The combination of Yahoo’s vast, highly popular inventory with industry-leading, AI-powered targeting technology provides advertisers with an unprecedented opportunity for effective coverage and efficient advertising on the open web.
The native Yahoo inventory is now available in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and 14 other markets through Project Agora.
We spoke with Project Agora’s Managing Director, Nikos Komninos, about what this means for advertisers working with Project Agora.
What does the addition of Yahoo to the inventory available in the UAE and the rest of these countries mean?
Nikos Komninos: The addition of Yahoo’s inventory is a significant development. It allows us to expand our network and offer greater coverage and even greater targeting accuracy to our advertisers. Practically, our advertisers gain access to one of the largest content networks in the world, as well as Yahoo Mail, further improving the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Why is Yahoo important?
NK: Yahoo’s credibility and reputation add value to our platform, as Yahoo users are typically very active and engaged. This translates into even higher engagement rates and better performance for advertisers.
Yahoo is one of the top 10, most well-known and respected content providers in the world. It reaches nearly 900M monthly active users through properties such as AOL, TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports. It is worth mentioning that these placements include Yahoo Mail which has a large coverage and excellent engagement.
What is Yahoo’s performance in terms of results?
NK: Globally, Yahoo maintains a very large audience. The Yahoo partnership allows us to offer an improved experience to advertisers with high click-through rates (CTR) and better ROI. The numbers from case studies from campaigns that have run globally speak for themselves. For a brand in tourism 77% lower CPA, for technology 130% increase in impressions and 28% decrease in CPM Y-o-Y and for a client in finance 289% more leads.
Tell us about Yahoo Mail. What are the benefits?
NK: Yahoo Mail is currently the second most popular free email platform in the world. Millions of loyal users use it in the GCC every day. Native ads appear inline between incoming messages, and for this reason, they grab the user’s attention more. They also appear at a time when the user generally has more time to complete whatever action the advertiser is seeking, for example, an online purchase, filling out a form, a flight search and so on, and this radically improves performance and reduces CPAs.
Where else will the ads appear?
NK: Apart from Yahoo Mail, which is directly relevant to advertisers targeting audiences in the GCC, Yahoo is the largest global publisher added to our huge native network of 9,000 sites, which includes BBC, CBS News, MSN, ABC News, etc. Yahoo is a top destination site for many of the expats living in the GCC.
Where Yahoo significantly changes the game is for those advertisers targeting foreign countries such as the US, UK, Germany, France and so on. Yahoo is a love brand with very loyal users. Yahoo properties like Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News etc. are at the top preference of users. Yahoo can be used mid to lower funnel for consideration and conversion campaigns, for example to promote destinations or real estate, book tickets, and so on. Via Yahoo, Project Agora will significantly increase reach and improve targeting options.
Is there a specific time commitment to the Yahoo availability? And do longer publisher deals benefit advertisers more?
NK: Indeed, Yahoo is committed for the long haul with a 30-year strategic partnership for exclusive availability of their native inventory. We always work with publishers with long-term agreements and that’s what makes our collaboration with them so effective. It’s not just ads on a website, it’s a win-win model for both publishers and advertisers.
Native content recommendation is deeply embedded within the sites of our publisher partners. This offers a more integrated and engaging experience for users. In turn, we make advertising more effective for our advertisers, driving meaningful customer action at scale. We do that by leveraging our holistic understanding of content and context to offer an inherently native experience and place ads that are relevant to each individual user.
Why should an advertiser invest in native advertising vs Google or Meta?
NK: Google and Meta absorb indeed a large percentage of advertising budgets. The trend we are seeing globally though, and with good reason, is that advertisers do allocate their investment so that native is also always part of the media plan.
Adding native to the media mix has been proven to enhance the performance of these other channels as well, as has been shown by relevant research we have done with Kantar.
On top of that, investing in native advertising also favors the growth of local publishers, as the advertising investment ultimately reaches them. This is equally important for the quality of journalism and the role we want it to play in our society.
