Yahoo, Media.net launch contextual ads programme

Contextual advertising company Media.net (part of the Directi Group) has announced a long-term agreement with Yahoo to launch Yahoo Bing Network Contextual Ads, powered by Media.net. The programme aims to provide web publishers with a new solution for earning advertising revenue. Publishers can now use the Media.net platform to create and customise ad units that display relevant text ads from across the Yahoo Bing Network.

"Teaming up with Yahoo allows us to offer web publishers with a solution that generates additional revenue for them and provides customisation, control and flexibility that they would like," said Divyank Turakhia, founder and CEO at Media.net.

Media.net is a contextual advertising company backed by certain funds managed by Ashmore Investment Management Ltd, a subsidiary of Ashmore Group plc and is part of the Directi Group of businesses. The company has over 400 employees and has offices in the US, Dubai and India (Mumbai and Bangalore).

As part of the agreement, Media.net will exclusively manage technology, business operations and relationships with respect to publishers worldwide for the programme. Yahoo will manage technology, business operations and relationships with respect to advertisers and drive advertiser sales worldwide. Additionally, Yahoo will also manage all aspects of network operations to adhere to existing quality traffic standards.

The programme is currently limited only to websites that primarily receive majority of their traffic from the US, Canada or UK and is designed to work for websites that have premium content, where placing contextually relevant ads could result in high user engagement rates. Advertisers can access this publisher inventory by signing up with the Yahoo Bing Network.

Select an ad size and copy-paste the HTML provided on their web pages to start displaying targeted sponsored links and ad topics.

Use the Media.net platform to pick from multiple ad sizes, skin the ads to match their look-and-feel requirements and request highly customized ad units.

Influence the ad targeting on a web page by providing hints (keywords) and block unwanted advertisers and ad topics.

Can run ad units in tandem or in place of current ads. They can also choose to display mobile optimised ad units on their web pages to users browsing the site from any iOS, Android and Blackberry device.

Additionally, proprietary Media.net technology scans all the content on web pages and delivers highly relevant ads, while full-time ad specialists from Media.net provide support to publishers. Ad units consist of sponsored links, ad topics or a combination of both, as determined on an impression-by-impression basis to maximise ad yield.

The implementation of the deal has already begun with contextual ads appearing on several Yahoo properties.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)