Comparison of Advertising Models Online

Comparison of Advertising Models Online

Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) is actually a suite of several online marketing tools, including sponsored search, local advertising, and the Yahoo! Directory submittal. However, when people talk about YSM they're generally referring to the sponsored search - that is, the pay-per-click service. Currently it is the #2 service in the U.S. The service has a respectably large reach, including all the Yahoo! properties as well as many Meta search engines, smaller search sites, and content sites such as ESPN (see partial partners list. Advertisers can choose to be displayed on additional sites through the “Content Match” option (Cho & Lee, 2010).

YSM ad campaigns are generally considered easier to set up than Google AdWords campaigns, but lack some of the geekier (and fun!) features, like comparing performance for multiple ads and dynamic keyword insertion. There is also an editorial review period for new listings that can take a couple of business days. Conversion tracking is included.

Rumor has it that YSM will slowly but surely become more like Google AdWords in the year 2006. Changes may include: speeding up their campaign setup, implementing geotargeting and possibly other Google-like features, and changing the PPC ranking algorithm so that it takes more factors into account, rather than just the dollar amount of the advertiser bid. 

YSM's Sponsored Search

YSM's Keyword Selector Tool

YSM's Listing Guidelines

YSM's Advertiser Workbook (PDF)

All about the 2007 Panama upgrade from Yahoo!

Google AdWords [Google Link] is a PPC service with a fabulous, ready-made venue for advertisement display: Google's own wildly popular search engine. In addition, Google offers advertisers the option of displaying ads on thousands of affiliate sites linked through the AdSense program and matched algorithmically with the ad content (Cho & Lee, 2010). AdWords offers many helpful features for advertisers, including: quick campaign setup, the ability to rotate multiple ads for the same group ...