Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

You may have noticed lately that more ads are mentioning “Go to Yahoo and search for…”. It’s an interesting tactic to say the least. Let’s examine it quickly. In the past, marketers have told users “Call 1-800…” or “Visit www.mywebsite.com to learn more”. Instead of directing them to a channel they fully control, they are instead handing the users over to search engines to handle the marketing message. A bit risky if you ask me. There are so many variables you don’t have control over, but the one benefit is that it plugs itself into users “normal” behavior. “Normal” in the fact that if someone already uses Yahoo for their day-to-day searches, it’s an easy way to cognitively piggy back on their behavior and remind them “Hey, I’m already at Yahoo, why not search for XYZ“. Clever indeed. However, what if I don’t already use Yahoo? Research has shown that searchers are loyal. If I’m a “Googler” and never use Yahoo, there is a direct disconnect and I never fulfill the desired action. Or, as has been the case in the past, a competitor jumps on a competing search engine (i.e. Google) and purchases the same keywords to catch anyone who assumes you are running the same campaign on multiple engines.

So how did this come about?

Well, Yahoo recently launched a new ad unit entitled Partner Results. Partner Results allows an advertiser to lock in specific ad space above Yahoo search results, usually for branded keywords, with additional links, video, and/or images.
Here are a few examples (these worked as of 06/03/08):

• Kellogg’s Special K
• Honda (this page only has an image of that campaign)
• Butterfinger

Yahoo has created a niche ad unit, which Google and MSN cannot match at this time, due to their open market platforms whereby anyone can bid on anything, with some exceptions. It’s a particularly interesting offering, however, with Google dominating the search markets, I hope that marketers aren’t putting all their eggs in Yahoo’s limited market share basket.

Anyone out there tried this ad unit yet? Have any reliable performance metrics? Let me know if the comments.