Yahoo Search Marketing News

Yahoo wants to update you on two changes coming your way:

1. Short descriptions will be required when you create or modify an ad, beginning in May 2007.

Long descriptions will be optional. Currently, you have two options for your ad descriptions: long (up to 190 characters) and short (70 characters or fewer).

2. Yahoo! Search results will only show short descriptions beginning in June 2007.

If you only use long descriptions, your ad will be automatically cut off to fit within the 70-character limit, which may impact your ability to communicate valuable information to users and your results. We recommend that you create a short description for any existing ad to guarantee that your most important information is included.

In the example below, key messages, such as competitive pricing and free shipping, are not included in the "cut-off" ad:

Why are we making this change?

We've found that ads written more concisely give users a better experience and generally get better results. Users are exposed to higher quality search ads and advertisers may attract more interested and enthusiastic potential customers.

So don't wait until June-- start now.

What You Need to Do

• Don't have short descriptions for all of your ads?
  
  Start now! Please create short descriptions for these ads before June 1. How to add short descriptions.


• What happens if I don't do anything?
  
  Any "long description" of more than 70 characters will be automatically cut off in Yahoo! Search results. We will shorten the description at the complete word nearest to 70 characters, then add an ellipsis ("…"). If you haven't added short descriptions to your ads by June, your ad quality could be impacted.
  


• When am I "required" to provide a short description?
  
  Beginning in May, when you create a new ad or modify an existing ad, you will be required to write a short description. We recommend that you add short descriptions to all of your existing ads so that your key messages are presented to potential customers.


• Already have short descriptions for all of your ads?
  
  You don't need to do anything-these short descriptions will be displayed in Sponsored Search results on Yahoo!


• Is anything else changing?
  
  Display URLs will be limited to 35 or fewer characters. Please shorten your display URLs as needed.