Yahoo Looks To Improve Targeted Advertising with AdLabs Crack Team

In a bid to improve the effectiveness and ROI of its online advertising, Yahoo! has brought together a crack team of experts working under the name Yahoo! AdLabs.

Despite making up a relatively small part of the overall Yahoo! Labs infrastructure, AdLabs is not to be under estimated in its importance as advertisers look more and more to squeezing every last drop of return out of their budgets.

Yahoo! AdLabs is thought to combine in depth market research with data mining as well as observing the advert interactions of some 3million Yahoo users.

Speaking to Web Pro News, a Yahoo! Spokesperson said:

“The AdLabs team will mine Yahoo!'s vast data repository of campaigns and associated metrics to inform both thought leadership and product innovation.The team will also work directly with key advertising and data partners in a prospective way to test of the insights uncovered.

“Yahoo! Labs has been instrumental in developing Yahoo!'s advertising products, laying a foundation of scientific research and innovative data analysis, supporting everything from the world's most advanced display advertising marketplace to the world's most effective ad targeting capabilities.”

“Hyperlocal” advertising – adverts for shops, businesses and companies no more than two miles away from the user – were shown to have particular success; another indicator that localised search will become even more influential in 2011.

Studies have shown that hyperlocal ads boast a five-fold return on advertising spend prompting Yahoo! to look into rolling the service out to bigger companies in finance and automotives.

Since Yahoo! began using Bing for its search results, Yahoo's display ads sector has enjoyed renewed focus with a revenue rise of fourteen percent last quarter alone.

While Google retains the top spot in terms of search-lead marketing, Yahoo!'s developments into personalised display advertising could be just the tonic to turn around the otherwise financially unfortunate past few years experienced by the web giant.