Yahoo! Announces A Behavior-Based Advertising Model Called SmartAds

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 2, 2007

Last week, Yahoo! shuffled around a few positions and merged the search and display sales team. SmartAds may be one of the biggest outcomes of the teams merging. SmartAds is a new behavior-based type of advertising model.

“Yahoo’s SmartAds gives marketers what they have long wanted from online advertising: the ability to deliver more personalized marketing messages to consumers, and still engage very large audiences with their brand,” stated Todd Teresi, senior VP of display marketplaces at Yahoo!

The idea behind SmartAds is to take consumer behavior and tailor advertisements specific to their search patterns. An example that NYT gives is that if someone recently searched for a blender, they might see an advertisement from Target that gives the price of blenders on the shelves in their stores.

As of right now, local newspapers, Yahoo! itself, and two major airlines are testing out the software. By fall of this year, certain automotive companies will be testing out. And there is a deal pending with Right Media, a Yahoo! subsidiary advertising company, that will allow their customers to use SmartAds for free.

“This fills a need that some advertisers have needed for a while — applying personalization to display ads, so they work like search and listing ads,” stated David W. Kenny, chairman and CEO of Digitas, a major digital advertising agency. “Yahoo has a real advantage in SmartAds because of the data from their big and engaged audience, the combination of deep display and improving search capabilities, and the new changes to work with us at the technology level instead of just selling inventory.”