When Overture (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) came to Cooper, they already had the industry's most successful search engine marketing tool. Like most companies, they were determined to find new revenue streams and improve their market position. More enlightened than most, Overture sought to accomplish these goals by focusing on the success of their customers, the advertisers. Specifically, they wanted to assure that their small business customers were well served by future product releases.

Overture realized that their keyword search campaign tool was only one part of their typical customer's online marketing strategy. Although Overture made money whenever a consumer clicked on an ad, there was little benefit to the advertiser unless that consumer ultimately made a purchase. Overture needed to show advertisers how spending more money on keyword search campaigns would increase their profits, so Overture called Cooper. Our objective: Design a tool that would demonstrate that value without overwhelming the advertiser using it.

To help ensure that we were hitting the right target, the Cooper team conducted interviews with a range of advertisers. We learned about their pains, preferences, and goals, then used this knowledge to develop personas (archetypal users) who guided the creation and prioritization of product functionality and the resulting interaction design.

The primary persona for this engagement was Sal, a small-business owner too busy to invest a lot of time managing his online marketing. He needed control of his budget and feedback regarding the results of his various campaigns. The Cooper team concluded that advertisers like Sal needed keyword suggestions to help design ad campaigns as well as alerts that eliminate the need for routine monitoring of his results. As he became more accustomed to buying keywords, he'd want to see data about the profits he realized as a result of click-throughs, which would also make Overture’s value evident to him. Just as important, Sal would appreciate an elegant interface that would enable him to get in, get out, and get back to the business.

Insights leading to competitive advantages commonly result from Cooper engagements and this was no exception. The research phase revealed that the most important source of increased revenue for Overture—the bidding of new keywords—was costly and cumbersome for new advertisers or those interested in expanding their search marketing efforts. Cooper suggested robust keyword testing functionality that would automate much of the process and limit budget drain for unsuccessful terms. This empowers advertisers to try new concepts, giving them confidence that their marketing dollars are converting into profitable sales.

Overture used Cooper's research insights and design solutions to develop their new Yahoo! Search Marketing tool. A February, 2007 report showed a 9% increase in click-through rate in just the second week after product launch. Steve Mitgang of Yahoo! (formerly Overture) says the response to the new Yahoo! tool has been phenomenal.

If you are interested in the recently enhanced Yahoo! Search Marketing tool, you can find more information at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/.