Don’t fret if you can’t add video, photos, or custom search to your pay per click ads. Not many other people can either. But Yahoo! is testing the addition of these elements in its pay per click offerings and currently the ads – called Rich Ads For Search – are available by invitation only. If you didn’t get an invitation, don’t worry. The plan is to roll it out publicly as soon as more information is gathered from the testers.
But this is a great innovation. It’s been talked about before and Google has tried it but I don’t think Google has seen the success that Yahoo! is reporting. Yahoo! says some advertisers are seeing a 25% increase in CTR. That’s pretty significant if it’s true.
Rich Ads sounds great. I hope it succeeds. It might actually add a level of competition between Yahoo! and Google if Yahoo! can prove that it has an advantage in a certain area. It could also increase bid prices on some of Yahoo!s advertising verticals, allowing publishers to make more money. If that happens then Yahoo! could give Google a run for its money on certain advertising products. And I think I can safely say we’d all like to see that happen.
This is really cool. Finally we are going to see a competition between search engines. Tf there is a healthy competition, then only the search industry grows. Yah come on Yahoo! come on….