Yahoo Gemini Search: Pros and Cons

Published: November 21, 2016

Author: Alexandra Shanahan

Since the inception of Yahoo Gemini Search, we’ve heard plenty of opinions from the industry, mostly that “It’s super low-volume” and “It’s just mobile traffic.” But I’ve got a few clients who have increased investment in the platform, with one spending over $60K per month.

As we’ve used the platform more, I’ve gotten more familiar with its strengths and limitations. Here’s what I’ve found:

– Gemini is less competitive than other SEM vendors: Gemini CPCs are 46% less than Bing search CPCs and 78% less than Google search CPCs. This represents a big opportunity for high ROI.
– If you’re getting little to no traffic on Gemini, there’s an easy fix; you can opt into Yahoo’s partner network by making sure  this box is checked.

– Yahoo’s partner network makes up 85% of our clicks and 76% of spend. The Yahoo search partner CPCs are also lower than Yahoo search CPCs.
– The traffic is definitely not all on mobile; desktop and tablet make up 45% of total cost in my client’s account.
– Our Gemini account team is extremely responsive and helps us pull reports and look into performance issues.

– Traffic quality (measured by rev/click) is 67% lower than Bing and 86% lower than Google.
– There is no bulk editor, so large-scale changes are tedious or require the assistance of the Gemini account team.
– Reporting is buggy; you can’t pick custom dates for reports. If you want to pull a time period longer than 30 days, you must paste multiple reports together.
– Mobile does make up the majority of volume (78%) and spend (55%) in my client’s account.

The upshot: it can be difficult to optimize campaigns on Gemini, but there is potential for significant incremental volume, especially given the platform’s low-cost nature. As with any platform, we recommend testing before dedicating a significant amount of budget.