The launch of Yahoo’s Gemini marketplace, designed for mobile and native ads, took place in February. It is now the standard audience choice within the Yahoo self-serve advertising manager. What exactly is Gemini and how does it function?

Yahoo Ad Manager was introduced in January as a user-friendly platform for advertisers to purchase and oversee native ad products such as Stream Ads, Image Ads, and sponsored Tumblr posts. The addition of Gemini aimed to harness the combined potential of mobile and native advertising, optimizing their native ads for display on tablets and mobile devices. Yahoo Gemini empowers native ads to deliver sponsored brand content to Yahoo’s 400 million monthly users in contextually appropriate ways.

Why Native Ads in the First Place?

In case you haven’t encountered this format yet, native advertising is a rapidly growing method of engaging audiences using contextual messaging that appears alongside or integrated with editorial content. Some perceive it as a subset of content marketing, while others view it as content’s “sponsored twin.”

Regardless of your chosen definition, the effectiveness of native advertising is undeniable, particularly when compared to more conventional web advertising formats. For instance, a Sharethrough study revealed that individuals were 25% more inclined to notice native ads compared to banner ads, and their viewing frequency was 53% higher. This study also highlighted that, in contrast to other ad types, participants were more likely to share native ads with their networks and displayed a stronger inclination to make a purchase after viewing them. A significant majority, nearly three-quarters of publishers in the U.S., already offer native advertising on their websites. In a presentation Yahoo Gemini Vision & Impact, Yahoo presented several other noteworthy statistics regarding native advertising:

• Driven by its perceived effectiveness, marketer investment in native ads has surged from $1.4 billion in 2012 to $3.1 billion in 2014.
• A mere 4% of marketers express complete satisfaction with their mobile ad campaigns.
• The vast majority, 95%, of digital advertising professionals purchase mobile ads.
• Projections indicate that investment in native ads is poised to reach $5 billion annually by 2017. Despite their widespread presence and the enthusiasm they generate among advertisers, a surprising 85% of consumers have never even heard of native ads. The FTC has issued clear their position emphasizing the need to explicitly identify native advertisements as such. However, only 79% of advertisers grasp the necessity of disclosing native content as advertising. This clearly signifies a format brimming with potential, yet much remains to be understood.

What Exactly Is Yahoo Gemini?

Yahoo’s Gemini offering focuses on assisting advertisers in effectively reaching mobile consumers in a contextually relevant manner: by employing native ads specifically designed for mobile platforms. This marketplace deserves serious consideration, given that Yahoo boasts over 430 million monthly mobile users who spend an average of 104 minutes per month. While Google opted to combine desktop and tablet paid search through the implementation of Enhanced Campaigns, Yahoo is taking a different route. With Gemini, they offer advertisers a distinct interface specifically for managing mobile and tablet ads. This presents a valuable opportunity to refine and tailor your search strategy with greater precision.

Image from Yahoo Gemini advertisers are presented with a range of targeting choices, including options like geotargeting, broad and exact match, as well as the ability to utilize negative keywords. Looking ahead, their roadmap includes plans to introduce sitelink, location, and call extensions, along with features like phrase match, day parting, and targeting based on device, language, radius, and operating system. At present, Yahoo is actively engaged in the process of rolling the ads out to encompass broader audience segments. As of March, Gemini ads were reaching a limited audience, with only 1% of mobile search traffic exposed to them. However, they had outlined plans to expand this reach in April and the months to follow. Yahoo’s objective is to complete the migration and setup of all accounts within Gemini by April 30th. Yahoo’s native ads are strategically placed on their homepage and integrated into a variety of Yahoo products: Mail, Mobile Search, News, Sports, Finance, Celebrity, Movies, TV, Music, Travel, Homes, Autos, and My Yahoo. A key feature of these ads is their automatic adaptation to suit the user’s device, whether it’s a computer, mobile phone, or tablet.

How Does Gemini Interact with Bing Ads?

The simple answer is, it doesn’t. In its current form, Bing Ads campaigns lack compatibility with Gemini. This is because Gemini is exclusive to Yahoo and operates on a separate codebase. Bing has offered the following clarification regarding the impact of Yahoo Gemini on Bing Ads: “Bing Ads provides search ads across all devices, including mobile, spanning Bing and Yahoo search results pages, as well as our extended network of partner sites. Only a fraction of search ads appearing on Yahoo’s mobile search pages will originate from Yahoo Gemini instead of Bing Ads. It’s important to note that Bing Ads remains the sole platform for purchasing mobile search ads on Bing and its partner network. Furthermore, it continues to deliver search ads on the top-performing mobile search placements (i.e., those positioned at the very top of the page) for web searches conducted through Yahoo’s mobile search pages.” In case any ambiguity remains, Bing’s FAQ page on Gemini further emphasizes, “Bing Ads stands as the only unified platform empowering advertisers to manage paid search advertising across all device types—PC, tablet, and mobile—effectively enabling them to achieve scale across the entirety of the Yahoo Bing Network.” As per Adotas, Gemini ads are anticipated to gradually expand their presence onto a greater number of partner sites. Simultaneously, Yahoo will be diligently working towards establishing parity between Yahoo Search Ads and Bing Ads.

Creating Ads & Campaigns in Yahoo Gemini: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Begin by signing in to the Yahoo Ad Manager. If you haven’t created an account yet, doing so is straightforward. Alternatively, you can log in seamlessly using your Google or Facebook credentials. 2. Navigate to ‘Campaigns,’ followed by ‘Create a Campaign.’

3. Craft your ad. Each ad necessitates the following components:

• A concise ad title, capped at 50 characters.
• An ad description that provides more detail, limited to 150 characters.
• The URL of your designated landing page.
• Your company’s name, with a maximum length of 25 characters.
• Your display URL.
• An attention-grabbing image – for text-based ads, Yahoo suggests using a high-resolution image with an aspect ratio of 82×82 or 1:1. For image-centric ads, you have the flexibility to either link to an existing image or directly upload one by clicking the camera icon. Yahoo’s recommendation for image ad dimensions is 1073 pixels in width by 715 pixels in height.

As you build your ad, a real-time preview will be displayed on the right side of the screen. Once you’ve incorporated all the aforementioned elements, simply tick the checkbox if you wish to repurpose this ad information for creating additional ads. Click ‘Save Ad’ to store it within the ‘My Created Ads’ section of your dashboard. 4. Define your intended audience. Commence by selecting ‘Advanced Settings,’ followed by ‘Suggest keywords’ and then ‘Modify’—as visually indicated below—to gain a comprehensive view of all the available options.

Your view will subsequently transform to resemble this:

Beyond targeting individuals based on specific geographical locations (country, state, city, or DMA), you also have the option to designate areas where you prefer not to have your ads displayed. Yahoo will proactively alert you that Yahoo Gemini native ads and mobile search ads are configured to maximize reach. However, should you have a reason to disable either of these for any reason, the platform does provide that flexibility. 5. Establish your bids. By default, Yahoo allows you to determine your maximum cost per click, essentially the highest amount you’re comfortable paying for each click. However, if you shift your attention to the far right, you’ll notice an option for ‘Advanced pricing’.

By accessing the advanced pricing section, you unlock the ability to set distinct maximum bids for both Yahoo native and Yahoo mobile search ad formats.

You retain the freedom to either establish a daily budget or opt for a budget that covers the entire duration of the campaign. Furthermore, you can choose to launch your ads immediately or designate specific start and end dates. 6. Provide a name for your campaign and either save it for later or choose to launch it immediately.

7. Configure your payment settings. Before your initial ad campaign can go live, it’s necessary to fund your account. A minimum deposit of $25.00 is required for your Yahoo advertiser account. When you arrive at the ‘Set up payment’ section of the site, you’ll find that Yahoo has ‘Autoload’ activated as the default choice. In essence, this feature automatically replenishes your account by deducting funds from your chosen credit card or bank account whenever your balance dips below 10% of the reload threshold you’ve specified. If the Autoload feature doesn’t align with your preferences, ensure you deactivate it.

Proceed to follow the on-screen instructions to successfully fund your account.

Exploring Yahoo Gemini Reporting Options

The Reporting screen serves as your central hub for accessing a range of reports categorized by campaigns, ad groups (specifically for Mobile Search), ads themselves, and keywords (again, focusing on Mobile Search). However, it’s worth noting that there’s a convenient ‘7-Day Performance Report’ nestled within the Campaigns tab. This particular report will furnish you with insights into:

• The total number of times your ads have been presented to users (impressions).
• The count of instances where users have clicked on your ads (clicks).
• The install-click rate, which is calculated by dividing the number of installs by the total clicks your ads have garnered. This metric provides valuable insight into how frequently users proceed to install your app after interacting with your ads. Juxtaposing this with the install-impression rate can offer a more comprehensive understanding of your ads’ overall effectiveness.
• A breakdown of the expenditure incurred based on the user actions you’ve achieved. It’s important to approach this figure as an approximate guide, as the actual amount billed might exhibit slight variations.
• The average cost per click, representing the mean amount you’ve been charged for each user click. You can discern trends by toggling between the two available drop-down menus. Within the Reporting tab, information is retained for a period of 90 days. This encompasses data points such as impressions, clicks, and CTRs, all meticulously segmented by:
• Individual campaigns
• Ad Groups – Applicable solely to Migrated Mobile Search
• Specific Ads
• Keywords – Again, this pertains exclusively to Mobile Search Keep in mind that these reports don’t operate in real-time. There’s an 8-hour delay between the actual impressions served and their reflection within the reporting interface. Scheduling & Exporting Reports Made Easy The Reporting tab empowers you to automate report delivery through its ‘Schedule’ button. Choose between daily or weekly CSV reports, which will be conveniently dispatched to your email inbox. Should you require an immediate report, simply select ‘Export’ within the Reporting tab, choose CSV as your preferred format, and then decide whether you’d like to directly open the .zip file containing the report or save it to your computer for later access. Leveraging Bid Landscape Reports The aptly named Bid Landscape report can be accessed within the Reporting tab by selecting ‘Bid Landscape’. Presented in a graphical format, this report illustrates how adjustments to your bid could potentially influence the number of clicks and impressions your ads might have garnered over a specific timeframe. It serves as a valuable tool for refining your bidding strategies, providing projections of the effects different bid variations might have.

Navigating Yahoo Gemini: Handy Tips & Insights

To help you confidently navigate the Yahoo Ad Manager and effectively leverage their native ad offerings, we’ve compiled a few useful tips and key facts:

• While not a strict limitation, Yahoo suggests maintaining fewer than 100 active ad creatives at any given time.
• The Yahoo native ads platform is designed to function seamlessly with a range of popular browsers: IE 9 or higher, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
• You have the flexibility to link multiple accounts to a single Yahoo ID and effortlessly switch between them.
• The ‘Manage Users’ feature allows for the creation of new user profiles and the assignment of varying administrative privileges to each.
• The main table provides a convenient way to bulk delete entries related to paused campaigns, ad groups (for Mobile Search), individual ads, and keywords (specifically for Mobile Search).

Yahoo Gemini, conceived with the vision of offering advertisers a unified marketplace for mobile search and native advertising, is now readily accessible through the self-serve Yahoo Ad Manager. As this service continues to evolve, expect the rollout of new ad formats, placement options, and exciting platform features. Will you be giving Yahoo Gemini a try? We encourage you to share your thoughts, experiences, or any questions you might have in the comments below!