then an ad geo-targeted to Los Angeles can be displayed. Please be aware that geo-targeting accuracy is not guaranteed and may vary depending on the level of targeting selected, as well as other factors, such as the quality and type of data in the traffic stream that we receive.
Q: I started a campaign this morning and it is set to end on a specific date a month from now. When will I be able to see the results of that ad campaign?
A: If you have set your campaign to end on a specific date, complete reporting for the ad campaign will be available the day after the campaign is scheduled to end. Of course, you can review your reports at any time during the scheduled duration of your campaign to see how your ads are performing to date.
— The Team
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