Really need some help with Yahoo Search Marketing please..

Ive been a long time user of adwords, but never had too much luck with it. About 90% of my revenue was going back to adwords.

Ive decided to try yahoo. I read somewhere that yahoo is more used by consumers and google more used by business's....?

Anyway, my website sells self defense products. pepper sprays and stuff like that.. My keywords are extremely competitive.

I set up my yahoo account, and created some ad groups.

Its telling me to make my default ad group bid over $5.00 . Does that mean that no matter what, that what Ill pay? Or does it work like adwords where you only pay what is needed?

Right now I have it set at $1.00 . And some keywords are in the first position, some 2-3, others 10 or lower.

I cant bid $5.00 for a click when I have items for $9.95 that cost me $5.00 ..

Please advise
Thanks

Yahoo Search Marketing works now (after Yahoo Panama launch) exactly as Google Adwords, so your position is determined by your Max CPC x Quality Index. However, if the system is telling you to set up a $5.00 bid means that given your Quality Index you´ll need a Max CPC of $5.00 to be in first position, so it´s quite likely that you have to pay something near $5. That just means that you can´t bid profitably in the first position for all your keywords portfolio, which is very common. Just set up the tracking code and play with your bids at a keyword level given the CPA you´re obtaining for each keyword.

tracking code?

A successful PPC campaign, successful defined as profitable, is more than just selecting keywords and creating ad groups.

In general,

It requires testing of both the advert you're showing and testing of the landing page.

It involves analyzing keyword performance (identifying shopping terms from buying terms) and weeding them out.

What you've asked for is effective across the google, yahoo and msn PPC platforms.

However, it's simply not an an "easy" thing to teach in a forum post.

Perry Marshall is an expert in PPC marketing. Just google him. Buy his book today. It has everything you need for effective self help for your PPC goals. Read it, learn it, apply it, and your results in Google, and anywhere else, will be significantly better than 10%. If they're not, then your not properly applying what he's teaching.

This is my personal opinion only based upon reading the materials.

Yes, look in the Yahoo Console something called Conversion Codes, or Conversion Tracking (sorry, I don´t remember the exact name). Same as in Google Adwords, you can add a code in your thank you page (once people have transacted in your site), so Yahoo will know, out of the people that landed on your site through the Yahoo ads, how many converted. This analysis is done at a keyword level so you can analyse which keywors are profitable. Aren´t you familiar with the tracking code in Google Adwords? In that case I´m afraid you have spent at lot of money on non profitable keywords (you mentioned that 90% of your revenue went to Adwords). I wouldn´t run any PPC campaign if I can´t understand the ROI from each of my keywords.