This Is Yahoo's More Transparent Answer to Set-It-and-Forget-It ...

Yahoo is releasing Blueprint Performance, its answer to artificial-intelligence-powered media buying tools like Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+. Only it’s adding a welcomed dose of transparency.

This is the latest update to its AI engine, Yahoo Blueprint, launched in December 2023, which includes features like media buying recommendations in Yahoo’s demand-side platform. Blueprint Performance can now act on those placement recommendations, improving performance.

Over 50 of Yahoo’s advertisers that participated in early Blueprint Performance tests saw a 30% improvement in campaign performance, such as audience targeting acquisition goals, compared to controls, Adam Roodman, Yahoo’s senior vice president of product strategy and management, told ADWEEK. The company wouldn’t share specific numbers.

“A lot of feedback [we get] from our buyers is that they want control,” said Roodman. With Blueprint Performance, “advertisers can see where savings and the performance increases are coming from in the reporting, and that’s a level of transparency that we’re committed to offer.”

Blueprint relies on first-party data from Yahoo’s owned-and-operated sites, and location and purchase data from people logged in with Yahoo email addresses.

However, it’s not the only DSP offering AI-powered media buying recommendations. The Trade Desk’s Koa aims to give buyers more transparency compared to the black-box nature of PMax or Advantage+.

“Yahoo is known to be more of a performance-focused DSP than The Trade Desk,” said Shiv Gupta, founder, U of Digital. “That intrinsically gives them a little bit of an advantage.”

Blueprint Performance is available to all Yahoo DSP buyers through an opt-in toggle. The tool ingests 10 times more data signals, such as user behavior or traffic, making more accurate campaign predictions, and it speeds the feedback loop by 90%, said Roodman.

“Our more accurate predictions find users that will have a higher likelihood of converting at the right price,” he added.

In other words, if an advertiser was getting 10 conversions on a campaign at $100, Blueprint Performance, thanks to its AI boost, can guarantee 20 conversions at the same cost.

This means more conversions at lower costs, reducing cost per action, whether that’s clicks, conversions or purchases, said Roodman.

Ultimately, higher-performing campaigns should lead to more ad budgets flowing through Yahoo’s DSP.

Advertising agency PMG was testing Blueprint Performance in May, focussing on performance and direct-response key performance indicators for its client. The agency saw a 50% decrease in CPA and nearly an 80% increase in return on ad spend compared to the previous month, Jon Malooly, director of programmatic at PMG, told ADWEEK.

Several of PMG’s clients have tested Blueprint Performance, and it plans to transition more advertisers over.

“Blueprint Performance shows a trending graph with a variety of dimensions, from line to ad size and location, and understanding the bid requests or impressions coming in,” he said. “The biggest win is that it’s using AI and machine learning to make the make smarter bidding.”

Yahoo’s stance on giving advertisers more transparency, similar to The Trade Desk’s Koa, is counter to the approach taken by PMax and Meta Advantage+, said Gupta.

“One of the big things that marketers hate about PMax and Advantage+ is that they’re black boxes,” he added.

Broadly, PMax doesn’t allow for granular channel-specific controls and has minimal reporting, so advertisers don’t understand where their campaigns perform well, or if ads are served next to harmful content.

With Blueprint Performance, buyers can dictate where they want ads to be delivered, how often and at what price, and they have the ability to adjust campaigns, seeing how they perform at the publisher level, Yahoo said.

This puts Yahoo in an advantageous position.

“You’re going to see more of the industry do this, especially catering to the mid-tier brand advertisers,” said Michael Ouellette senior vp, marketer, agency and tech strategy at Prohaska Consulting.