Elaine

So, what is Overture?

Like Google, Yahoo sells paid placement advertising links that appear on its own site and which are distributed to others. These are sold through Overture. Yahoo purchased Overture as part of an acquisition in October 2003.

Overture also provides sponsor links for many other search engines, most notably: MSN, AllTheWeb and AltaVista.

Today, Google accounts for about 46% of websearches. Yahoo accounts for about 22.5% and MSN 12.6%. So you see, Overture really is just as important to use as Google Adwords. Personally I use overture extensively and I highly recommend that you do so too.

First of all, make sure that you set for yourself a reasonable daily budget. That way you won't spend too much. You can do this in overture.

Secondly, Overture works differently to Google adwords. Google adwords uses some sort of fuzzy logic to decide it's ad placement positioning, calculated from such things as:
a) Length of time the advertiser has been advertising with this adword. Sometimes it takes up to a month to realize the full potential of an adword in Google.
b) Click through rate
c) Max cost per click

Overture simply uses an auction system to decide which ad gets displayed highest. If you bid more money per click, you will rate higher. It's as simple as that.

For instance if Mr X bids $1 per click on "Learn Spanish" and Mr Y bids $0.95 and Mr Z bids $1.10. Then Mr Z's ad will be #1, Mr X's ad will be #2 and Mr Y's ad will be placed #3.

With this difference in mind, there is a different strategy that you should use in overture.

Overture Strategy #1

Qualify your ads.
In Google it matters what your click through rate is and you are rewarded for having a higher click through rate with lower costs per click. In Overture, all that matter is how much you are prepared to pay per click.

Hence it is very important that you bid higher than you would in Google, but you ensure that your traffic is of a higher quality by "Qualifying" your listings. You can do this in many ways.

1. By mentioning the price of the product. If somewhere in you overture ad you mention something like: "Only $99!" or simply "Costs $99.95" or something to that effect, then people who aren't at all interested in paying any money for anything won't click on your ad.

2. By mentioning more product details. Remember that in Overture you get to take up more space describing a product, so you should describe what it is so that people know what they are clicking on.

3. I personally recommend only promoting in Overture USA and Overture UK, they seem to have a higher proportion of buyers than in other countries.

4. Mention how the product is delivered. Eg If your product is an online product, say so, some people are only interested in physical products.

Remember, if you are profiting a large amount per click AND if you want to increase your click through rate, simply remove some of the qualifiers, such as price.... above.

Overture Strategy #2

Conversion Tracking
Most website owners, including us, will be happy to add their affiliate's overture conversion tracking code to their purchase page. This means that you will be able to tell precisely which keywords are making the sales and which aren't. And also how much it is costing you per sale.

If a website owner is not willing to add your conversion code, you may want to consider if you really wish to be promoting their website.

It is important to have access to valuable conversion statistics, to see where you are profiting, and where you are struggling.

Overture Strategy #3

Separate Ads for Each Keyword
I know this is time consuming, but in the long run, it is highly beneficial. First of all, make sure that you use the keyword(s) in the title and ad copy.

When your keyword is inserted in the Title and Ad Copy, the come up in bold when someone searches for it in Yahoo or MSN. For example, search for "Learn Spanish" in Yahoo and notice how with the sponsored links, the words "learn" and "Spanish" come up in bold in all the ad listings.

Overture Strategy #4

Try to get the #4 or #5 Position. (even #6 isn't bad)
This increases the likelihood of your ad being seen. The top 3-4 ads get displayed at the top of yahoo and msn searches. The following ads are displayed at the bottom and right hand side of the page in yahoo, and down the right hand side in MSN.

There is a significant difference between being placed 5/6 and being placed 7/8.

Overture allows you to "bid to position" on a particular search term. You can do this once you have set up your keywords. I strongly recommend bidding to position #5 at the very least. In fact you'll get quite good traffic from them. There is no need (unless you are profiting wildly!) to spend more money to place your ad in the top 3 positions which usually get fought over fiercely. Remember to keep an eye on your ads, so you don't inadvertently become caught up in a bidding for position war.

Overture Strategy #5

Make sure that All your Bids are set to Auto bid.
This means that you won't be spending more than you want to for any term, and you will pay less money if your competitors aren't spending as much.

I hope that this advice helps you turbo-charge profits using Overture Search Marketing.

Andrew Portela is an experienced affiliate marketer that loves to spread the word about his wonderful career. For more information on the things learned in this article visit www.affilorama.com