The JKB Marketing Blog

At a Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Yahoo discussed some of the details about its fourth quarter change to its ad serving platform.

They will be switching to a system that more closely resembles Google's AdWords set-up than their previous system. By the first quarter of 2007, Yahoo will begin using a ranking system based on a combination of bid price and click rate.

Other new features:
Keyword assists - The keyword entered before a click will be tracked and accessible. So if a person searched for "mp3 players" before clicking on your ad for "ipod" you'll get to see that information.

Geo-targeting - Pulldown menus and a new display map will make it easier to set geographic boundaries or customization to your campaigns.

Keyword Suggestions - Yahoo can crawl your pages and offer suggestions to terms you should bid on.

In addition to the above changes, the new search platform will show expected number of clicks by keyword and bid price instead of your competitors bids. It will also offer new budget capabilities, problem alerts and A/B testing.

All in all, it appears that they are moving much closer to the Google model with a few new features of their own.