To keep current on conducting your PPC campaigns, you should know that both Google and Yahoo announced changes in their pay-per-click advertising programs. Google has a new metric in AdWords and Yahoo Panama is requiring shorter descriptions. Additionally, Google just launched a Pay-Per-Action program beta.

Google AdWords Impression Share

Google AdWords will start providing a new metric, Impression Share. According to Google, this statistic is available at the campaign and account level for search.

• Campaign Level: If you have more than one campaign competing in the same target market, the resulting impression share for any one campaign won’t be penalized if it loses an impression opportunity to another campaign from within the same account.
• Account Level: Reports at this level will not penalize your impression share from the competition across all your campaigns.

More details available at the AdWords Help Center.

Yahoo Search Marketing Shorter Descriptions

Yahoo will start requiring shorter PPC search ad descriptions. Starting this month, you should start using descriptions of up to 75 characters. Formerly, you were allowed up to 190 characters. In June, Yahoo will start using the shorter descriptions. If you continue to provide longer descriptions, Yahoo will cut them back to 75 characters.

More details available at the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog.

Google AdWords Pay-Per-Action Beta

Advertisers who think they get too many looky-loos with PPC can now pay only for actions with Google’s beta pay-per-action option in AdWords. No more tire kickers, you pay only when the cash register rings.
Here’s how it works: First, you create your ad, define the action, and set the amount you’ll pay. Then, you install a conversion tracking code on your site to verify that actions were completed.

Publishers in the Google content network can choose to place your ads on their sites. You only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad, visits your site, and completes the desired action you predefine. You can have text ads, image ads or the new inline text link ads that appear within web site content. These ads appear as links in content, labeled as Google ads upon mouse over.

For step-by-step instructions on how to set up a campaign, see Jen Laycock’s article on Search Engine Guide.

Source: http://services.google.com/payperaction