Yahoo! Keyword Services
User Guide
Yahoo! Keyword Services are email-based services designed to support power users who need to perform large-scale
batch keyword generation and de-duping.
This manual explains how to use these services most effectively to help you make the best of these services with
minimal effort.
Overview
Yahoo! Keyword Services allow you to access Yahoo!’s advanced keyword expansion and cleanup tools via a sim-
ple to use email interface. Using these services, you can better manage and optimize your account on a regular
basis; you can receive keyword suggestions tailored to your account, tap into the latest search queries relevant for
your business, and cleanup keywords that are duplicates, or cleanup a subset of keywords that are likely to be non-
compliant with our editorial policies. Discovering new keywords and cleaning up duplicate keywords may help you
lower PPC or improve overall ROI with your existing campaigns or for your new campaigns.
Process Flow
To start using Yahoo! Keyword Services:
1 Contact your Account Manager about setting up access to the Keyword Services.
Your account manager will setup you up to use Yahoo! Keyword Services, tailor the
service to your needs, and work with you to identify one or more email addresses that are
authorized to use the services.
2 You will receive an automated “Welcome Email” containing your private access key.
When you sign up for the Yahoo! Keyword Services, which includes both the Automated Keyword Expander and
Automated Keyword Cleanup tools, you will be assigned a daily quota. Please consult with your Account Manager
to determine which tasks are better suited for Yahoo! Keyword Services and/or review the Use Cases described in
this document.
Once access to the Keyword Services has been setup:
1 You can email Yahoo! Keyword Services to use either the Automated Keyword
Expander tool or the Automated Keyword Cleanup tool by sending an email to
expander@keywordservices.yahoo.com or
cleanup@keywordservices.yahoo.com respectively.
See Sending an Email for more information.
The system will process your email and send out a validation or an error email,
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Sending an Email
typically, within 5 minutes.
See Validation Email Examples.
2 Once the task is complete, the system will send (typically, 15-30 minutes after sending
the validation email, or may be longer if your task is longer) an email to you
containing the output file (bulk-sheet).
Note: You can upload the output bulk-sheet directly to your account to add or cleanup
the output keywords. Remember that since columns AI through AK in the output
file (bulk-sheet) contain the output of the Keyword Services, which is not part of
the standard bulk-sheet format, before uploading your output file (bulk-sheet)
into the Ad UI or YSMD, please remove those (AI through AK) columns.
Tip: To ensure that you receive the confirmation and results emails, please add the
keywordservices.yahoo.com to your email spam white-list, and avoid situations where the
responses go into your spam folder.
Please do not reply (email) to the automated emails (generated by the system). If you have any questions or concerns
regarding the emails that were sent to you, please contact your Account Manager.
Sending an Email
To use Yahoo! Keyword services, you need to send an email from your email client (Microsoft Outlook, Apple iMail,
etc) to expander@keywordservices.yahoo.com or cleanup@keywordservices.yahoo.com.
The email subject line should contain the name that you would like to assign to this task. In the body of the email,
you may specify some parameters that control how your task is performed, and in some use cases, you must include
a file attachment with the email. In each email, specifying the source set of keywords for the task is mandatory,
whereas all other parameters are optional.
This section describes the various ways to specify the required (source) parameters and optional parameters in your
email to both the Automated Keyword Expander Tool and the Automated Keyword Cleanup Tool.
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Sending an Email
Automated Keyword Expander Tool
This section describes the required and optional parameters for the Automated Keyword Expander tool.
Required Parameters
The following table describes the required parameters for the Automated Keyword Expander tool. The required
parameters define the source of keywords from which the keyword expansion starts. You must provide only one of
the required parameters. Use colon (:) or hyphen (-) to separate the parameter from its value.
Parameter Description Restriction
Account ID The ID of your account. You can specify one or more account Required
IDs, separated by a comma. The tool will use all the existing
keywords in the specified account(s) as a source list of
keywords for the expansion task.
Domain The name of your domain. The tool will use the specified Required
domain as a source for the expansion task by automatically
detecting user queries that match this domain.
Input File A list of keywords in a CSV, TSV, or Microsoft Excel (2003) file. Required
You must attach the file to the email. See Input File for more
information.
Optional Parameters
The following table describes the optional parameters for the Automated Keyword Expander tool. You can specify
zero or more of the optional parameters. Use colon (:) or hyphen (-) to separate the parameter from its value.
Parameter Description Restriction
De-dupe Account One or more account IDs to de-dupe (the output file) against. Optional
ID You can specify multiple account IDs, separated by a comma.
Using this parameter, you can tell the expander tool to remove
from the result set any keyword found inside any of the
specified accounts.
By default, the result set will not be de-duped against any
account unless it has been setup by your Account Manager.
Add Alt Text The alternate text that may serve in lieu of the keyword, in Optional
cases where one or more of the associated ads contain the
Insert Keyword feature. Valid values are yes and no.
If specified (yes), the system will add alternate text
suggestions to the output, if available. By default, the system
will not add (no) alternate text to the output even if it is
available.
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Sending an Email
Parameter Description Restriction
Market The two-letter abbreviation for the market to use for this job. Optional
By default, the main market that was setup for you by your
Account Manager, if available, or "US" will be used.
Note: This is an advanced parameter for multi-nationals.
Please consult your Account Manager on how to use this
parameter.
For a possible list of markets, see Markets.
Auto Group The (yes or no) setting to automatically group keywords Optional
Keywords together based on word frequency. If specified (yes), the
system will also override any ad group information that the
keywords already contained.
Negative The keywords or patterns that should not be included in the Optional
Keywords output. The system will ensure that the specified keywords are
excluded from the suggested list of keywords.
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Sending an Email
Automated Keyword Cleanup Tool
This section describes the required and optional parameters for the Automated Keyword Cleanup tool.
Required Parameters
The following table describes the required parameters for the Automated Keyword Cleanup tool. The required
parameters define the source of the keywords for the cleanup task. You must provide only one of the required
parameters. Use colon (:) or hyphen (-) to separate the parameter from its value.
Parameter Description Restriction
Account ID The ID of your account. You can specify one or more account Required
IDs, separated by a comma. The tool will use all the existing
keywords in the specified account(s) as a source list of
keywords for the cleanup task.
Input File A list of keywords in a CSV, TSV, or Microsoft Excel (2003) file. Required
You can attach the file to the email. See Input File for more
information.
Optional Parameters
The following table describes the optional parameters for the Automated Keyword Cleanup tool. You can specify
zero or more of the optional parameters. Use colon (:) or hyphen (-) to separate the parameter from its value.
Parameter Description Restriction
De-dupe Account One or more account IDs to de-dupe. You can specify multiple Optional
IDs account IDs, separated by a comma. Using this parameter, you
can request the cleanup tool to remove from the source
keywords any duplicate keywords found inside any of the
specified accounts.
Add Alt Text The alternate text that may serve in lieu of the keyword, in Optional
cases where one or more of the associated ads contain the
Insert Keyword feature. Valid values are yes and no.
If specified (yes), the system will add alternate text
suggestions to the output, if available. By default, the system
will not add (no) alternate text to the output even if it is
available.
Market The two-letter abbreviation for the market to use for this job. Optional
By default, the main market that was setup for you by your
Account Manager, if available, or "US" will be used.
Note: This is an advanced parameter for multi-nationals.
Please consult your Account Manager on how to use this.
For a possible list of markets, see Markets.
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Sending an Email
Parameter Description Restriction
Auto Group The (yes or no) setting to automatically group keywords Optional
Keywords together based on word frequency. If specified (yes), the
system will also override any ad group information that the
keywords already contained.
Negative The keywords or patterns that should not be included in the Optional
Keywords output. The system will ensure that the specified keywords are
excluded from the suggested list of keywords.
Input File
An input (bulk-sheet) file can be attached to an email request for Keyword Expander tool and/or the Keyword
Cleanup tool. The file can be a:
• Text file in either TSV (.tsv) or CSV (.csv) formats.
• Microsoft Excel 2003 file.
• Zip file containing TSV, CSV, or Excel file types.
The file must include:
• A header row to define the columns or be in the YSM bulk-sheet format.
• A ’keyword’ column, which can be named ’Keyword’ in any of the local languages supported by YSM.
Note. If the file contains only one column, it will be treated as the Keyword column. If the file contains
more than one column and if the keyword column could not be determined, an error email will be sent to
the user.
Email Format
When submitting your email request, ensure that the email includes the following:
expander@keywordservices.yahoo.com for Automated
Keyword Expander tool
The address to send the email to
cleanup@keywordservices.yahoo.com for Automated
Keyword Cleanup tool
Access Key from your "Welcome Email". Include this at the
bottom of your email request.
The Access Key Tip: Alternatively, set up your Access Key as a special email
signature so that you do not have to copy and paste the
Access Key each time you submit an email request to Yahoo!
Keyword Services.
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Sending an Email
You must only access Yahoo! Keyword Services using one of the email addresses that you gave to your Account
Manager when you signed up for access to the Keyword Services. If you need to change or add an email address for
access, please contact your Account Manager.
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Use Cases
Use Cases
This section contains the following use cases for both the expander and cleanup tools.
• Use Case #1: Get New Keywords for Existing Ad Group
• Use Case #2: Get New Keywords for New Ad Groups
• Use Case #3: Get New Keywords from a Domain Name
• Use Case #4: Find Duplicate Keywords in Existing Ad Groups
• Use Case #5: Find Duplicate Keywords in New Ad Groups
• Use Case #6: Generate New Keywords Across Multiple Accounts
• Use Case #7: Auto Group Keywords
Use Case #1: Get New Keywords for Existing Ad Group
You are an advertiser with an existingaccount, and to get suggestions for new keywords regularly for your existing
campaigns in one go, you can send an email to the expansion tool. The system will return the new keywords already
grouped in the ad group structure defined for yor account.
Description New keyword for ad groups in an existing account
Parameters Account ID (required) and Add Alt Text (optional)
Output YSM bulk-sheet with the new suggested keywords already grouped
within the ad group structure of your account
Tip The more keywords there are in the Account(s), the longer it will
take to get results back
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Use Cases
Figure 0.1 Email Example - Get New Keywords for Existing Ad Group
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Use Cases
Use Case #2: Get New Keywords for New Ad Groups
You are an advertiser with an existing account, and to get suggestions for new keywords for your new campaign(s),
you can send an email to the expansion tool. The system will return the list of new keywrods already grouped in the
format specified in the input file.
Description New keyword suggestions for ad groups in a bulk-sheet
Parameters Input File (required)
Output YSM bulk-sheet with the new suggested keywords already grouped
within the ad group structure you created in your bulk-sheet
Tip In order to get your Bulk-sheet back in the desired format, your
input Bulk-sheet must be in YSM Bulk-sheet format
Figure 0.2 Email Example - Get New Keywords for New Ad Groups
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Use Cases
Use Case #3: Get New Keywords from a Domain Name
You are an advertiser with an existing account, and to get suggestions for new keywords based on user queries that
match a domain, you can send an email to the expansion tool. The tool will return the list of queries that have led
to a click on the specified domain name.
Description New keywords based on a domain name
Parameters Domain Name (required)
Output YSM bulk-sheet with a list of all the search queries that have led to a
click on your submitted domain name
Tip You must only use the domain name that has been registered with
your Account Manager. You can only register a domain name that
you own or represent.
Figure 0.3 Email Example - Get New Keywords from a Domain Name
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Use Cases
Use Case #4: Find Duplicate Keywords in Existing Ad Groups
You are an agency representing multiple accounts, and to cleanup duplicate keywords in your existing campaigns,
you can send an email to the cleanup tool. The system will return two files (in bulk-sheet format): one containing
the duplicate keywords and one containing the non-duplicate keywords.
Description Find duplicate keywords in one or more Account IDs
Parameters Account ID (required)
Output Two YSM bulk-sheets: One containing duplicate keywords and one
containing non-duplicate keywords
Tip Do not attempt this for accounts with identical campaigns with
different (geo, match type, etc) settings
Figure 0.4 Email Example - Find Duplicate Keywords in Existing Ad Groups
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Use Cases
Use Case #5: Find Duplicate Keywords in New Ad Groups
You are an advertiser with an existing account, and to cleanup duplicate keywords in your new campaigns, you can
email to the cleanup tool and include the source keyword list (as the input file in, preferably, bulk-sheet format) with
the email. The system will return two files (in bulk-sheet format): one containing the duplicate keywords and one
containing the non-duplicate keywords.
Description Find duplicate keywords in a YSM bulk-sheet
Parameters Input File (required)
Output Two YSM Bulk-sheets: One containing duplicate keywords and one
containing non-duplicate keywords
Tip Do not attempt this for accounts with identical campaigns with
different (geo, match type, etc) settings
Figure 0.5 Email Example - Find Duplicate Keywords in New Ad Groups
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Use Cases
Use Case #6: Generate New Keywords Across Multiple Accounts
You are an agency representing multiple accounts, and to get new keywords for multiple accounts, send an email to
the expansion tool. The system will return the new keywords (in bulk-sheet format) for each account specified in
the (request) email.
Description Generate new keywords across multiple accounts
Parameters Account IDs (required)
Output YSM bulk-sheets containing new keywords for each account
Tip The more keywords there are in the Accounts, the longer it will take
to get the results back
Figure 0.6 Email Example - Get New Keywords Across Multiple Accounts
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Use Cases
Use Case #7: Auto Group Keywords
Suppose you want the system to automatically group keywords together based on word frequency and you do not
want the system to return a given list of keywords in the suggested list of keywords.
Expander Tool
The system will return the new keywords (in bulk-sheet format), automatically grouped together based on word
frequency, for each account specified in the (request) email.
Description Auto group the keywords in the suggested list of keywords
Parameters Account ID (required), Add Alt Text (optional), Auto Group
Keywords (optional), and Negative Keywords (optional)
Output YSM bulk-sheet with the suggested new keywords, excluding the
given negative keywords, automatically grouped together
Tip The more keywords there are in the Account(s), the longer it will
take to get results back
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Use Cases
Cleanup Tool
The system will return two files (in bulk-sheet format), one containing the duplicate keywords and one containing
the non-duplicate keywords, automatically grouped together based on word frequency.
Description Auto group the keywords in the returned list of keywords
Parameters Account ID (required), Auto Group Keywords (optional), and
Negative Keywords (optional)
Output Two YSM bulk-sheets, one containing duplicate keywords and one
containing non-duplicate keywords, excluding the given negative
keywords, automatically grouped together
Tip The more keywords there are in the Account(s), the longer it will
take to get results back
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Email Examples
Email Examples
This sections contains:
• Validation Email Examples
• Common Error Email Examples
Validation Email Examples
This section contains validation email examples for:
• Automated Keyword Expander Tool
• Automated Keyword Cleanup Tool
Automated Keyword Expander Tool
You will receive a validation email (similar to the one shown below) shortly after submitting the email request.
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Email Examples
You will receive an email (similar to the one shown below) containing the output bulk-sheet once the task if
complete.
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Email Examples
Automated Keyword Cleanup Tool
You will receive a validation email (similar to the one shown below) shortly after submitting the email request.
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Email Examples
You will receive an email (similar to the one shown below) containing the output bulk-sheet once the task is
complete.
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Email Examples
Common Error Email Examples
This sections contains some example error emails that will be sent out for the following reasons:
• Incorrect Access Key
• Incorrect/Missing Parameter Info
• Incorrect Parameter (Too Many Sources) Info
Incorrect Access Key
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Email Examples
Incorrect/Missing Parameter Info
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Email Examples
Incorrect Parameter (Too Many Sources) Info
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Markets
Markets
The following table list the possible market abbreviations and the markets they correspond to.
Market Abbreviation Market Name
us United States
uk United Kingdom
de Germany
fr France
jp Japan
kr Korea
it Italy
es Spain
ch Switzerland
at Austria
nl Netherlands
no Norway
dk Denmark
se Sweden
fi Finland
au Australia
br Brazil
hk Hong Kong
tw Taiwan
cn China
ca Canada
mx Mexico
ar Argentina
in India
sg Singapore
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