Yahoo! has partnered with AdReady (lucky day for them) to offer a DIY display ads product aimed at SMBs. From the Yahoo! release:
Advertisers of all sizes are able to take advantage of powerful geographic, channel and demographic targeting capabilities to reach local audiences that are most relevant to them through Yahoo!’s My Display Ads. By using a web-based, self-serve interface, advertisers can create and customize campaigns using more than 800 display templates. Additionally, advertisers can elect CPM or CPC-based pricing, catering to both branding and performance marketing goals. The new solution also helps advertisers track and manage campaign performance goals with daily reporting on key metrics, helping them optimize campaigns on the fly.
Yahoo! My Display Ads is an extension of a limited program Yahoo! and AdReady offered to a number of managed Yahoo! Small Business customers last year. Through this program, advertisers – such as Klaussnerhome, a local furniture store based in Greensboro, North Carolina – have tested the offering, experiencing positive results. Klaussnerhome, which previously relied heavily on traditional advertising mediums recently tested Yahoo! My Display Ads to promote its annual Memorial Day sale in Greensboro and the surrounding area.
Partly because they’re cheap these days and partly as another source of leads, lots of folks are trying to get SMBs to try display advertising: ReachLocal, MySpace, NYTimes (w/AdReady) and others.
It’s still a tough sell to SMBs (despite the vanity angle), although Yahoo! may have a better time of it because of its visibility/reach and SMB relationships (hosting). Google also offers a self-serve display ads builder.
Screenwerk 
June 22, 2009 at 4:15 pm
There is also a company iPromote, that makes it even easier to create a display ad, essentially taking a “snapshot” of your website. It will be very interesting to see who are the players that capture the SMB advertiser. The Googles and Yahoo’s have the reach, but SMB’s are slow to notice the capabilities. They key is how do you get the “attention” of the SMB owner?
June 22, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Potential problem with iPromote is quality of ad/creative and effectiveness. Have you used iPromote? And if so, does it drive results?
One of the big problems for SMB display programs is validating that they work. Most of the value lies in actions that aren’t clicks. See: http://www.online-publishers.org/newsletter.php?newsId=531&newsType=pr
June 22, 2009 at 5:21 pm
In order to validate the value of display for SMBs, it’s going to come down to insightful and actionable reporting. Yahoo! currently provides a product called Full Analytics (within an advertiser’s Yahoo! Serarch Marketing platform) that provides cross channel attribution tracking. For example, SMBs would be able to track both their display and search efforts under one roof. Once Full Analytics has been set up and data has been collected, advertisers can take advantage of the Assist metric that is provided within their reports. Assist provide advertisers with the total number of times that an ad/keyword contributed to the conversion of another ad/keyword.
So if a visitor clicks on a display ad (a My Display Ad for example) but doesn’t convert, then later visits a paid Yahoo! search ad and converts, the display will be attributed with an Assist while the search keyword will be attributed with the Conversion.
SMBs would now be able to see the total number of times that their Yahoo! My Display Ads drove conversions for their other ads.
Disclosure: I work on Yahoo!’s web analytics team.
June 22, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I have used iPromote and agree the ad quality is sub-par and the effectiveness isn’t great either, but i think that has more to do with their network quality and low bid rates by users. I only mention them, because for the SMB user i think ease of use is key, but second to measured results for sure.
June 22, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Thanks
June 22, 2009 at 5:26 pm
On behalf of one of the account executives that help launch this product 18 months ago here at Yahoo and having set up and manage accounts, I can say that the perfomance and delivery have been good. We’ve seen some great ROI’s on our e-commerce clients and some phenomenal delivery on our lead generation accounts with targeted CPA’s. I’ve seen quite a few accounts even surpass their search CPA’s and with much greater delivery.
June 22, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Thanks for the info Gabe.
June 23, 2009 at 1:22 am
citysearch.com has most of the market share since they have been around the longest and have IAC to back them up. They have a huge network of partnerships including yellowpages and superpages just to name a few. Yahoo is looking like myspace these days!!!
June 23, 2009 at 6:10 pm
It’s interesting to compare Yahoo’s new offering with the most similar self-service display product already out there, AOL’s BidPlace SB (full disclosure: I work for this product). Both Yahoo and BidPlace SB allow advertisers to reach the majority of US Web visitors (SB’s reach is higher, at 91%). Both offer advanced targeting options and, within the next couple of weeks, both will offer the ability to build banners on-site. (BidPlace SB will offer both templates and the ability to build banners from scratch.)
However, the similarities end when it comes to pricing. Here are the recommended CPC bids for the same targeting on both products:
Run of Network, Geo = Florida
Yahoo: $1.30
BidPlace SB: $0.74
Auto Content Channel
Yahoo: $4.93
BidPlace SB: $2.45
I’m curious how Yahoo can justify charging 75-100% more than BidPlace SB for the same types of inventory and targeting? Especially when BidPlace SB offers a full budget guarantee to protect advertisers from over-billing for excess delivery, while Yahoo does not.
June 23, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Yahoo maybe thinks its brand justifies the charge.
June 23, 2009 at 11:45 pm
You’re right, Greg – I’m sure they do think that. The question is, do small advertisers believe that Yahoo’s brand is worth 75-100% more than AOL’s? AOL is #1 or #2 in most of the content channels offered by both products, as is Yahoo. AOL’s third-party network has broader reach. So I’m just curious what specifically differentiates Yahoo’s inventory so much from AOL and the rest of the industry?
July 1, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I would say a combination of brand, targeting, and reach.
June 24, 2009 at 12:24 am
Div:
I have no good answer.
August 4, 2009 at 3:18 pm
[…] ads for SMBs are all the rage now, with the NY Times and Yahoo launching self-service tools based on the AdReady platform. ReachLocal is selling display and […]
August 23, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Hi,
Do you feel that http://www.ipromote.com is a scam? I think the service of the created the ads is great, but I am concerned about the clicks received actually turn into results. I know the percentage rate is low for clicks turning into actual results, but I feel ipromotes results are even lower. Any feedback would be very helpful.
August 23, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Don’t know response rates . . . You should post on Screenwerk.com going forward.