Content Match complements your Sponsored Search campaign and can display your ads when Internet users view related articles, product reviews and other content on our partners’ pages. Content Match is similar to Sponsored Search in the sense that it’s based on a pay-per-click pricing model; however, it does not use individual keyword-search matching. Instead, with Content Match, your ads are matched to content pages; placement can be determined by the relevance of your keyword(s) to the page content, as well as the content of your ad’s title, description and landing page, and user information. Like Sponsored Search, you pay only when your ad is clicked.

Content Match can provide you with the following benefits:

• An additional source of targeted leads.
• A marketing tool used to promote brand awareness
• Allows you to display ads on sites throughout our distribution partner network, which includes Yahoo! and numerous other content and information sites.
• Allow you the option to to define a separate bids for your Content Match ads.

How It Works

1. For example, let’s say you own a company called Electronics Planet that sells products on its web site.
2. You decide to set up a Content Match campaign and ad group.
3. You decide on a few targeted keywords related to “DVD players” and place one bid at the ad group level for all keywords
4. You create an ad with a title, description and landing page.
5. When a potential customer visits a web page related to “DVD players,” your ad may display (see image below).
6. You pay only when your ad is clicked and you are never charged more than your bid.

Put your business here¹

¹Site implementations may vary.

Content Match Best Practices

The first campaign created in your account during the signup process is opted into Sponsored Search only. When you add a new campaign in your account, you’ll be prompted to create an ad group and choose a distribution tactic (Yahoo! Search Marketing offers two tactics for distributing your ads online—Sponsored Search can display your ads along with Yahoo! search results and Content Match can display your ads along with content pages). While Content Match is selected by default, you have the option to deselect Content Match as a distribution tactic.

Important Considerations

Before you choose to display ads via Content Match, consider the differences between it and Sponsored Search:

• Bids for Content Match are set at the ad group level only, not the keyword level.
• Because matching is not based solely on individual keywords, it’s especially important to have very targeted ad groups, with only a few keywords in each.
• Ads should be written with very specific content tailored to your target audience.

Some Helpful Tips

Content Match can drive a lot of traffic to your web site. You may find it useful as a tool for brand awareness and lead generation. Below are some Content Match management tips that may help you manage your Content Match campaigns as you determine whether Content Match effectively supports your advertising goals.

• Manage your Content Match campaigns separately from Sponsored Search, as well as track their performance separately. This will help your determine whether Content Match is cost-efficient for your business and produces the desired traffic volume.


• Choose keywords for each ad group carefully. Carefully grouping the keywords into relevant ad groups will allow you to craft more specific ads, test different landing pages which may help increase conversions and may ultimately increase your overall ad quality. Using our electronics store example, if you sell electronic products on your site, the table below represents how you might group keywords related to ‘camera,’ ‘video games’ and ‘DVD players’ into separate ad groups:




Keywords	Ad Group	Ads
digital camera cheap digital camera best digital camera	Cameras	Cameras Widest selection of digital cameras at low prices. www.electronics-planet.com
video games buy video games affordable video games	Video Games	Video Games Hottest selling video games at low prices. www.electronics-planet.com
dvd players cheap dvd players buy dvd players	DVD players	DVD Players Get deals on all DVD players. www.electronics-planet.com



• Start out with bids that are in line with your business objectives. Adjust bids by increasing or decreasing them depending on your business objectives and by calculating the revenue generated from the keywords and the associated costs. You might also consider starting with a Content Match campaign for one product type, then expanding to add campaigns for more product types. Once you have awareness of your traffic and costs, experiment with spending limits to get the most meaningful traffic from your Content Match campaigns.


• Choose descriptive copy for your Content Match ads. Content Match ads should be focused on qualifying your brand and descriptive of the products/services you provide since users are browsing and your brand isn’t necessarily top of mind. Some additional ad writing tips include:
• Using call-to-action phrases such as 'register now,' 'get a free quote' and 'call now' can help to attract an Internet user’s attention, as well as filter your site visitors before they reach your site.
• Prominently displaying special offers or promotions in the ad, especially product prices can help you showcase your best deals within the ad.
• Linking your ad to customized landing pages that match the information in your ad text and are clear and easy to navigate.
• Testing different titles and descriptions, as well as landing pages in your ads to determine which perform better.
• Schedule your Content Match campaigns to sync up with other advertising you’re doing. For example, if you’re running a Sponsored Search campaign for a promotion you are having, you can use a few keywords from your Sponsored Search campaign to create your accompanying Content Match campaign. Similarly, you can run a Content Match campaign to accompany your marketing in offline media, such as a weekly circular or a broadcast commercial for a product launch.


• Target your ads so they can display for specific geographic audiences. You can use the geo-targeting feature to select the national, regional, and local geographic areas where you would like to target your ads for display. You can also create more than one Content Match campaign with one targeting nationally and another targeting locally with separate tracking to gauge the effectiveness of each.


• Use forecasting and budgeting tools to better manage the amount you spend. When setting your bids, our forecasting tools can assist you in setting an amount by providing an estimate of the volume of traffic you might receive at a particular bid. You can also set a daily spending limit for a campaign to manage your spend and estimate your impressions and clicks.