Sunnyvale, California — Struggling internet pioneer Yahoo Inc., wrestling to reclaim its market position from Google’s claw, on Thursday announced the introduction of a new online search advertising system with rich media capabilities, adding videos and images to advertising that previously consisted solely of uninspired text in its paid-for listings.
Last December, Yahoo introduced Rich Ads In Search program among a selected group of advertisers, which according the a Yahoo! blog post, click-through rates rose “as much as” 25 percent.
The Rich Ads In Search program, geared up to go live in the U.S. on Monday, will now enable
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advertisers to include images, video, and advertiser site search functions directly within search ads. Neither Google nor Microsoft, Yahoo’s major search competitors, currently offer this functionality.
Yahoo said it has carried out the test with brand advertisers such as Pedigree, Pepsi, and Ensurance, and agencies including Razorfish. The California Internet pioneer on Thursday expanded Rich Ads to an invitation-only service and said it plans to eventually open it to all advertisers.
“Ever since we initiated pay-per-click advertising, the ads have looked more or less the same: A headline, a line of ad copy, a link. They have not changed, frankly because the combination works pretty well. But what if search ads could show more?” a Yahooligan asks from the official Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog.
“With Yahoo!’s new Rich Ads In Search, they can. Yahoo! has been testing a new service that lets advertisers add video, images and custom search boxes to their search ads. The results are ads that can combine the relevance of search with the impact of rich media.”
The company’s Rich Ads in Search will show images next to the blue text ad links in search results. Users can click on some of the images to watch video commercials. The platform also allows advertisers to present static images, such as logos, and search boxes within the ads.
The move brings forth Yahoo’s capabilities in display and banner ads with search, an area where the company has lagged behind Google. comScore reported this week that Google claimed 63% of U.S. searches in January, while Yahoo captured 21% and Microsoft pulled 8.5%.
Oliver Rapson, director of paid search at Steak, considers the initiative will be well received by advertisers. “There is huge potential for brands with a strong visual identity to take advantage of this,” he said in a statement. “Videos of celebrity endorsers, location-specific or seasonal adverts, or even viral campaigns could be reused here, for example.”
An Esurance listing, for instance, allows users to click to expand the ad to view a video of one of the auto insurance firm’s signature animated TV spots.
Nevertheless, Rapson remains doubtful on the ads’ ability to drive conversions, he suggests the format may have specific appeal to brand advertisers. “Whether it improves consumers’ propensity to convert is debatable — either way it reinforces the written creative and adds entertainment to the message thus providing a healthy branding side effect,” he noted.
Energizing the ads with video and images promises to make them more enticing investments and, hopefully, improve Yahoo!’s revenues.
Through this new program, businesses can not only inject their ads with video and images, but also slip in their very own search boxes, allowing web surfers to “search for their desired product or a store location directly without additional navigation.” One tester, Esurance, urges users to input their zip code directly into the ad in exchange for an insurance quote.
Continuous economic turmoil around the world has caused a drop in the type of text-based display advertising that are mainstays at Yahoo! and other websites. And as advertising budgets are trimmed, search ads are expected to provide a more stable revenue stream than other forms of advertising.
Marketers will be charged a monthly fee for the service, as opposed to the auction system used for search ads, and the system is currently only available to large advertisers and brands.
Karin Blake, senior search manager at ad agency Razorfish, tested the programme for some clients, and said clickthrough rates improved by between 5% and 10%, but argued there was currently no similar service “in the paid search landscape”.
Yahoo! has been werestling to improve its fortunes in an Internet search advertising market ruled by Google.
Yahoo!’s share of the US online search market has been creeping up in recent months, reaching 21 percent in January, according to figures released this week by industry-tracker comScore.
And now they are introducing a new play for ad dollars. Last month, when CEO Carol Bartz claimed that search was “a very valuable part” of the new Yahoo!, she may have meant it. Microhoo is looking less likely by the day.