Over at the Yahoo! Advertising Blog, Yahoo!’s Rich Ads in Search has scored a win with Electronic Arts Inc. (EA)’s buzzy new release, “Battlefield: Bad Company 2.” The search marketing campaign with images and videos  resulted in an overall click-through rate of nearly 19 percent for branded terms, over five times of its traditional search counterpart. A statistically significant number of consumers chose to watch the trailer, download images, or engage with the website.

The post at the Yahoo! Advertising Blog explains more about Yahoo!’s Rich Ads in Search, the challenges it faced in this case, and the solution that helped EA gain an even bigger audience for the game.

We’ve started testing organic (also referred to as algorithmic) and paid search listings from Microsoft for up to 25 percent of Yahoo! Search traffic in the U.S.  The primary change for these tests is that the listings are coming from Microsoft. However, the overall page should look the same as the Yahoo! Search you’re used to – with rich content and unique tools and features from Yahoo!. If you happen to fall into our tests, you might also notice some differences in how we’re displaying select search results due to a variety of product configurations we are testing.

In this screenshot of our tests, the boxed areas of the search results page are coming from Microsoft’s platform, while the rest of the page is still powered by Yahoo! – as we described when our search alliance received clearance earlier this year.

In the coming months, we will also be integrating Microsoft’s mobile organic and paid search listings, so Yahoo! Mobile search fans in the U.S. and Canada will also eventually see Microsoft organic and paid search listings on their phones. And, as with all Yahoo! Search experiences, Yahoo! will continue to innovate and enhance the overall consumer experience around those core listings.

Pending the results of our current testing, we anticipate that our U.S. and Canada organic search listings in both desktop and mobile experiences will be fully powered by the Microsoft platform beginning in the August/September timeframe, and paid search in October.

For more details on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, check out the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog.

Kartik Ramakrishnan

Vice President, Yahoo! Search Product Operations

Every day thousands of developers drive Yahoo! Search BOSS traffic, serving millions of queries a day. Many of these developers have requested the ability to access Yahoo! Sponsored Search ads to monetize their BOSS innovations. Starting today, in partnership with Domain Development Corp (DDC), our first approved Yahoo! Search BOSS syndication partner, developers can get global access to Yahoo! Sponsored Search results and benefit from revenue generated by their BOSS-powered products.

We invite you to apply to qualify for this program to have Yahoo! Sponsored Search ads appear on your sites. You will need to provide details about your product, including information about your traffic sources, UI framework, and implementation.  Once your product is approved, you will have access to and support for Yahoo! Sponsored Search ads, and you will earn a revenue share.  You can apply at our partner’s site: www.ddc.com.

Please note that in signing up for this Sponsored Search ad program, you will be entering into a contract with a third party, not Yahoo!, and the third party will be providing support and sending you your earnings.  Other Yahoo! Search BOSS Ad partners may be online in the future, so stay tuned for updates.

By now most of you are aware of the Yahoo!-Microsoft search deal, which is still undergoing regulatory review.  While no decisions about BOSS have been made at this point, we will let you know as soon as we figure out the details. These key services will continue to operate for a period of time after we complete migrating our services and technology.

We are proud of the rich community of developers and entrepreneurs who share our enthusiasm for opening search and who continue to amaze us with innovative BOSS implementations. Thank you for your support.

Ashim Chhabra

The Yahoo! Search BOSS Team

Ahoy, Yahoo! Search Blog readers!

An update from the search marketing side of the house. Today, the newYahoo! Sponsored Search advertising platform, which has carried the code name “Panama,” is available to all U.S. marketers who open new accounts with us.

To apply, go to Yahoo! Sponsored Search.

Sponsored search has long been one of the most effective ways to advertise online. But in case you’re not sure what it is, what we’re talking about a form of search engine marketing that lets you create ads that run alongside search results on Yahoo!, and on other sites in the Yahoo! distribution network. Like so:

In other words, Yahoo! Sponsored Search helps you get your site, your business and your products noticed by consumers who are looking for them.

For the full story, go to the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog.

Michael Mattis
Blog Editor, Yahoo!

As you may remember, back in October, Yahoo! Search Marketing eliminated the minimum spending requirement for US advertisers’ sponsored search campaigns. Now we’ve taken one more step to making advertising with Yahoo! easier and more convenient – we lowered the minimum deposit from $30 to $5 for US advertisers.

That means now is a great time to get started with Yahoo! Sponsored Search and join a growing network of more than 100,000 advertisers. You can start with a deposit of as little as $5 and use it to pay for the click-through charges for your campaigns. After your initial deposit, you spend as much or as little as you like each month based on the keywords you select and how much you bid for each one. Through Yahoo! Search Marketing, advertisers can reach over 80% of users online for as little as 10 cents per click. And of course, with Yahoo! an advertiser pays only when a user clicks.

That’s it for now – please leave us a comment if you’d like further information or have any feedback for us.

Thanks!

John Slade
Sr. Director, Global Product Management, Yahoo! Search Marketing

If you ever thought about initiating a sponsored search campaign with Yahoo!
Search Marketing, but were somewhat hesitant to start one because of required minimum spends, worry no more.

We’ve eliminated the $20 monthly minimum spending requirement for Sponsored Search. Previously, all Sponsored Search advertisers were required to spend at least $20 a month in click-through charges. Now, whether you are considering becoming an advertiser or are currently an advertiser, you can choose to spend as much or as little as you like, with no minimum to meet.

We appreciate your business and hope this change makes advertising with us even easier. As always, we value your feedback, so if you have any questions please contact us using the support request form within your account.

John Slade
Sr. Director, Global Product Management, Yahoo! Search Marketing