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Thoughts on Yahoo Gemini? (20)

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Hey STM
I'm a super noob when it comes to Yahoo Gemini.

Couple of questions

1) Are there any STM guides for YG?
2) What's your guys perspective on YG especially when it comes to quality & optimization? Just like most other native ad sources, there isn't much lever you can push and pull...

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I'd be interested in this too-- I created an account, put up some ads for dating, but was summarily rejected by them, then went off on other things. I would like to come back to it, and if anyone has a rep I can talk to on the phone, I'd appreciate the referral. I've always found it difficult to get something going on a new traffic source by "coming in over the transom" (to use an old book publisher term) but much better when I can talk to a real, live human being.

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It is okay. It is definitely not the best native platform. One major issue is that it is a very "fat finger" friendly ad unit, lol. As the clicks aren't exactly cheap, you can waste a lot of money as a result if you are not careful.

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Other than FB, which other platform do you prefer?

Some gripe about native ad networks
- bot traffic volume is freakin' insane ( luckily have some counter measures)
- can't manual optimize w/o talking to a rep (who, by the way, has no idea why anyone would do that)

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Just reach out to a whole bunch of Yahoo reps on linkedin. I'm sure they'll respond. I reached out to 7 and 3 responded.

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Find offers that do great on both mobile and desktop simultaneously and you'll do well on Gemini

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Gemini has HUGE traffic potential - You're going to get a whole lot of mobile traffic unless you know what you're doing, so run offers that convert on mobile^^. I have a nice budget to work with, so this might not work with everyone - start with high bids and low budgets - after you get 10+ conversions, switch over to oCPC. Let it run at low budgets for a few days until you start getting good traffic. Then, open her up.

Also, you want to be able to track at an ad level in real time.

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Hey cflagle -- 3 questions:
1. Do you get tons more mobile traffic if you pause campaigns and then re-enable them?
2. Do you track specific campaigns in Voluum so that you can pause camps that just aren't converting due to poor optimization or to zone in high-performing ads?
3. How many days does the Gemini algorithm need to optimize? I've run it at dozens of conversions before and it still sent me awful traffic

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1. Good question - I haven't actually tested this...
2. Not just campaigns, I track on the ad level. Sometimes one ad can ruin your campaign. Sometimes when you pause ads, other ads assume their shitty traffic sources.
3. Sometimes 1, sometimes 5. Depends how you're tracking conversions... My first campaign off of browser targeting took about 4 days and $16k before I was able to really scale. Now I can get it down to a day and $2k. I've noticed it takes longer if I have crappy ad CTRs too.

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1 => For me, yeap

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@cflagle - first off, thanks for your feedback on Gem. I've been running it for a couple months, with very mixed results. But I haven't been running big budgets. So... a couple more questions for you, based on your initial input:

1) When you say start with high bids... what's your ballpark? We all know min bid for Gem is .05. Are high bids .20? .50? 1+?
2) Also, with your approach... what's your definition of crappy ad CTRs? I know when I have something working with .05 bids, "good" CTRs are in the .30% - .60% range. When I see anything above 1%, it's pretty indicative of a runaway ad (most likely pencil ad placements or pure crap mobile).

Thanks!

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Yahoo Gemini for sure is good traffic, it would be worth testing a proven funnel on it. See how it does for you.

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1) It depends - Anywhere from .25 to .50. I steer clear from .05 bids unless I have like 3% CTRs on desktop.
2) Also depends, but I would say Desktop ads are getting less than .3% CTR... And when that happens, you'll usually get some runaway ads that are mostly mobile.

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Are you able to get consistent performance on YG?

It has been VERY erratic. Very... like night and day.

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How is Gemini these days?
Is it still working?

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Some feedback I've heard recently it's not the greatest quality for clients.

- Brian, Sr. Affiliate Manager

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mobile traffic there is garbage and they don't have an option to select only desktop...spent alot of money there and not a fan

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I was told that after a bunch of conversions they algorithm starts to optimize traffic and supposedly eliminates mobile or at least limits it.
Anyone got to that point?

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Late to the party here. There are desktop only accounts available if you spend enough. However, that is ending in three weeks. At which time they are going to only have combined accounts but you can bid separately, and our rep suggested bid $0.01 on mobile and you will get only desktop. Overall traffic is streaky if you get homepage or not, and watch the click discrepancy.

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Get a rep and they will remove shitty placements before you even launch. Awhile backs reps were doing desktop only accounts and they performed amazing but now after some changes to the platform the best option is to get some placements blocked before launching.

Like someone said, message reps on LinkedIn or go to ad tech and hunt them down.

Another thing about Gemini in my experience is it's very rare to be profitable every single days.... overall long term profitability is easier to look at compared to daily. Set budgets appropriately.

Also if you have video Gemini access, test it.

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