As an avid search engine marketer, seeing announcements like this has me very excited for the future of this medium. Yahoo announced the new SmartAds platform that allows marketers to show very targeted banner ad content that will match user interests.

Text ads on Google, Yahoo, and MSN already allow you to show targeted ads to a specific searcher. Now, banner ads on search related sites will also be custom made for the expressed interests of the user. Awesome!

From the press release:

Yahoo! SmartAds is powered by Yahoo!’s leading behavioral, demographic and geographic targeting capabilities and aim to connect users with what they are looking for based on their distinctive, expressed interests. For example, if a user is browsing for hybrid cars in Yahoo! Autos and has selected San Francisco as their default location in Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo!’s SmartAds platform can assemble and deliver a display ad in real time that showcases a hybrid vehicle from a major auto brand, as well as local dealer information and current lease rates. This provides a relevant experience to the user and allows the marketer to reach a user who is likely to become a customer.

In addition, Yahoo!’s patent-pending SmartAds platform allows advertisers and agencies to design a single set of individual creative components, provide Yahoo! with that artwork and a feed to their entire database of offers, then allow Yahoo!’s SmartAds technology to automatically generate the hundreds – if not thousands – of unique ad combinations based on those components. This helps advertisers and agencies scale to take full advantage of all of Yahoo!’s audience targeting capabilities while maintaining control over how their brand is presented.

One important note is that Yahoo is rolling this out only to its travel vertical to start. More industry verticals will follow in the coming months.

Banner ads as a method of advertising needs a boost and technology like this will give it just that. Imagine showing customized video content in a banner ad!