How Yahoo is offering 'contextually relevant ads' for publishers

Yahoo last week announced it had joined with Media.net to offer a new programme which enables publishers "to create and customise ad units that display relevant text ads from across the Yahoo Bing network".

In a release, the companies outline that the programme "is designed to work for websites that have premium content, where placing contextually relevant ads could result in high user-engagement rates".

Currently, it is available to publisher sites which see the majority of their traffic coming in from the UK, US or Canada.

According to a report by the Drum the programme is "like Google's AdSense", in the way that "Yahoo will place text ads on small sites across the web, usually tied in with text found on a particular web page".

The Drum adds that this follows the closure of Yahoo's "earlier text-based Publisher Network, also seen as Yahoo's answer to AdSense".

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk on Friday, 24 hours after launch, founder and chief executive of Media.net Divyank Turakhia said "several" UK publishers had already signed up.

"We've already received tremendous amount of interest in the programme," he said.

He explained that the automated system scans content on publisher websites, and then displays "contextually relevant" adverts "based on the content of that page", or the general content featured on the website if that is likely to prompt higher engagement from the user.

Using an example, he said a user searching for information about buying cars, who then clicks on and reads an article about buying an SUV (sport utility vehicle) in particular, would therefore be presented with adverts focused on purchasing SUVs, instead of the general cars search originally made, based on the additional context found within the publisher's content.

When asked about the revenue share for publishers, he said they will receive the majority but that "it's not the same for all sites".

"No matter how small or big the site, the revenue share is going to be dependent primarily on the quality of the users that come to those sites.

"So if you've got a good quality site, whether you're a small site or you're a large site, you'll get even more of a revenue share. But at the very minimum you're going to get the majority of it."

The programme gives the publisher a choice of a range of advert styles and there is also the option to get Media.net to "custom create something specifically for their website".



Turakhia added that the revenue is "primarily PPC [pay-per-click]".

"So the advertiser doesn't pay for display of the ad, the advertiser pays after someone's engaged with the ad unit."

Publishers will be paid monthly, although there is a minimum payout amount. Turakhia said this is "extremely tiny".

"I think it's a great opportunity for publishers in the UK to increase the overall revenue that they are making," he added.

"It works out for both publishers and advertisers because publishers can make more money and advertisers are always looking at figuring out how to get more high quality reach, so it allows advertisers to basically get more users. So it's a win-win for everyone."

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).