Yahoo! Tests Mobile Search Ads in the U.S.

Yahoo! has launched a test program delivering pay-per-click ads on searches done over the Yahoo! Mobile Web service in the U.S. and the U.K.

Users who perform a wireless Internet search using the Yahoo! service may see sponsored search results that are relevant to the terms they’re searching on. They will be able to click on those ads and be taken either to the advertiser’s mobile Web site or to a landing page that will give them more information about the advertiser and the ability to set up a call from the ad.

The small size of the mobile screen will limit display to one sponsored listing per search results page.

Right now, the test is being conducted with a “select” group of 100 advertisers, but the search company says it will expand that pool of participants as the test progresses.

“Our test deployment s have been very successful, with strong advertiser demand and consumer engagement, which makes us very excited to bring our sponsored search listings to an even wider audience,” Yahoo!’s senior vice president for mobile and broadband Steve Boom said in a release.

Both Google and Yahoo! have testing PPC ads on mobile search results in the Japanese market for about a year, and have also run limited tests in the U.S. and Britain.

In announcing its launch of a wide test of mobile search ads in the U.S. and U.K., Yahoo! is following in the footsteps of Google, which debuted its own mobile PPC tests in those markets and Germany in early September.

Finding a workable way to transfer keyword-based pay-per-click (PPC) ads to mobile devices is part of the search engines’ plans to broaden their ad revenue streams beyond the PC. With wider public adoption, mobile search could become an important secondary market for search advertising.

The question is how long it will take U.S. and European users to acquire the mobile Web habit, including mobile search. In August, a survey sponsored by the mobile search arm of the Mobile Marketing Association asked 587 U.S. adults about their awareness and use of mobile search. The study found that 31% of respondents had used mobile search for the first time within the previous month. Of those who had not tried it, about half expressed the intention to use mobile search over the next few months; and 48% of non-users said they expected to conduct at least one mobile search per week.

There’s also some question about consumer acceptance of mobile search ads in the U.S. The survey done for the MMA found that 41% of respondents said sponsored links would not have an impact on their use of mobile search — leaving the implication that for 59% of the audience group, ads might be a turn-off, at least if not presented discreetly.

Mobile research firm M:Metrics found that for June, July and August 2006, Google had about 4.5 million users per month accessing its mobile search function, while Yahoo!’s monthly mobile search traffic averaged 3.8 million for the same period.