How to get the most out of Yahoo Gemini

While the majority of paid search advertisers’ spend this year will go to the larger search engines like Google and Bing, advertisers may wish to consider Yahoo Gemini when expanding their marketing mix.

Expanding out to different channels not only allows for increased coverage, but it can also help you gain incremental revenue at a fraction of the cost charged by the larger engines.

In this article, I’ll be covering the ins and outs of the mobile and native advertising ‘unified marketplace‘.

What is Yahoo Gemini?

Yahoo Gemini is a platform that allows for search, shopping, and native advertising campaigns that serve in the U.S. and C.A., with plans to expand to other countries.

Previously, Bing Ads has allowed advertisers to serve ads on Yahoo properties, but much of that is changing now that Gemini is ramping up.

Currently, all mobile traffic on Yahoo properties has moved from getting Bing ads to being served Gemini ads. This includes tablet traffic as well.

More than 70% of Yahoo’s mobile traffic is currently occurring on Yahoo Search. Also, 49% of desktop traffic on Yahoo properties has also moved from Bing Ads to Gemini, and it is likely that more will continue to shift in this direction during the coming months.

Search advertising on Gemini

Running search campaigns on Gemini has proven fruitful, with low CPCs due to the lack of competition and steady conversion rates compared to other channels. However, it can be tricky to manage.

The first thing to do when you open a Gemini account, is to request a representative who can help with large uploads on the backend, as the interface leaves quite a bit to be desired.

There is a possibility that Gemini will soon accept Google imports though. Fingers-crossed that this update goes through before the holidays!

Top recommendations for search campaigns include:

• Duplicate your campaign structure from either Google or Bing to cut down on setup time. You can always tweak the campaign later if needed.
• If copying over campaigns, make sure you decrease your CPCs significantly. Currently, Gemini has much lower CPCs than other channels.
• Don’t just think about brand campaigns, as volume will likely be low. Include generic campaigns as well to increase your reach.
• For all campaigns types, understand the tracking. While revenue tracking will be available soon, currently Gemini pixels can only count the quantity of conversions, not the revenue associated with them. Make sure you are using GA or another data source to capture revenue from Gemini.

Shopping Campaigns for Gemini

Though still in pilot, Gemini is also testing Gemini Product Ads.

In order to set this up, contact your Gemini representative. They’ll need you to share your product feed, either via URL/fetching method or by having you upload your feed file to the Yahoo Dropbox.

For easier setup, they will also request an export of your Google Shopping Campaigns. If you are an ecommerce retailer currently running Shopping Campaigns on either Google or Bing, see if you can get into the pilot. Once you are in, consider these recommendations for navigating Gemini Product Ads.

Top recommendations for Gemini Product Ads include: 

• Work with your representative to see if you are able to emulate everything you are currently doing in Shopping, and make tweaks as needed.
• Keep in mind that you may need to slightly adjust your feed, but the majority of it will be compatible with Gemini Product Ads.
• You’ll want to decrease bids since you’ll likely get lower CPCs here, but you may consider leaving CPCs stable for your best performing products to ensure they get adequate volume.

Running Gemini Product Ads will be a huge win for ecommerce retailers this holiday season, especially those looking to earn incremental traffic.

Native Advertising on Gemini

At the core of Gemini is the idea of native advertising. Native advertising is a form of online advertising that seeks to match the form and function of the site or platform in which the ad appears. For example, if you are reading a travel blog on your mobile, there may be travel related ads integrated so well into the blog that you don’t even realize you are actually interacting with paid content.

The key to native advertising is making sure that you show relevant content, offering ads or sponsored content that reflects a logical next step for your user as opposed to something that will detract from their browsing experience.

Native ads on Gemini can be formatted as text, display, or video ads and fall into three typical targeting methods:

1. Use Gemini’s ‘personalization’ engine: for this type of targeting, you don’t set any demographic targets on your ads upfront. Instead, you allow Gemini’s own algorithm to learn who your target is and how to best reach them across the web-based on conversion history.
2. Select your own targets: from within Gemini you can select locations, age ranges, genders and interests or any combination thereof to ensure you are serving ads to those in your target.
3. Have a Gemini representative organize a remarketing list for you: Use ad clicks from your Gemini search campaigns to retarget on Yahoo properties – creating a Custom Audience of sorts. As we all know, remarketing is a no-brainer, just make sure you are getting creative with your messaging when using this type of targeting.

I suggest that you to use an innovative and unique strategy that overlaps these as needed in order to reach your ideal target.

Top recommendations for native ads include:

• Your ad copy for Native Ads can be longer than for your search ads, so make sure you are making use of those extra characters.
• Consider the type of content your ads may run alongside, and ensure that your ads are formatted similarly. For example, we prefer to use sentence case capitalization instead of title case capitalization in our ad text to make us mesh better with the content on site.
• Along the lines of fitting in with other content, you’ll want to consider your images if you are running display ads. We’ve heard that people-based imagery is getting higher CTRs than product-based imagery.

If you are running any Gemini campaigns yourself, give us your two cents in the comments below.