Three weeks ago, Yahoo introduced its new ranking model to the search world. Armed with new ad grouping, geo-targeting, and quality score features, the platform already seems to be yielding very positive results for the company.
New Ranking Model Gives Yahoo A Boost
This release of this data is a welcome sign for Yahoo. Let’s face it; the company has been desperate for some good press for quite a while now, and comScore’s announcement could not have come at a better time.
So what exactly do the figures indicate for Yahoo?
First you have to consider the starting point of reference, which for comScore was the week ending February 4, 2007, just before Panama’s launch. The metrics firm look at the sponsored search click-through rates (the total clicks on sponsored search ads divided by total number of s
earches) for the period just before Panama, and then the next two weeks of click-through data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the new ranking model.
As a result, comScore’s data indicates that for each of the two weeks in question (weeks ending February 11, 2007 and February 18, 2007), Yahoo experienced a noticeable surge in its click-through rates. The first week, saw a 5 percent increase, while the second showed a surge of 9 percent.
“comScore data show that the recent introduction of Yahoo!’s new search marketing ranking model is already having a positive impact on the click-through rates for Yahoo’s search advertising,” said James Lamberti, comScore senior vice president of media and search solutions.
“comScore will continue to monitor the performance of the new ranking model and plans to issue an additional analysis at the end of the first quarter.”
“While still in its early stages, any good news for Panama is good news for Yahoo! – and this early study shows plenty of good news,” added John Battelle, chairman and publisher of Federated Media and noted author.
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