I tried Yahoo pay-per-click a few years ago, but gave up due to low traffic, high minimum bid prices and a horrible user interface. I am glad I did. Apparently Yahoo Search Marketing have given themselves permission to:

• create ads
• add and/or remove keywords
• optimize your account(s)

for US advertisers, without asking their permission first. One can only wonder what ‘optimize’ means – double your bid price? You can revert their changes, but you are still liable for any costs their changes incur. Isn’t this a bit like the phone company deciding you aren’t making enough calls and phoning people on your behalf? There doesn’t even appear to be an opt-out. Yahoo must be getting pretty desperate. Let’s hope they are better at picking new keywords than Microsoft Advertising.

More details here:

• Yahoo To Advertisers: We Can Create Ads & Edit Keywords Without Asking First
• Yahoo Gives Itself Permission to Change Your Search Marketing Campaigns

If you have a Yahoo PPC campaign you might want to think about cancelling it. Or at least keep a very close eye on it. If you have actually experienced Yahoo making changes to your campaigns please post details in the comments.

(via Adriana Iordan of Avanagate)