Yesterday on the Yahoo Q2 earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz spent time talking about local and small business (SMB) advertising. She said that these overlapping segments were increasingly important to Yahoo and she announced a new deal with AT&T (to sell display ads on Yahoo to SMBs). She added that between AT&T’s yellow pages sales force and the company’s newspaper consortium partners Yahoo effectively had “13,000 sales reps” in local markets around the US.

Here’s the relevant verbatim Bartz quote from the earnings call transcript:

We also know that local relevance of both content and advertising is increasingly important to our users and capturing more of the local ad market is a big focus to us. To this end, we have announced today that we have expanded our relationship with AT&T to include the reselling of Yahoo! display ad inventory by AT&T’s advertising sales force. Grouped with our strategic newspaper consortium partnership we now have a local sales force 13,000 reps strong. These relationships extend our reach into the fast growing local online advertiser segment.

Given all that it was a surprise to me to see a report on peHUB asserting that Yahoo was seeking a buyer for both HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business:

Now, peHUB has learned from multiple sources that as part of Bartz’s drive to dismantle non-core assets, Yahoo is also trying to shed both HotJobs, which Yahoo acquired for $436 million in cash and stock back in 2001, and Yahoo Small Business, which helps customers get their small businesses online by providing them with everything from domain registration to site monitoring to promotional tools.

On the subject of small business, beyond the remarks above, Bartz also highlighted the Yahoo-Bank of America small business answers center:

[L]arge advertisers such as Bank of America come to us because of our leading sites and large reach. We are partnering with B of A to promote its small business answer center. The center is integrated with our popular social assets such as Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Group to capture user engagement. It is promoted across our network through related search and display ads.

Yahoo Small Business is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — webhosting entities in the SMB market. I don’t know its precise economics, but it generates fees revenue and also serves as a marketing channel to the SMB marketplace:

In addition, Yahoo recently launched a partnership with AdReady that allows SMBs to create self-service display ads that run on the Yahoo network. This doesn’t seem like a company ready to abandon its small business assets as “non-core.” Still it could be true.

I’ve always believed that Yahoo has not fully exploited Small Business as a channel and maybe they want to be out of the hosting and domain registration business. Perhaps the company feels that others are better suited to sell and create the ads that will simply run on the Yahoo network and through the APT platform.

I might be more inclined to believe that HotJobs is for sale. However HotJobs was the basis and cornerstone for the newspaper consortium that Yahoo regards as strategic. That consortium has now moved well beyond HotJobs, but recruitment remains one of three relatively large (though declining) classifieds categories for newspapers. It would certainly raise lots of eyebrows among consortium newspaper execs if the HotJobs property were sold.

Yahoo is trying to control expenses, shed groups and properties that are not strategic and invest where the most value is to be found. However, given Bartz’s remarks about the importance of local and small business advertising and its newspaper consortium, it’s very strange that Yahoo would be selling these two properties.

After an apparently successful limited trial, Yahoo is rolling out a program that targets small businesses (SMBs) for self-service display advertising on its network and through RightMedia, its ad exchange.

The DIY portal is a collaboration between Yahoo and AdReady, which supplies the back end and the ad templates. (Google earlier introduced a similar, though less elaborate product.) The templates can be sorted by best performing (CTRs are exposed), most used and newest. Advertisers can use their own ads as well. Ads can be targeted by geo, content category or Yahoo property. They show on the Yahoo network and third party sites via the RightMedia exchange.

There’s no word on integration with Panama. I would assume reporting will be combined or folded in at some point for those using both search and display.

Why do this? “Dynamic visuals get more clicks to grow your business” and “people spend 95 percent of time online browsing sites with display ads” says the flash demo. Yet online display advertising has been under intense pricing pressure because of excessive inventory and declining demand from the flight to search and other performance-based advertising during the recession. However a new comScore-OPA study, consistent with past research, tries to counter the negative perception of display advertising by showing that display drives lots of search and engagement.

According to the study, to be released on Thursday:

• About one in five consumers [who saw display ads] searched on the advertised brand
• About one-third visited the advertiser’s site in February
• Consumers exposed to the display advertising spent over 50% more time than the average visitors to these sites the next month
• This rise in time spent is matched by a similar increase in page views

There’s always been a challenge asking small businesses to do anything online that requires self service. However, that isn’t stopping a wide range of companies from trying to capture SMB ad dollars on the display side. On the new Yahoo MyDisplayAds, if advertisers intend to spend more than $2,500 per month, they’ll get more hand holding and support apparently.

I have some additional thoughts and discussion on my blog Screenwerk.

The next Yahoo program to be discontinued are the Yahoo Publisher Network RSS ads. Here is an email I just received from Yahoo:

We wanted to let you know that we are closing our Ads in RSS program effective February 2, 2009. We have ended this beta program to focus on other more broadly used ad products for our publishing partners, such as Sponsored Search and Content Match. We recommend that you remove current Content Match tags from your RSS pages.

Please be assured that we continue to invest in both our Sponsored Search and Content Match products and are excited about many upcoming improvements for 2009. We appreciate our relationship with you and look forward to working with you to grow our business together.

Yahoo launched the RSS ads back in November 2005. I assume it never took off and they have now decided to drop that portion of the overall product.

Yahoo also recently announced they will be discontinuing content match in the UK.

The PPC Hero blog said they received an email from Yahoo that they are shutting down Yahoo’s contextual network ads in the United Kingdom. This product is named Content Match, which allows Yahoo Publisher Network publishers to display Yahoo ads on their sites. Yahoo matches the advertiser’s ads by the contextual relevancy of the page’s content to the keywords the advertisers purchased.

In the email sent to PPC Hero, they said they will close it down officially by March 31st, the same date they are officially closing the Adobe PDF ads. Currently, the UK version of the Content Match product description page, says nothing about being discontinued but I do trust the people at PPC Hero.

Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) really never expanded beyond the United States, but UK Yahoo advertisers were always allow to purchase ads distributed through YPN. Here is the email that was sent to PPC Heros:

As a valued client we are writing to give you advance notice of the closure of our Content Match product in Europe.

The decision to close Content Match underlines our commitment to focus on our Sponsored Search and Display business and to simplify our solutions to deliver a high ROI for our advertisers.

Content Match will close on 31 March 2009, after which the product will no longer be supported. All Advertisers should therefore opt out of the Content Match marketplace by this date. Your account manager will be happy to assist you.

Opt-out instructions: 1. Login to your account. 2. Click on the ‘Administration’ tab. 3. Click on the ‘Edit’ button next to ‘Tactic Settings’ 4. Set ‘Content Match Status’ to OFF. 5. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

We aim to work with you to propose alternative products.

There are now rumors that Yahoo may shut down the whole Yahoo Publisher Network and discontinue the Content Match program completely. It is a bit surprising, being that Google AdSense and Google’s content network does drive major revenue for Google.

Postscript: This is not just happening in the UK but also in Germany.

Amit Agarwal reports that Yahoo and Adobe have decided to discontinue the Ads for PDF product they launched in November 2007.

An email sent to current participants of the program blamed the economic conditions for the failure of the program. The email said the program was discontinued due to “reassessment of priorities in the current economic environment.” If you currently have ads in PDFs, the ads will continue to run through March 31st, and then stop working beyond that point.

Jennifer Slegg also comments on the failure of this product.

The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog announced they have improved the targeting and relevancy of their content match product. The improvements will lead to a higher click through rate on ads and higher satisfaction.

The specific improvement is that they now not only target the ads based on the content of the page, but also based on the user viewing the page. Yahoo will tailor the ad based on the “users’ geographic and behavioral profiles.”

In articles on the NY Times and Wall Street Journal sites this morning, more details are surfacing about the intended Q3 rollout of Yahoo’s new ambitious, integrated ad platform — what President Sue Decker previously called “APEX” (advertiser-publisher exchange) and is now apparently being called “AMP.”

The idea is to allow Yahoo and its partners — initially the members of the newspaper consortium — to sell ads on each others’ sites and throughout the network. The ads will at first be CPM-based graphical ads. Eventually the system will encompass the full range of ad types and formats, including video, search, and mobile advertising. It will also bring the full range of targeting capabilities to marketers across those formats and participating properties.

According to the WSJ:

Yahoo executives said they expected to begin releasing AMP in the third quarter for use by newspaper companies that are part of an existing Yahoo ad-sales consortium, and eventually extend it to additional Web publishers, advertisers, agencies and online-ad networks. The company said the system, in a future stage, will handle ad types besides display, such as search, mobile and video.

With the AMP system, Web publishers are expected to be able to manage the ads on their sites, as well as sell ads on behalf of other participants in exchange for a commission. Advertisers could buy online ads across a range of sites using standardized geographic, demographic and other targeting.

The AMP platform capabilities and vision are impressive. However, lurking in the background is the proposed acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. My sense is that Microsoft very much believes that AdCenter is superior to Panama and is likely to be equally skeptical about the claims regarding the new platform. If the merger happens, therefore, it casts doubt on whether Yahoo will ever be fully “AMP’d.”

Newspapers have watched as “their” national advertisers have gone elsewhere online to get the reach and local placements that they provided almost exclusively offline. There have been several disappointing attempts in the past to build a national network of newspaper publishers: the failed New Century Network and the existing but arguably underperforming Real Cities and the NNN. But now Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., the New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. have formed a joint venture called quadrantOne.

There will be common technology, common sales, and support and dedicated premium inventory at 120 papers, with a combined reach of 50 million users in 27 of the top 30 markets. Numerous newspaper publishers, including Hearst, have already made commitments to Yahoo that would seem to be in conflict with this effort to varying degrees. However, confidence in the Yahoo newspaper consortium has waned among members as Yahoo’s troubles have increased in recent months. Most recently, the newspapers did a real estate syndication deal with Zillow.

All the major ad networks (e.g., Advertising.com) offer geotargeting; however, these are largely “blind” placements that are unappealing to most brands and agencies. The transparency and premium inventory offered by quadrantOne is welcome. Yet there probably isn’t room for multiple national newspaper networks, as well as Centro, which is a buying service that works with agencies and advertisers to make display ad buys across newspaper and other local media sites.

There’s no paid search dimension to the new network. I have a longer post on my personal blog, Screenwerk.

Yahoo, Adobe team on PDF ads from News.com reports Yahoo and Adobe are working together to put contextual ads in PDF documents. Over at the Adobe Labs, you can find a new product named Ads for Adobe PDF.

Yahoo will be powering the ads within PDF documents that are contextually relevant to the content within the PDF. If you produce PDF documents and want to monetize them with relevant ads, this seems to be the product for you.

To get ads on your PDF documents, you will first need to be approved for the beta. To sign up for the beta, complete this form. Then you apparently upload your PDF documents to the system, then Adobe and Yahoo will place the ads within the documents automatically.

Here is a sample image of Yahoo ads in Adobe PDFs:

The PDF FAQs has more information on how this all works. Here is a copy of the PDF document as text:

What is Ads for Adobe PDF powered by Yahoo!?
Ads for Adobe PDF is a new opt-in service that enables commercial publishers to monetize their PDF content through advertising. The advertising service, powered by Yahoo!, automatically matches and displays dynamic, contextual ads in a panel of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat when a user views the PDF. Commercial publishers that sign up to participate in this program are eligible to be paid for valid clicks on ads. In this unique advertising relationship, Yahoo! helps connect advertisers from its extensive network of online advertisers with commercial publishers that are distributing content through Adobe PDFs. Yahoo! will incorporate this new advertising inventory into its portfolio of online advertising opportunities.

How does it work? When a recipient opens a PDF document from a commercial publisher participating in this program, ads will be dynamically matched and displayed in a panel adjacent to the content. The publishers are eligible to be paid for valid clicks on the ads. Adobe has partnered with Yahoo! to provide ads across a broad range of categories to match PDF content. Since the ads come from Yahoo!, publishers do not have to establish and maintain direct relationships with advertisers.

To use the service, publishers follow these easy steps: 1. Apply for an account. 2. Upload and register the PDF content. 3. Distribute the registered PDF content – just as they do today.

PDF registration associates the publisher with the content in order to receive payment and automatically analyzes the content to enable ad matching.

How will ads be matched to PDF content and will they be relevant? The PDF content is thoroughly analyzed, using an algorithm that takes into consideration factors such as: * Keywords – identifies keywords based on how frequently the word appears, where it appears in the content, and how it appears in the content, among other things * Context – associates categories or concepts with specific words; for instance, content about soccer could be associated with sports

This analysis enables contextual ads to be matched to the PDF content.

How is this different from ads placed in PDF content today? For commercial publishers, the current approach for securing advertisers or sponsorship for PDF content is very time-consuming. Ads for Adobe PDF takes advantage of Yahoo!’s existing relationships with an extensive network of advertisers, and provides publishers the opportunity to monetize PDF content with little effort and without the need for an advertising sales force.

For readers, Ads for Adobe PDF provides dynamic ad content that is up-to-date and related to their interests. Given this new opportunity to monetize PDF content, some commercial publishers may choose to provide readers with access to more free content, which previously was available only to paid subscribers.

For advertisers, Ads for Adobe PDF provides a powerful new channel to communicate their messages to a highly engaged and targeted audience. In addition, Ads for Adobe PDF provides advertisers a means to track the performance of ads placed in PDF content, just as they can today with ads placed in web sites. That’s an important distinction from current ads in PDF content, which are static, and offer no means to measure the effectiveness of the ad placement.

When will Ads for Adobe PDF be out of beta? Adobe and Yahoo! anticipate several beta cycles prior to release for General Availability. We will provide updates on the release schedule in the coming months.

BlogStorm has found that Google News might actually index Yahoo contextual ads.

For example, a search on Loans4 in Google News returns an article from InTheNews.co.uk. Let’s look carefully at the snippet in Google News:

As you can see, the text reads:

If you are a homeowner, visit the Loans4 website to see which loan you qualify for. Compare over 30 insurers to find the cheapest car insurance quote. …

Now, go to the InTheNews.co.uk article and try to find that content in the main article. You can’t. But you can find it in one of the ads on the lower right part of the page. Here is a picture of that:

That’s a Yahoo ad, and if you review the code, you can see the content is visible in the HTML. So technically, there is no reason why a spider won’t index that text.