Every day the major search engines keep trying to push the envelope on ways to enhance the performance of your search ads, coming up with information that you could display to engage users.  It’s for this reason that Yahoo and Bing are re-introducing a new and better Rich Ads In Search (RAIS).

RAIS will incorporate richer elements into your search ads, attracting more users and hopefully increasing your click through rate. Such elements will include extra links to different pages on your site, forms, images, and even videos.

With these kinds of elements being displayed within the real state of your ads, there is no doubt that you will be displaying more relevant information, as well as a better user experience. Also, you will be able and engage your target audience right from the search environment.

Below, you can see how RAIS was served for a user who was searching for a poker site. Now he/she has the option to click on the ad or watch a video provided by the advertiser without leaving the search results.

At the moment RAIS is still on a beta stage. Also it is only available for branding campaigns and is displayed just on ads on position #1.

Three years ago Apple released the first iPhone, and mobile advertising will never be the same.  The Apple orchard has continued to grow its’ market share of the smart phone niche and now owns roughly, 28% according to Nielsen survey.

Last week the Apple iPhone 4 went on sale with analysts projecting 1 million to 1.5 million units would be sold in the first three days, compared with 1 million during last years launch of the 3GS.  The Apple faithful that were upgrading their device represented 77% of the iPhone 4 sales.

Advertisers are aware of this growth, are anxious to tap into these markets and get their content into these smartphones.  Just one problem – Apple’s strict control of the applications (apps); these apps will be the vehicle for advertisers to reach this valuable market of tech-savy leading-edge gadget buying consumers.

Apple has truly gotten everyone’s attention, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which will investigate whether Apple Inc.’s practices are harming their competition.  Wow, in just three short years, Apple has enraged the folks at Adobe over its choice to ban Flash video technology in favor of the HTML5 standard.  Google has also complained about being shutout of the market place for presenting ads inside the iPhone, due to restrictions placed on the developers of the highly prized apps running on their devices.  AdMob’s founder and now Google vice president Omar Hamoui said in a blog post, “if enforced as written, would prohibit app developers from using AdMob and Google’s advertising solutions on the iPhone.”  He added Apple’s rules “hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their choice of how best to make money.”   These conflicts reinforce the fact that mobile advertising represents a huge potential market worth fighting for.

How this will all play out remains to be seen, but one thing we can agree upon is that it is worth monitoring.  Keep your eye on the news out of the MicroSoft camp and their recently released mobile operating system.  How will Yahoo place it’s content on these smartphones?  Does Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz have a plan of attack via a deal with Nokia to provide email and chat services?  I’m sure the next three years will bring more excitement and opportunities for savy internet marketing professionals, and the entrepreneurs mining these channels.

Online advertisers are forever searching to get ‘a leg up’ on the competition.  While interesting and captivating ad copy is a way to get searcher attention; there now is another way. 

Recently, Yahoo has released a new function which allows an advertiser’s favicon to appear next to display URLs within the branded ads.  Typically, a favicon is an icon or brand logo that appears within the web browser.  Having a favicon appear within the branded ad not only draws attention, but best of all, it’s completely free.  Unfortunately, as of now, favicons are only available to appear on branded ads and keywords.

In order to have your favicon displayed within your branded ads a 16X16 pixel image and simple coding needs to be placed on the backend of your homepage.  Even amidst the new partnership with MSN; this new element is only available through the Yahoo Search Marketing platform.  Leave a last impression on searchers and establish brand credibility by participating in this program.  Since this feature is new you may want to reach out to your Yahoo representative to ensure proper implementation of this element within your Yahoo Search Marketing campaign.