Yahoo has launched "SmartAds", a product that blends brand and direct response advertising. It allows advertisers to target their message and creative on-the-fly. It is triggered by online user behavior derived from both cookie-based data and information collected from Yahoo members who sign in.

During the 4 month beta testing period, "SmartAds" generally resulted in clickthrough rates of 2 to 3 times higher than static, non-personalized display ads using the same targeting and placement. The company is seeking a patent on the technology behind "SmartAds".

For many large marketers, the promise of behavioral, and demographic targeting has been limited. Being able to create thousands of ads aimed at individual groups, and then keeping those ads current as promotions and prices evolve is not an easy feat.With "SmartAds", agencies can design a set of individual rich media creative assets and a database of offers, and then let the technology assemble on-the-fly combinations.

For now, "SmartAds" are not available in this part of the world, but when they are eventually launched, CPM (Cost per thousand) and CPC (Cost per click) based pricing should be made available.

Google has opened its pay-per-action (PPA)* AdSense beta to qualifying advertisers worldwide, following a 3 month closed trial period.

*The PPA service is a new pricing model that allows advertisers to pay only when a user on their site completes specific actions that the advertisers define. Rather than paying for clicks or impressions, advertisers can choose to pay when a user makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, or completes any other clearly defined action that they choose.

Advertisers can set up different payments for different actions; for instance, a company may pay a higher amount for a customer acquisition than for e-mail address collection. The PPA ads will only appear on Google’s network of AdSense publisher sites, not in Google's search results, as cost-per-click buys do.

While online retailers and e-commerce sites seem like the obvious candidates for PPA campaigns, the pricing model has value for anyone in the business of lead generation. Most advertisers have a specific number of conversions, or a specific ROI they're looking for, and this model can bring those two together.

Cost-per-action or CPA has been around for a while and advertisers have had CPA options outside of Google. Yahoo for example now sells on a CPA basis through its recently acquired Right Media Exchange. Whereas CPA may appear to offer the holy grail of performance-based advertising, it is also important to recognize its limitations and campaign fit within the overall consumer’s path to purchase.

For more details, you can visit the website:
http://services.google.com/payperaction/

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