Algonquin, IL (PRWeb) April 2, 2007 -- Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) recently launched "Panama," its powerful new advertising platform that offers valuable new features and radically changes how Yahoo's pay-per-click (PPC) ad positioning is determined. After extensive research and user feedback, Panama was developed by teams around the world to embrace advances in targeting technology and better meet the needs of advertisers. JumpFly account managers confirm that Panama is a substantial improvement for YSM and that properly upgraded accounts are experiencing improved results. JumpFly clients have been successfully upgraded to the Panama platform and they are now benefiting from its new ranking model and enhanced functionality.

Yahoo's Panama platform uses an algorithm to determine ad placement, in sharp contrast to its previous system that ranked ads by bid amount only (bid-to-position). While the maximum amount bid on each term still plays an important role at Panama, this new interface also takes into consideration a "Quality Index" score that focuses on advertiser relevancy and ad performance. "All things being equal, better ads get better click-through rates; so we're incentivizing advertisers to focus on the quality of the ad message, and not simply on the bid price," said Steve Mitgang, Yahoo's Senior Vice President of Advertiser Products and Platform. The Quality Index's exact algorithm remains a secret, but Yahoo has revealed that some factors include:

• Ad's historical click-thru-rate (CTR) - a ratio determined by the number of times a user clicks on an online advertisement to the number of visitors who view it. Higher CTRs result in an improved Quality Index.

• Relation of keyword bid to the wording used in the ad copy, title and display URL - Quality Index will improve if a chosen keyword shows-up in the actual ad and URL.

• Landing page quality - this will be a "small" part of the Quality Index score.

Yahoo's previous interface had become outdated, but YSM's platform overhaul resulted in the availability of many valuable new features, including local geo-targeting, detailed scheduling capabilities, multiple ad creation abilities and indirect conversion tracking.

Local Geo-Targeting:

Advanced mapping technology, courtesy of Yahoo's 2005 purchase of WhereonEarth, enables advertisers to target specific regions, or a city and its surrounding areas. For some advertisers, this is an extremely significant enhancement that enables them to effectively reach locally targeted markets.

Detailed Scheduling Capabilities:

Ad scheduling enables advertisers to modify how much they bid for keywords based on time-of-day and day-of-week cycles in a given ad campaign. This powerful feature can help advertisers improve ROI by ensuring that ads run when it makes the most business sense. For instance, a local business may only want to run their ads during business hours, or an online retailer may want to boost their bids during their busier-than-normal lunchtime shopping period.

Multiple Ad-Creation Abilities:

Advertisers can develop multiple ad creatives and either display them randomly or based on the highest CTR. Additionally, both a short and long description can be supplied to ensure the most appropriate ad will be displayed in every situation.

Indirect Conversion Tracking:

YSM's analytics tag enables Panama users to track what Yahoo calls "assists", or keywords that generated a lead prior to a successful conversion. The vast majority of tracking systems attribute conversions to the last keyword searched for, but keyword assist information may help advertisers make more informed decisions. For example, let's assume a user searches for the term "teddy bear" and then clicks on the PPC ad for 800Bear.com. They may look at the website, but not order at that time. If that user comes back to Yahoo a week later and performs a slightly different search, this time for "custom teddy bear," and once again sees and goes to 800Bear.com, the conversion will be attributed to "custom teddy bear," but the assist goes to "teddy bear." Knowing which terms provided assists can help marketers place proper bids on those terms, which at first glance may not in themselves appear to earn high conversion rates.

"We're impressed by the results that many of our clients are enjoying as a result of being properly upgraded to Panama. This platform is a great improvement over the previous system," said Brad Garlin, JumpFly Managing Partner. "However, advertisers that haven't taken the necessary time to upgrade, or don't understand the new system, are failing to take advantage of a tremendous opportunity. We're proud to provide our clients, as well as new potential clients, the best possible results available from this powerful new platform."

For additional information about JumpFly, please contact Brad Garlin or visit www.JumpFly.com.

About JumpFly:

JumpFly professionally develops, implements and manages Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter Pay Per Click Advertising accounts, enabling clients to maximize Internet advertising results while saving time and money. Proper setup and management of these powerful programs will likely make the difference between an advertiser's success or failure. JumpFly's full-service solution enables clients to focus on their core business while attaining the best possible results from their Search Engine Marketing campaigns. JumpFly is a Qualified Google AdWords Company, Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador and Microsoft AdCenter Premium Partner.

Contact:

Brad Garlin, Managing Partner
JumpFly
877-239-9610
http://www.JumpFly.com