Yahoo! Search Marketing:

Yahoo! Search Marketing was the next biggest Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine after Google Adwords. In the year 2010, Yahoo! search marketing got merged with Microsoft adCenter.

Yahoo! sponsored program began life as Goto.com in the year 1996 – 1997. Goto.com was the first to have created auction based Pay Per Click (PPC) program in February 1998. In fact Google had based their own AdWords program on Overture with some minor changes. Later on Goto.com, Inc changed it's company name to Overture Services, Inc. in October 2001. In 2003 Overture was acquired by Yahoo and in March 2005, Yahoo renamed all products of Overture as Yahoo! Search Marketing.

Yahoo! Search Marketing did offer good alternative to advertisers in a market primarily dominated by Google AdWords. It had less competition compared to Google AdWords and the bidding price were typically low in most cases. Overall advertisers in most cases used Yahoo! search marketing along with Google AdWords to gain maximum reach.

The key features to Yahoo Search Marketing were:

1. Monthly Budget Feature
2. Advanced and Standard Match types
3. Conversion Tracking Code
4. Local Search

In 2007, Yahoo! search marekting introduced an update which was named as Panama. It had following features:

1. Geographical Targeting
2. Concept of Adgroups (which was not present pre panama platform)
3. Bid Tool Changes
4. Facility to test A/B split testing of Ads
5. Dynamic Account Structure

And many other things….

It was always a good idea to test Yahoo! Search Marketing with Google Adwords because sometimes the cost to acquire leads or sales can be little cheaper with Yahoo. Apart from ads being distributed on Yahoo.com, the ads may also be seen on Yahoo! network such as Alta Vista, CNN, Info Space, Terra Lycos and many more…

Until May 2006, MSN was one of the main partner network of Yahoo! Search Marketing. In June 2006, the agreement between Yahoo and MSN expired and MSN choose not to renew the agreement. The reason being Microsoft wanted to launch their own Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine to compete with Google.

Similar to Google Qualified Company/Individual status Yahoo had similar program called as Yahoo Ambassador. Yahoo Ambassador was open only to advertisers in USA and Canada. The account activation fee for Overture/Yahoo! Search Marketing was $5.