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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
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    213

    Overture Search Marketing php sample script

    Overture has a facility to download reports on how well keywords are doing, etc. Overture/Yahoo must have the most convoluted API I've ever seen and they don't have any sample php code for retrieving a report on their web site.

    I've tried everything I can think of to make this work and just haven't succeeded.

    Does anyone have some sample php code to make the Overture/Yahoo search marketing API work? I've already posted this on Yahoo's forum and gotten no response. Any help would be appreciated.
    Last edited by mitchlrm; 05-21-2007 at 08:31 PM.
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    New York, NY
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    25
    I have worked with both Google AdWords and Yahoo/Overture reporting. Both companies' APIs are large and well documented. I have also worked with other companies APIs, and there seems to be a commonality. Often I have wanted a single piece of data but it required reading lots of documentation. I am afraid there is no way around this. If you know exactly what you want to query then you might be able to just query that data.

    Usually it just requires formatting an XML string with the exact data, encoding that to a long URL, and then CURLing the information back into your PHP script.

    I have a client for whom I wrote a parsing script from overture. The easiest way might be to simple login to the website, generate the report (daily, weekly, monthly), and then write a custom script to parse the results into a database or direct output.

    I could help you if you would like (for a nominal fee, of course :-) )

    Cheers

    Sheraz

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
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    213
    Sheraz,
    When did you do the Overture reporting? I've done it in the past but there's a completely new protocol since the 1st of this year. The process is much more complicated than simply putting in a request and getting a report in XML format back.

    Mitch
    Sizzling Web Design - Creator of EasyEstimates: Let your customers create complex estimates and orders on your web site.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    25
    I last made changes to those scripts for a client about two months ago. If I remember correctly, Overture now resembles Adwords in terms of naming and reporting.

    The client whom I wrote about opted to skip the API and simply manually generate reports every morning. They login via web, generate the report, download the csv, and then pump it into a PHP script. From there it goes into a Postgresql databse and is aggregated with all previous click data.

    They manage over 50000 keywords across 20 domains and effectively measure impressions, clicks, costs, and ROI when sales are complies in. I can go into more detail with this strategy if you like, but this is a quick and (in my experience), effective way to get up and running on reports quickly.

    EPCMEDIA

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    213
    I understand that strategy but my client is looking for an automated approach using the API. I have a similar process working for Adwords but as I said before Yahoo/Overture just seems to have gone out of their way to make this hard to do.
    Sizzling Web Design - Creator of EasyEstimates: Let your customers create complex estimates and orders on your web site.
    Video Gallery Pro - Show your videos like a pro

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