• Ad Age, Monday, June 22, 2009 12:45 PM

Yahoo is bidding to win over local advertisers that may have never tried display with a new self-service ad product called My Display Ads. "This just opens up access to small advertisers, which we think is important to the overall market," said Yahoo Sales Senior VP Joanne Bradford. One of the chief goals of My Display Ads is to convert search advertisers to display. Google, MySpace and Facebook already offer similar self-serve advertising products; AOL is developing one, too.

As Ad Age's Michael Learmonth notes, local advertisers spend $13.6 billion annually on TV, print, radio and other media. And right now, "it's a bit of a free-for-all" as automotive, real estate and media company advertisers scale back their spending, while looking for cheaper alternatives.

Self-service ads may be the answer. "Google got there first, but there's an opportunity to make the self-service side of media a little easier," says Curt Hecht, president of VivaKi Nerve Center, a major buyer of online ads.

For My Display Ads, Yahoo partnered with Seattle-based startup AdReady, which provides tools for advertisers to create display ads, similar to what Spot Runner did for the local TV market. Advertisers can choose from more than 800 display templates, or they can bring their own. Ads are purchased on a CPM basis or through a pay-per-click auction, and inventory in the system includes all Yahoo properties, even the Right Media exchange.

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