Yahoo is growing its mobile advertising base by beginning to deliver graphical ads to wireless users who view Yahoo properties via mobile phones.
Yahoo will be testing ’slimmed-down’ banner ads and other display ads on Yahoo Mobile Web, where it has also tested Yahoo Search Marketing ads.
Eric Auchard of Reuters reports:
The brand advertising trial comes a month after Yahoo began a parallel test to deliver relevant text advertisements tied to searches phone users can perform on mobile Web browsers. That test is taking place in the United States and Britain.
Banners ads are nothing new on cellphones. Start-ups like Third Screen Media of Boston already work with ad agencies, buyers and mobile carriers to deliver ads to wireless users.
But as more and more U.S. mobile phone users own phones with fast Internet access, major Internet players are eyeing the market. On the computer Web, Yahoo is the largest provider of image-based, brand advertising and the No. 2 supplier of online search advertising behind rival Google Inc.
