Yahoo, under the direction of Marissa Mayer, has launched a new and innovative ad product for search--cost per lead.
The new ad unit will appear as one line below the advertiser profile within the organic listings. This call-to-action & ad unit hybrid will help build value for the search engine during a disappointing partnership period with Microsoft.
The new ad unit called Cost Per Lead for Search will collect information from interested buyers. Web advertisers can select a headline, logo and create up to six individual input fields for the user to fill out. Even after the form is submitted the "thank you" message following the submission can be customized to the advertisers liking.
The example above is from Match.com's Yahoo search result.
Yahoo also states that they verify all submissions so that marketers don't need to worry about spam or illegitimate submissions. The cost for the new advertising tool will vary by product/service and the advertiser size and vertical.
Most significantly, the ads do not change the position of organic listings. Instead, it simply “annotates” the organic listing, Yahoo states.
