Does tapping the Yellow bird sooner have a greater impact on the structure?

It doesn't matter, as far as I know. There's two things to keep in mind with yellow birds:

  1. They are only effective against certain materials. They will rip through wood but seem to be particularly weak against ice.
  2. When you choose to click on the bird after launching it determines what kind of trajectory the bird will have; apart from going backwards, you can make a yellow bird strike a target at pretty much any angle.