A WebmasterWorld thread has a copy of an email a Yahoo Product Submit advertiser received. The email basically says that Yahoo will be switching from a flat category price structure to a bidding marketplace type of structure, like we have at Yahoo Search Marketing or Google AdWords.
Why would Yahoo be switching the Product Submit pricing structure from a flat tier structure to a bidding structure? Possibly to earn more money? Possibly to consolidate the search marketing systems into one pricing mechanism?
Here is a copy of the email as posted at WebmasterWorld:
Dear Product Submit advertiser,We are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of a bidded marketplace. With this change, there will be modifications to your Master Terms & Conditions and Program Terms, which will be detailed in a future email notice that you'll receive in the next 30 days.
We expect the bidded marketplace to have an impact on your day-to-day business. Therefore, we advise you and your team to begin planning for the transition to a bidded model.
As part of this launch, we are expanding the number of product categories and improving reporting within your Product Submit account.
These changes are designed to help you to: - Better influence the level of traffic you receive from Yahoo! Shopping - Gain more control over optimizing your product listings - Gain better visibility into your category performance Stay tuned!
The Yahoo Product Submit team
If you visit the Product Submit pricing page, you will notice that there have been no changes to the current pricing structure. At least not yet.
This is a major change for those who use Yahoo Product Submit and will require a higher level of daily management, something that many advertisers most likely won't like to spend their time on. I guess this is good news for search marketers.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
