Yahoo Offers Advertisers Tools To Target Audiences

In today's struggling economy, every dollar counts, particularly in the volatile field of online advertising. Like most of the major search engines, Yahoo has seen its advertising revenues decline, putting additional pressure on a company already rocked by leadership changes and a falling market share.

In an effort to help companies get more value for their online advertising dollars, Yahoo announced Tuesday that it is offering three new targeting tools: Search Retargeting, Enhanced Retargeting, and Enhanced Targeting.

"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 of Yahoo's Advertising Marketplaces Group.

Focusing on Search Behavior

The Enhanced Targeting tool is the most straightforward. Scheduled to start next month, the program will enable advertisers to choose the date, time and audience for their ad campaigns with much finer precision. According to Yahoo, "Advertisers will be able to vary their bids for different segments in order to increase their ability to reach the desired audience."

Yahoo's other tools function by taking a much closer look at what people are doing online, both within the Yahoo network and beyond. For instance, Search Retargeting is designed to target consumer activity within Yahoo's own network. If an individual searches for a specific product using Yahoo's search engine, Yahoo will serve up display ads relevant to the search term. The ad program is similar to Google's Adwords, although that program is currently limited to text ads.

Enhanced Retargeting goes further by offering advertisers the opportunity to link activity on their Web sites with ads in the Yahoo network. In the example offered by Yahoo, a user who searched for a specific...