Sponsored Search system might soon provide alternatives to Overture Inventory Tool which is on its last legs and is no longer supported by Yahoo! Along with the launch of the Sponsored Search system, Yahoo!released a mail to advertisers announcing adjustments to the tool in the meantime.
"For the time being, Yahoo! plans to adjust the tool to show information from January 2007, but it’s also recommended that advertisers use the more robust forecasting capabilities in the new Sponsored Search to gain insight into expected performance. The forecasting service available now within Panama and through our APIs is a great alternative to Keyword Selector Tool in terms of providing keyword data points for performance and cost.
Our forecasting service APIs provide a number of opportunities. They provide a forecast for an ad group, set of keywords, and a single keyword. The following forecast metrics are provided:
1) Average Position – The average position of the ad
2) Clicks – The estimated number of clicks
3) Average CPC – The average cost per click
4) Impressions – The estimated number of impressions
5) Max Bid – The maximum bid for the current forecast
6) Missed Clicks – The estimated number of missed clicks"
Overture users can switch temporarily to other keyword selection tools for which there are choices like Keyword Discovery free version (which also has a better, paid version), wordTracker free version and Google AdWords keyword tool.
