Yahoo has announced Carol Bartz, 60, to succeed Jerry Yang as the CEO of Yahoo. Bartz is a respected tech veteran who served in Autodesk as the CEO from 1992-2006. Autodesk is a software company which grew from $300 million to $1.5 billion during her 14 years of service. Autodesk’s stock price during that tenure grew ten-folds. She also comes with past experience as an executive at other major tech companies such as Digital Equipment Corp, Sun Microsystems, and currently serves on the board of Cisco Systems and Intel Corp.
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Growth in Holiday Spend? Where?
According to comScore, the fastest growing online category in the 2008 holiday season was sports and fitness. This category grew 18 percent compared to 2007 as consumers were more inclined to purchase higher priced fitness machines online instead of offline.

Sports and Fitness was followed by Video Games (14 Percent Growth Year over Year) and Apparel & Accessories. All other categories unfortunately saw a drop in growth due to consumers curbing their purchasing due to the poorer economic conditions.

Who is Spending More?
Growth in online spending occurred in households with income over $100,000 (7% Growth), while all other income segments showed declines in online spending. $50,000-$99,999 Household Income Consumers showed a -8% Growth Rate, while those under $50,000 showed a -13% Growth Rate in Spend.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM

Is Yahoo Editing Your Search Marketing Campaigns?

Did you know Yahoo has permission to change your search marketing campaigns then notify you after the fact? How do we know this? It says right in the Terms and Conditions. Didn’t see it? They did a recent update.

SPONSORED SEARCH and CONTENT MATCH® PROGRAM TERMS
3. OPTIMIZATION. In the U.S. only, for those advertisers not bound by an Insertion Order, we may help you optimize your account(s). Accordingly, you expressly agree that we may also: (i) create ads, (ii) add and/or remove keywords, and/or (iii) optimize your account(s). We will notify you via email of such changes made to your account(s), and can also include a spreadsheet of such changes upon your written request. If you would like any of such changes reversed, please reply to such email within 14 days of the change(s), and we will make commercially reasonable efforts to reverse the change(s) you specifically identify. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you remain responsible for all changes made to your account(s), including all click charges incurred prior to any reversions being made. It is your responsibility to monitor your account(s) and to ensure that your account settings are consistent with your business objectives.

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Word on the online world is that Sean Suchter, Yahoo’s top search engineer has left Yahoo the day after Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO. Yang was well known for his dedication to Web Search with his strong, perhaps stubborn efforts to grow this sector of Yahoo’s business including the rejection of Microsoft’s bids.

The tipster who gave this information to valleywag.com, states

“Today is the end of Yahoo Search. Sean Suchter just left for Microsoft. Everyone in the office is shocked. I’ve been on the Yahoo Search team for a while and he is the one key executive that it all depends on. If Microsoft has convinced him to leave and join them, they won’t need to buy Yahoo Search. We will just all join Microsoft anyway. I am definitely going to send him my resume.”

Suchter apparently commanded a lot of loyalty and respect from the Yahoo search group. Yahoo has already lost a search executive, Qi Lu, to Microsoft. Will there be more to come? Could Microsoft end up hiring it’s way into Yahoo’s search business?
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A quick warning. Google has included Canada as part of the general geo-targeted settings in Google Adwords. Previously only the United States was targeted by default. Though most advanced users may notice this change, it is something easy to miss. New users in Google Adwords may also easily look over this small update or figure it is common practice to target both regions.

Many may respond to my statement above by saying that no one would make such a simple mistake. Believe me, many will. You will be surprised. I can promise you Google will profit quite a bit off of this little change. Even if only 1 out of 1000 people overlook this change, in a pool of 100,000 advertisers, a million advertisers, that is a good chunk of change.

As LeadQual promotes international clients including in Canada, this comes to us as a disconcerting news as it may artificially raise competition in Canada.

Yahoo has always targeted both US and Canada by default.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM