Yahoo watchers bank on it to introduce new concepts in advertising. In line with its reputation Yahoo has recently launched a new cost-per-lead ad unit that will definitely prove to be a groundbreaking concept. According to Yahoo it will begin inserting an ad below a site’s listing in its organic results.
The ad will collect important demographic details like phone numbers and email addresses. This ad form will be clearly marked. Advertisers have the option to choose their logo, headline, and six fields that users can fill out. Advertisers also have the option to choose the “Thank You” text that will appear once a user fills up all the fields. This trial project is already underway for Match.com and the results are promising.
In this trial, once a user fills up the six fields and gets the message thanking him/her, a new tab opens where the user is requested to fill in additional details to complete their dating profile. Now this approach is fraught with danger as unscrupulous elements will take advantage and begin making fake and fraudulent entries. However, Yahoo has made it clear that advertisers are protected and will only have to pay for legitimate leads that are generated. Yahoo has however not declared the pricing. The prices will likely depend on the advertisers size and the type of vertical. Only one such ad will be displayed per search engine results page, and where there are two that are eligible the site that ranks higher will have the right to display the cost-per-lead advertisement. The ranking does not get affected due to this. The cost-per-lead only acts as a foot note for the listing.
Bing Advertising directs a lot of organic search and paid listings to Yahoo while larger advertisers are dealt with directly by Yahoo. However, for this new concept Yahoo has asked those interested to contact their sales representatives.
This new format comes closest to Google’s cost-per-lead AdWords format and is launched under the dynamic leadership of Marissa Mayer, CEO Yahoo, and a former Google executive.