Yahoo’s Video Search Ads –Best of Both Worlds?

2009-03-05 20:00:30 (GMT) (JusticeNewsFlash.com - Marketing Law, Press Release)

New York, NY (JusticeNewsFlash.com) — Recently Yahoo announced the introduction of a new iteration of their pay-per-click advertising that includes video and images. As in the past, paid advertising appears in a light-blue box at the top of the page with the note “sponsor results.” Now in addition to the text and hyperlink it will be possible to include a clickable graphic or video alongside the listing with a screen shot that says “Play Video.”

Yahoo’s goal is to recapture market share for paid search from Google, whose percentage of the pie has doubled over the last four years. This new program offers some of the advantages of both typical search ads and banner ads by incorporating the placement of search ads and the higher appeal of the banner ads. Many marketers include both types of ads in their online media mix, but search offers a more quantifiable approach, especially important in a recession when every dollar counts.

While Yahoo is first out of the box to introduce video and images to search advertising, there are additional questions above and beyond what the impact on click-through rates will be and how this will improve Yahoo’s share. We are also curious as to what, if any, effect there will be on natural searches, once the product is offered beyond the pilot program.

In the past, natural search results have always out paced paid search, to a large extent because users knew that the sponsored results were paid for and questioned their relevance. With the inclusion of graphics and video that are more compelling than text and hyperlinks, it will be interesting to see whether the ads are sticky enough to overcome that knowledge and tempt users to click on the content. In the meantime SEO and natural searches still rule the day.

Web marketing is a rapidly changing environment so it is critical to work with law firm marketing specialists that adapt quickly and are able to provide the best array of tools to include in your legal marketing plan

Press Release Contact Information:

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
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Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126