Yahoo Search Marketing Enhances Its Targeting Features

Ryan Faria - March 16, 2009

Many search engine marketing professionals, have viewed Yahoo as a secondary search engine to Google; with fewer audience targeting options and no dayparting available, it has not been easy to synchronize online advertising efforts as with Google campaigns.  However, this may change very soon.  Later this week, Yahoo will unveil its enhanced targeting features for their Search Marketing program. 

Yahoo’s new enhanced options will finally allow advertisers to schedule their ads with day parting.  There will also be an option to select multiple states, cities, DMAs, zip-codes, and mix and match for each campaign.  The option to combine zip codes with specific states, cities or DMAs is not available on Google, or any other search engine for that matter.

Yahoo goes one step further with its targeting functions by allowing advertisers to target audiences demographically on a search campaign.  Audiences can be targeted by gender or age.  While Google also has a demographic targeting option, it is only available for content campaigns; Yahoo’s option allows for demographic targeting for both search, as well as content campaigns. 

These new Yahoo features only allow for advertisers to reach a more specific audience.  According to Michael Walrath, Senior Vice President, Advertising Marketplaces Group at Yahoo, ‘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.’

This is a new era for Yahoo Search Marketing; the enhanced functions and features are only the beginning.  It’s not clear whether Yahoo will become the next Google, but one thing is for sure, they are moving in the right direction.