Yahoo introduces three new ad products

With ad revenues hit by the slowdown, Yahoo hoppes to boost its sagging revenues  with the launch of three new 'targeting' products for brand and performance marketers to help them reach the audiences that matter most when advertising online.

The Sunnyvale-based company made the announcement during the company's keynote presentation at the annual conference of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The new products include:

• Search Retargeting, which gives advertisers the ability to target display advertising based on user search activities,
• Enhanced Retargeting, which allows advertisers to deliver dynamically generated display ads across the Yahoo network based on user activity on an advertiser's site, and
• Enhanced Targeting capabilities for search advertising, including ad scheduling and demographic targeting within search.

"As the economy continues to put pressure on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for increased accountability for every dollar they spend. Yahoo's new targeting products significantly improve the ability for search and display advertisers to reach their target audience, providing increased efficiency and accountability," said Michael Walrath, senior vice president, Advertising Marketplaces Group.

Search Retargeting for display advertising
Yahoo's Search Retargeting is a customised display targeting solution that lets advertisers capture user interest from search terms and retarget the user with display ads throughout the Yahoo network. For example, if a user searches for the keyword "sandals," indicating strong purchase intent, an advertiser can target that user with a tailored display ad for footwear.

Enhanced Retargeting for display advertising
Yahoo is also introducing Enhanced Retargeting, which combines standard site retargeting with dynamic ad generation. For example, users who visit an airline website to check offers for flights from SFO-JFK can be served a personalized offer for that specific flight when they visit a page within the Yahoo network.

The company said that in a recent trial, a market-leading online travel company saw a 230 per cent increase in total bookings and a 651 per cent increase in click-through rate when comparing Enhanced Retargeting to their traditional retargeting campaign.

Enhanced Targeting capabilities for Search Advertising
Recognising the need for more focused audience segmentation and improved control, Yahoo Search Marketing will offer advertisers Enhanced Targeting capabilities for Sponsored Search and Content Match programs, which is expected to start in March.

New features are designed to extend the advertiser's control over where and when an ad is shown at both the campaign and ad group level, including what time of day and day of the week an advertiser would like campaigns to run (ad scheduling) and what age and gender they'd like to reach (demographic).

Advertisers will be able to vary their bids for different segments in order to increase their ability to reach the desired audience.

The online advertising market may change since Yahoo has a considerable base of display advertisers, although Google holds the biggest search market share by far, but Yahoo also has approximately 20 per cent share and could boost its revenue if advertisers like branded search ads.

Google has not tinkered with display ads in its search results and although it acquired Doubleclick in 2008, Yahoo still is the leader in display ad technology.