In paid search, growth is key. Growth within current platforms and new platforms are going to be the driving factors to entice new users to your site. We are a generation that embraces change and that is no exception for the way we use the internet. Believe it or not, there was a time before Facebook, AdWords, and Bing. As each advertising platform became available, advertisers cashed in on each opportunity to expand their customer base.

Today, I am going to walk through how to set-up Yahoo Gemini, from choosing the right campaign to tracking. We will cover the following;

  • What Yahoo Gemini can do for you
  • Campaign types
  • Creating a campaign
  • Ad group settings
  • Ad copy
  • Keywords
  • Tracking

What Yahoo Gemini Can Do For You

Yahoo Gemini gives you the ability to reach additional customers based on users interests, what they are actively searching for, and new users who aren’t familiar with your brand. You can reach customers using both Search and Native ads.

Yahoo Gemini gives you the ability to reach additional customers. Click To Tweet

Campaign Types

Once you sign-up for Yahoo Gemini, you will be directed to the advertiser page where you can knock out your first campaign. There are three different campaign types that you can select, each with a different objective.

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Visit My Website

This campaign type is for those who simply want to get users to your site. This strategy may be best for:

  • Users searching for your brand
  • Users searching for your product
  • Showing Native ads to previous site visitors or purchasers
  • Showing Native ads to users who may be interested in your product

This campaign type is a general CPC campaign where you will be charged for each click. In terms of ad type, you can choose Search or Native ads, which we will discuss a little later on.

Know My Brand

This campaign type is for those who want to promote their brand and get users to be familiar with their brand and products. This type may be best for:

  • General brand awareness
  • Re-branding efforts
  • Introducing new products
  • Sales and promotions

With this campaign type, you can run Native ads and Video ads. In terms of pricing, it is a CPM bidding model, meaning you pay based on impressions and not based on who actually clicked on an ad. This allows you to simply get your message in front of users.

Download My App

This campaign type is for those who want to increase mobile and tablet app installs. This type may be best for:

  • Promoting a new or existing app
  • Additional brand and product awareness

With this campaign type, you can run Native and Video ads similar to the brand awareness campaign. In terms of pricing, an advertiser would be charged for every click.

Creating A Campaign

Once you determine which campaign type or types are right for you, you can get to the campaign specifics.

First, you are prompted to select all of the campaign details.

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They are as follows:

  • Campaign name
  • Type – Here is where you choose which type of ads you want to run.
    • Search and Native – Think AdWords Search and Display but with a twist in terms of how the ad is displayed
    • Search only
    • Native only
  • Search partners or no search partners?
  • Define your audience (only if Native ad type is selected) – Here you will decide where your ads will be shown, language, age, gender, interests, devices, and ad schedule. All of these settings are similar to those on other platforms
  • Basic campaign settings – Here is where you set the budget and conversion tracking settings, which we will go over in a bit.
  • Ad extensions – Yes or no?

Ad Group Settings

Next, you will select your ad group settings. They are as follows:

    • Ad group name – You can have more than one, but you initially set up this first ad group
    • Schedule – If you want to want to launch the ad group, choose start and end date here
    • Define your audience – You can choose to either use the campaign level settings or ad group specific audience settings
    • Ad extensions – Again, yes or no?

Ad Copy

Next, you will choose your ad copy. Based on the campaign type you selected, you will be limited on which ad formats you can use but I will cover them all below.

Text Ads

You are most likely the most familiar with this format. Similar to Google and Bing, you can create text ads that include a headline, description, display URL, and final URL. The ad text requirements are shown below.

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One unique feature of Yahoo Gemini Search ads compared to those of Google or Bing is that you can also select a call-to-action button to be included.

Native Ads

These are ads that show in-line with content and take the focus from the fact that they are still ads. In the screenshot below, you can see how they compare to a general search ad.

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For Native ads, you will select either a large rectangular image or a square image.

Video Ads

For video ads, you can select a video up to 1gb in size.

Keywords

Finally, if your campaign type is to drive site visits and you are running Search ads, you will choose your keywords. These are keywords that are relevant to your site and that users will actively search.

Tracking

So you have everything set-up, but how do you know what’s working and what isn’t? That’s where tracking comes in!

While in Yahoo Gemini, on the right-hand side go to “Settings > View tag code.” Here you will see the conversion code associated with your account. The code will need to be placed on all pages of the site.

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After the code is placed on all pages you will want to create your conversion action(s). This setup is similar to how Bing UET tracking runs. From the menu bar go to “Shared library > Conversion rules.”

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At this point, you will define what a conversion action would look like based on the action of the user. They are as follows:

  • Website URL – A conversion would be counted when a user hits a specific page
  • Custom web events – A conversion would be counted based on actions taken within the site
  • In-app events – A conversion would be taken based on actions taken within the app. (e.i., in-app purchases)

Conclusion

So there you have it. All the basic steps required to set-up your very own Yahoo Gemini account. While every account is different, we all have the same objective to increase reach and bring in users who fit within our consumer model. By branching out and utilizing as many platforms as we can, we can achieve that objective.