Yahoo Rolls Out Site Retargeting, Renames Ad Network
Dynamic site retargeting, though young, has already achieved the status of low hanging fruit for online direct marketers. The practice lets ad buyers identify and serve customized ads to prospects who browsed products or offers on their websites but didn’t convert. Numerous travel, retail, and automotive marketers are scooping up as much retargeted inventory as they can through retargeting vendors, ad networks, and real-time-biddable exchanges.
Yet somehow Yahoo – an early innovator in search retargeting – has not fully embraced site retargeting on its network. That is, until now.
Yahoo said this morning it has officially rolled out integrated site retargeting, a move made possible by its acquisition of Dapper for an estimated $55 million. Yahoo calls the offering “personalized retargeting,” in reference to the customized ad creative made possible through such media buys.
Yahoo previously offered a similar solution, called enhanced retargeting. However, according to Dave Zinman, VP and GM, Yahoo! display advertising, it wasn’t fully integrated on its network. It was only by bringing Dapper’s product in-house that it was able to replicate what’s available through dynamic retargeting vendors like Tumri, Criteo, mediaForge, and Google-owned Teracent.
Yahoo’s retargeted ads are billed on a cost per click and cost per action basis.
Separately, the company has given its ad network a new name. Previously known generically as Yahoo Ad Network – or even Yahoo ad network – it has been redubbed Yahoo Network Plus. Zinman suggested the goal is to point out the extent of off-site inventory Yahoo has access to. He admitted the company has failed to promote the reach and scale of that network offering in the three years since it acquired ad network BlueLithium and became a top ad network purveyor.
Zinman claims Yahoo’s access to valuable real-time bidded inventory exceeds what’s now available through ad exchanges. “When we acquired Dapper, we acquired its real-time bidding capability. We know the volumes you can get through other sources,” he said.
The name change was made necessary by the fact that the company hasn’t adequately promoted its off-site media products, leading many in the ad world to associate Yahoo more with its owned and operated media. “We haven’t been very aggressive about going to market and making clear the successes we’ve had as a network,” Zinman said.