Google Ads vs. Yahoo Ads – Which Is a Winner?

In appealing to more online businesses, the recent era of online marketing has turned highly competitive. These days, you get multi-faceted options that can cater to your varied advertising requirements.

Google and Yahoo, two of the giant search engines, are involved in fierce competition, and needless to say, the subject revolves around advertising itself.

Both of the channels offer different types of audience exposure along with different services. You can take this post as a detailed comparison of Google ads and Yahoo ads. Let’s check out which one is better!

Google ads vs. Yahoo ads – The Differences

Let’s delve deeper and find out the primary differences between Google ads and Yahoo ads.

1. Popularity

If asked who the search mammoth of the 21st century is, the obvious answer is Google. A recent report says that Google accounted for around 90% of worldwide desktop and mobile searches, and the US secured the number one position in terms of visitors.

On the other hand, Yahoo has a selected user base that is quite knowledgeable and refined. To keep it straightforward, you can say that Google is for all. It has left Yahoo behind in terms of popularity.

2. Competition

As Google has a greater reach, it’s a sure thing; placing ads on Google will allow them to gain better visibility. However, the downside is, it creates room for more competition.

There will be numerous ads competing for securing the top positions of Search Engine Results Page (SERP). You need to be active enough to optimize your keywords, bids, and campaigns repeatedly.

Contrarily, Yahoo experiences lesser searches than Google, which makes the volume of competition significantly lower. As a result, it looks far easier to rank your ad on the Yahoo result page. However, you need to keep in mind that lesser competition reduces visibility.

3. Ad Structure

Google ads are amazingly intuitive and user-friendly. Put simply; Google will provide you almost everything to build and run an ad campaign. The list includes analytic tools and a keyword planner.

Additionally, the structure of the ads is also pretty simple. You can organize campaigns, and you can find campaigns for every type of business you have. They are –

• Search ads, which shows up on search results page
• Display ads, the typical image-based ads
• Video ads, which are displayed on YouTube
• Shopping ads – for eCommerce businesses
• Universal Apps – app install campaigns
• And more

Also, you can find customized campaign types for certain businesses like Hotels.

The versatility of campaigns empowers you with massive diversity in terms of visibility.

Now talking about Yahoo ads, it prefers specificity over user-friendliness. The types of ads Yahoo offers includes but is not limited to –

• Video ad – in the form of videos
• Display ads – image ads
• App install ads
• Carousel ad – uses multiple images to tell stories
• Yahoo mail ads – ads in the users inbox
• Moments ad – mobile ad experience across leading Yahoo O&O apps

You can better define CTR as the method of tracking the performance of your ad. The formula of CTR is simple; all you need to do is take the number of clicks received by your ads and divide it by the number of times it shows up – impressions.

Google’s typical CTR average is 2%, while Yahoo ads’ CTR is pretty much higher. The possible reason behind this is the greater count of shopping and financial ads combined with Yahoo’s prospects.

The Yahoo demographic contains people of the middle age group with higher incomes. Naturally, it enhances the chances of more ad clicks and conversions. It directly raises the CTR.

In a one-liner, Yahoo ads get the upper hand when it comes to talking about CTR.

4. Bids

The pricing of the bids goes a bit higher for Google ads. This occurs because of the vigorous competition. You may need to spend more money on keyword bids with Google ads. However, you will enjoy a good return on your investment.

On the other hand, Yahoo ads deal with lower competition, which lowers the bidding amount. However, the competition is less because Yahoo ads work with a smaller audience base than Google ads. Naturally, it decreases the ad’s visibility.

5. Keyword search volume

Being the largest search engine, Google ads come with the ability to reach more people. Therefore, its keywords experience a greater search volume.

Yahoo ads drastically lack in this parameter.

6. Filter options and social extensions

Both Google ads and Yahoo ads allow you to filter your target audience to the same degree.

Both Yahoo and Google ads come with filtering options that allow you to set age filters for your search ads, which make the targeting more precise.

Additionally, Yahoo also allows leveraging the advantage of social extensions. Social extensions are a line of copy on your ad that shows your visitors the number of social media followers your business holds.

Google ads can only display the number of Google+ followers that your business has.

 Conclusion- Google Ads vs Yahoo Ads

Well, if it’s about picking up between Google ads or Yahoo ads, both of the channels can drive value to your business. While Google enables you access to a large audience from various demographics, Yahoo helps you with a refined audience base.

With Google, you can bet that your ad is going to be displayed on the world’s most preferred search engine, while with Yahoo, you can bet on the logical search.

Google ads are fiercely competitive. Yahoo ads, however, come with a moderate yet filtered competency level.

You may need to pay a few bucks more out of your pocket to run Google ads. Conversely, Yahoo ads are pretty cost-efficient.

The tradeoff here is, Yahoo’s traffic is considerably lower compared to Google’s. Therefore, Yahoo may offer you the opportunity of positioning your ads higher against a lesser cost, but it won’t ever make them as visible as Google ads. This limitation may look discouraging enough for large-scale businesses that have a greater budget for marketing.

Hence, before you seal the deal, consider your requirements and expectations well. This will help you choose the best alternative to fulfill your ultimate marketing goal. After all, it’s conversion or sales figures that every business strives for!

If you need any help running your Google ads, contact me today so that we can grow your business together…