WebProNews

Today Yahoo announced the addition of three new targeting options for Yahoo Search Marketing ads. They are demographic targeting, ad scheduling, and enhanced ZIP-level geo-targeting.

Hopefully you were sitting down when you read that because Yahoo thinks the news will blow you away. "We try not to oversell the changes we make to Sponsored Search — sometimes a button is just a button, after all," says Yahoo Search Marketing Blog editor Jeff Sweat. "So, we hope you’ll pay attention when we tell you this: the new targeting features we’re adding right now are kind of a big deal."

The demographic targeting allows advertisers to select audiences based on age and gender on Yahoo sites in both sponsored search and Content Match, then set a premium bid for those groups.

The ad scheduling option allows advertisers to go after specific time-slots. Ads can be scheduled for the advertiser's own business hours, or just when they think the target audience is most likely to be online.

The ZIP-level geo-targeting feature is available for both sponsored search and Content Match. Geo-targeting settings can be mixed at different levels within the same campaign or ad group. It also comes with new dynamic mapping features that allow advertisers to select individual ZIP codes and surrounding ones.

More targeting options are always good for advertisers, particularly when budgets are tight. There's nothing quite as effective as getting an ad in front of the exact people it was meant for.