Yahoo Launches New Panama Platform
by Andy Leinicke, Media Strategist
Last fall, Yahoo released the first version of its new ad serving software called “Panama”. In its literature and website, Yahoo never refers to this new upgraded system by this name, although everyone else does. PPC advertisers have been anticipating this much-rumored about event for some time. Previously, the Yahoo ad server wasn’t quite as flexible as Google’s. It also lacked functionality in terms of the customizable reporting and creative testing that makes Google so easy to optimize.
As of March of this year, Yahoo still hasn’t migrated all of its accounts to Panama. My representative (he has asked to remain anonymous) has informed me that the migration is happening on a case by case basis. If you want to migrate a legacy account to Panama immediately, the best way to do so is to have a Red Bricks Media account manager contact Yahoo. Yahoo manages the process internally.
FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Advertisers can expect a host of new advertising features and benefits in the new system. Campaigns are organized in a hierarchy very close to Google’s. This new paradigm has several advantages. For one, the new interface seems custom built to import campaigns from Google. Also, much like Google, ads and destination URLs (landing pages) can now be tested in a/b splits within a single ad group. Until now, advertisers were forced to wait for test results from Google and then propagate them throughout Yahoo. This method required blind trust that the practices are equally valid in each engine.
Navigating Panama campaigns is now faster and more intuitive than before, and the quick-loading graphs and charts make analysis faster and easier.
Yahoo’s Old Platform:
Yahoo’s New Panama Platform
Panama now allows viewers to quickly assess click, cost, and cost per action (CPA) trends.
QUALITY INDEX:
Unlike the old Yahoo software, the new Panama system uses a quality index to calculate minimum bid requirements for text ads. This index roughly correlates to Google’s Quality Score, which has been occupying Ad Sense uses for nearly a year as they try to makes sense of how if favors or doesn’t favor ads. In an unusual twist, Yahoo beat Google to market with a display feature that lets advertisers know Quality Index on a keyword by keyword basis. Recently, Google followed suit.
There’s a lot more to write about Yahoo Panama’s many features, from Geo-targeting to more discrete budget controls. Suffice it to say, though, that we have great hopes for Yahoo’s new service and look forward to increased performance for our upgraded campaigns.