Yahoo! may be the second largest search engine, but it lags far behind search behemoth Google. Google has remained extremely profitable by combining regular searches with its paid search marketing or pay-per-click service, AdWords. Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) was born out of Yahoo acquisition of Overture Services, Inc. and was launched to compete directly with AdWords. Consequently, YSM has undergone a series of changes that has seen it metamorphose into a service that somewhat resembles its main competitor. These new features, whether reflections of AdWords or not, are all positive steps taken by the developers at Yahoo that increase functionality for search advertisers.

Three of the new features rolled out are ad targeting refinements, aimed at helping advertisers reach their target audience more efficiently.

• Search Retargeting: This feature will allow advertisers to target display advertising based on user search activities. Using keywords from the search query, YSM will serve relevant display ads to help advertisers achieve an effective cost per lead. Search retargeting is a cheaper and more efficient option for PPC advertising when compared to regular display retargeting.



• Enhanced Retargeting: When ads are to be delivered across Yahoo!'s network, this feature dynamically generates display ads based on user activity. Advertisers can combine Yahoo's standard behavioural ad tools with data gleaned off advertiser sites for highly-customised ad retargeting. Of course, a number of factors will determine the retargeting and this includes ad creative, selected keywords and target audience among other things.



• Demographic and ZIP level Geo Targeting: Yahoo! remains the largest domain on the Web and demographic targeting enables pay-per-click advertisers to tap into their vast customer base using user information such as age and sex. Refining the audience can make the ad serving more precise and economical. Yahoo! has also incorporated geographic targeting that is controlled with ZIP codes. This nifty feature is akin to local search on Google, and advertisers can select an individual ZIP code or ZIP codes surrounding an area with the new dynamic mapping feature.

Yahoo! has also introduced a day parting or ad scheduling feature for both Sponsored Searches and Content Match. If you feel a certain time of day and day(s) of the week maximises your ad profitability, Yahoo! will now allow you to schedule your campaign accordingly. You can readjust bids for certain timeslots if you feel conversions are linked accordingly.

These features are sure to result in a higher return-on-investment since each focus on improved ad targeting. Yahoo! has taken a positive direction with the enhancements although most PPC advertisers feel they were long overdue.