Yahoo! My Display Ads

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

faq/getting_started/01_what_is_this_service

What is this service?

Yahoo! My Display Ads is a self serve banner advertising solution. When you create an account, you will have full access to the Yahoo! My Display Ads public library of ad templates. You can customize ads for your business or service by adding text, images, logos, and background color. There is no cost to customize an ad and you can customize as many ads from the public library as you would like. Once you customize your ad, it automatically saves into five ad sizes that can run across the Yahoo! network.

faq/getting_started/02_how_does_it_work

How does it work?

We recommend that you consider the images and copy from your website or landing page to use in your banner ads. When you are ready to set up your campaign, you will customize your ad, target your campaign, and select pricing preferences and a daily budget. When you are ready to run your ads, just submit your campaign for approval. You can change your creative, targeting, pricing or daily budget at any time. You can also pause your campaigns to stop the delivery of your ads. Please allow at least a few minutes for your ads to stop running after you submit your cancellation request.

faq/getting_started/04_how_do_i_get_started

How do I get started?

Begin by clicking the "Create an account" link at the top of the Yahoo! My Display Ads homepage. Once you've created your account, you can browse our ad library to find ad templates that best fit your product or service. Next, use our customization tool to personalize your ads. Once your ads are created, follow our campaign creation instructions.

faq/getting_started/05_how_do_i_deactivate

How do I deactivate or pause my account?

To stop your ads from running, please go to the Campaigns tab and select the pause button next to the campaign(s) you would like to pause, or simply email us at ymda-support-ysm@cc.yahoo-inc.com or call us at 866-924-6676. Please allow at least a few minutes for your ads to stop running after you submit your cancellation request.

Cost and Billing

faq/cost_and_billing/01_how_much

How much does it cost to distribute a customized ad campaign?

The cost of an ad campaign varies. You will be charged for distribution of your ads up to the daily budget that you set for each campaign. The minimum daily budget is U.S. $30. You may elect to pay for your ads on an impression basis (CPM) or a cost-per-click basis (CPC).

Once your campaign begins running, we try to deliver your ads to as many placements as possible based on your budget and targeting selections. It is possible, however, that your daily budget will not be reached every day. When that happens, you will only be charged for the clicks or impressions that occurred. It is also possible that your daily budget will be reached every day, and, when that happens, you will be billed your daily budget amount for each such day.

Please note that there is a potential for overdelivery in excess of your budget, depending on a number of factors, including the size of your budget, campaign length, and your specified delivery method. We recommend that you closely monitor your budget and spend, and immediately contact customer support at ymda-support-ysm@cc.yahoo-inc.com if you experience any overdelivery or overspend issues.

faq/cost_and_billing/02_pay_for_customizing

How much does it cost to create a customized ad?

There is no cost to set up an account or to customize ads. You may customize as many ads as you like after creating a Yahoo! My Display Ads account. All customized ads may be stored in the ad library within your account and may be used whenever you decide to run a campaign through Yahoo! My Display Ads. You will only be charged when your ads are distributed via the Yahoo! distribution network. When you are ready to run a campaign with your customized ads, select your advertising budget and decide where you’d like your ads to run (i.e., your ad “targeting”).

faq/cost_and_billing/03_how_am_i_charged

How am I charged for the advertising placements I receive?

To submit a campaign for distribution of your ads via the Yahoo! network, you must enter your credit card and billing information. We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express. The credit card you provide will be your payment method, and you will be charged for distribution of your ads up to the daily budget that you set for each campaign. When you submit your credit card to distribute a campaign, you authorize us to obtain a pre-approval verification that your credit card has enough available credit, up to the total amount of the daily budget that you set for each of your campaigns.

Once you have activated your first campaign with Yahoo! My Display Ads, your credit card will be billed for all accrued charges on the first business day after such campaign incurs any charges. After that successful initial debit to your credit card, your credit card will be billed for all accrued charges on the earlier of (a) each time your account reaches U.S. $300, or (b) the 1st and/or 16th of each month, regardless of the dollar value of accrued charges.

You may cancel your account or any campaign at any time. You will be billed until you have paid in full for all outstanding charges incurred through the date of your cancellation.

Ads

faq/ads/01_how_do_i_customize

How do I customize an ad?

Browse the Yahoo! My Display Ads public library until you find an ad template you want to customize. You can sort by category, but don’t necessarily limit yourself to those categories. There might be other ads in the library better suited to your purposes. Then select "Customize," which will open up the customization tool and allow you to change text, images, colors, and add your logo. When you are finished customizing your ad, it will be automatically saved in five different ad sizes that can run across the Yahoo! network. There is no additional cost to run all five ad sizes, so we recommend you start your campaign running all sizes. Our reporting tools allow you to see which ad sizes are performing best, and you can pause any lower performing ad sizes at any time, please allow at least a few minutes for your ads to stop running after you submit your pause request. You can also save ads to your private library for future use.

faq/ads/02_compelling

How is the performance data (impressions and CTR) below each ad template determined?

Performance data is from the last 90 days of activity for all customized versions of this ad template across all publishers, including the Yahoo! Network and other networks and/or publishers linked to AdReady. This data is provided for informational purposes only and not intended as a guarantee for performance. Individual results may vary.

faq/ads/03_how_do_i_select

How do I select an ad to fit my business?

Pick an ad template you like and customize it. You can customize any of our ad templates as you see fit, regardless of the category in which they appear in the Yahoo! My Display Ads library. With a few clicks, you can turn an auto ad into a toy ad in minutes! Our customization tool lets you change the text of the ad, the logo, images, and even the colors of the text and background.

faq/ads/05_can_i_view_my_ads

Am I able to view my ads on the Web?

There is a chance that you will see your ads while browsing sites on the Web, but specifically pinpointing where and when your ad will be served is not possible given the volume of ads.

faq/ads/06_search_results

Will my ad appear in any search engine results?

No. Your ad will not appear in search engine results.

Customization Tool

faq/ctool/01_effective

What elements make an effective and compelling ad?

Capture the user's attention with images and text related to your business. Create "call to action" text that is compelling to your audience and highlights features and offers that make your site special. It doesn't cost any more to run a campaign with multiple creative ad themes, so we recommend running multiple ads for each campaign to see which ad creative performs best.

faq/ctool/02_image_fit

How do I make an image fit within the ad?

We suggest uploading an image which is in the same aspect ratio (dimension ratio) as the image currently in the ad. The size of the current image is listed next to the image within the toolbox. For example, if the image is 150 x 250, image sizes that will fit well within the ad include 75 x 125 and 300 x 500. A larger image in the same aspect ratio (such as the 300 x 500 image of our example) will be shrunk to fit the ad. An image that is not of the same aspect ratio will leave empty space around the image in the ad. After replacing any image, you should carefully inspect your ad to be sure your new image fits appropriately.

faq/ctool/03_no_logo

What if I don't have a logo?

If you don't have a logo, you can use your company name or Web address instead. Yahoo! may run your ad without a logo, as long as the company name and web address are included.

Campaign Setup

faq/campaign_setup/01_my_own_ads

Can I use my own ads?

Yes. Once you set up an account with Yahoo! My Display Ads, you can upload all of your own creative files to run in your campaigns. To upload your own ad creative into your private library, click on the 'Upload Ad' button under the 'Ads' tab and follow the instructions. All ads will be submitted for approval regardless of whether they were uploaded or customized in Yahoo! My Display Ads.

faq/campaign_setup/03_what_happens_after_i_submit

What happens after I submit my campaign?

When you click the 'Submit your campaign' button, your campaign is sent for approval. Yahoo! will review your ad(s) for compliance with Yahoo! display advertising guidelines. This approval process generally takes approximately 1 to 4 business days. Shortly after your campaign is approved, the ads will be live and eligible to begin serving impressions. You will receive an email communicating that your ad began serving impressions and you can go to our reporting interface to track the performance of your campaign.

faq/campaign_setup/04_what_is_reviewed

What is reviewed during campaign approval?

Your campaign will pass through an approval review in which Yahoo! will review your campaigns for any issues that might prevent your campaign from running on the Yahoo! network. If we identify any areas of your campaign that need to be revised, we will inform you via email. We consider a number of factors, including:

• Landing Page: whether users who click on your ads are being sent to an active landing page that is relevant to the offer presented in the ad.
• Ad Creative Requirements; whether all sizes of the ad display the customized changes you made, including, but not limited to the following:
  • The ad logo placeholder is replaced or hidden.
  • The text and images meet Yahoo! guidelines.
  • Ads have a distinct border to clearly identify where the advertisement begins.
  • The sponsor of the ad must be clearly identified in the advertisement.
  The 5 available ad sizes through Yahoo! My Display Ads are: 300x250, 120x600, 160x600, 728x90 and 468x60. An overview of the Yahoo! ad specs and guidelines can be found at: http://adspecs.yahoo.com/policies.php

faq/campaign_setup/05_delivery

When will I start seeing delivery on my campaign?

The turnaround time to review your campaign generally is 1 to 4 business days, so it can take approximately that long before your ad begins receiving impressions.

Running a Campaign

faq/running_a_campaign/01_how_many_ads

How many ads should I run in each campaign?

You should run a minimum of two creative ads per campaign. It doesn't cost any more to run a campaign with multiple ads. We recommend running multiple ads for each campaign to see which ad creative performs best, which will help you optimize your campaign. To add to an existing campaign:

• Customize a new ad.
• When finished, click 'Save and close' and go into your Private Library.
• Click directly on the ad and select 'Add to campaign.'
• Choose your existing campaign and follow the steps to add the new ad.

faq/running_a_campaign/02_how_does_geo_targeting_work

What targeting options are available?

Yahoo! My Display Ads offers geographic, channel and demographic targeting.

If your business is specific to a particular area, geo-targeting can be a useful way to laser in on the audience in that area. The geo targeting levels are national, state or DMA.

Channel targeting allows you to specify the type of site content where you would like your ads to run. For example, if you select ‘automotive,’ we will attempt to target your ads to automotive sites in the Yahoo! network. However, we recommend that you start your campaign with a ‘run of network’ selection that will display your ads on sites across the Yahoo! network that meet your marketing goals based on your CPM or CPC bids.

If you want to further laser in on a specific audience within the Yahoo! network, select gender and/or an age group from our demographic targeting options.

We recommend that you start your campaign with no targeting parameters selected or if you do have specific targeting needs, test two campaigns with different targeting, one with no targeting parameters selected and another with targeting parameters such as demographics selected.

faq/running_a_campaign/03_how_do_i_stop

How do I stop my campaign from running?

To stop your ads from running, please go to the Campaigns tab and select the pause button next to the campaign(s) you would like to pause or simply email us at ymda-support-ysm@cc.yahoo-inc.com or call us at 866-924-6676. Please allow at least a few minutes for your ads to stop running after you submit your cancellation request.

Reporting and Measuring Performance

faq/reporting/01_results

How do I access my campaign results?

There are several reports available to review your campaign performance. Each available report displays your campaign data in different ways. Reporting data begins accumulating the moment your campaign starts. The data is updated nightly and includes campaign performance from the previous day.

To access reporting, make sure you are signed into your account and then click on the 'Reports' tab at the top of the page. Use the drop-down menu to choose the report you want to access, as well as the date range you wish to view.

faq/reporting/02_tractions

Can I track actions or conversions on my site?

Yes. Tractions - short for action tracking – allows you to track the number of actions or conversions on your website. For example, the goal may be for a user to complete a sale, submit a registration form, download a report, or land on a desired page on your website.

You can find your traction code by clicking the My Account link and then clicking Tractions. Place the traction code on the page that appears after the user completes the desired action or conversion (typically a 'thank you' or 'confirmation' page). The campaign reports within Yahoo! will record actions only from users who visited your site after first clicking one of your ads.

To insert the traction code on your site, copy and paste the entire code segment into the bottom of your content, immediately before the tag of each page you are planning to track.

Once you have placed the traction code on your site, you will be able to see if any of your ads have generated an action under our Reports tab. Once you receive your first action, the Campaigns report (available via the dropdown menu) will display an 'Actions' column that shows the number of completed actions or conversions as well as a CPA (Cost per Action) column that shows you how much you are paying for each completed action your campaign generates.

Tips for Optimizing Your Campaign

faq/optimizing/01_ad_performance

Are some ads performing better on your campaign?

Ad performance varies across campaigns. Pause ads that are underperforming so that your budget is spent on ads that perform best.

faq/optimizing/02_two_or_more_ads

Are you running two or more ads?

We suggest you run at least two ad themes per campaign. Performance can vary greatly between ads and you are able to run two or more at no extra cost per campaign. To add an ad to an existing campaign:

• Customize a new ad.
• When finished, click "Save and close" and go into your Private Library.
• Hover directly over the ad and click "Add to campaign."
• Choose your existing campaign and follow the steps to add your new ad.

faq/optimizing/03_best_performing

Is there a best performing ad?

Test variations of your best performing ads to see which attribute(s) of the ad makes it successful. There is no cost to run more than one ad on a campaign and multi-ad campaigns help you find out which creative assets work best for you. To create a modified version of your existing ad:

• Hover over the ad in your Private Library and click "Customize."
• Modify one attribute of your ad, such as the background color or the call to action, and then click "Next."
• Click "Save as" and rename the ad, then click "Save & close."
• Hover over the ad your private library and click "Add to campaign".
• Choose your existing campaign and follow the steps to add the new ad.

To make changes to your campaign details:

• Click on the "Campaigns" tab.
• Click on the campaign name you'd like to optimize.
• Click "Edit" to make your changes and then click "Save".