Yahoo Blueprint 1 Year Anniversary

It’s been one year since we released Yahoo Blueprint, our AI-based performance engine, and what a year it’s been. Yahoo Blueprint powers key features throughout the campaign lifecycle, from planning to activation to the crucial optimization cycle that drives performance. It’s the foundation for our prediction algorithms, enabling tools such as forecasting, performance insights, and campaign recommendations, making buying in the Yahoo DSP easier, faster, and more effective.

Since launch, we've introduced several products enabled by Yahoo Blueprint, beginning with a major leap in AI-powered campaign optimization: Yahoo Blueprint Performance (YBP), an advanced, opt-in version of Yahoo Blueprint. YBP unlocks a sophisticated AI model for advertisers, capable of ingesting and processing 10 times more data with 90% faster response times to generate highly accurate predictions.¹ Since the launch of Yahoo Blueprint Performance in June of this year, nearly 70% of eligible spend has been opted-in by advertisers to utilize YBP.²

Once YBP is activated, it begins optimizing campaigns to drive results more efficiently across all verticals and throughout the advertising funnel. YBP then automatically reinvests savings into working media, maximizing the value of ad budgets with an average of 11% reinvested into campaigns.³ YBP has been so effective at providing value for advertisers that we recently introduced a feature allowing buyers to easily view these savings directly in the DSP dashboard — immediately seeing the impact this advanced algorithm provides.

‍Advertisers are winning across the funnel
‍The true strength of Yahoo Blueprint Performance is in its ability to transcend performance across the funnel. YBP excels at driving reach while balancing campaign efficiency, and its deep experience in conversion optimization generates down-funnel actions. 

Take Boost Mobile, for example. The newest nationwide carrier activated YBP from its initial release to promote its “We Built a Network” campaign. The goal of the campaign was to educate consumers on its new nationwide network, which provides Boost Mobile subscribers coverage of 99% of the U.S. in order to increase conversions. Since applying YBP with its “We Built a Network” campaign, Boost Mobile has achieved an 88% higher CTR and a 27% increase in conversion rate, all at a lower cost per action.⁴ 

‍“Turning on Yahoo Blueprint Performance has been a game-changer for Boost Mobile customer acquisition; it’s allowed us to connect with consumers where they are to drive user actions more effectively while maximizing our budget,” said Caine Junginger, Programmatic Marketing Lead at Boost Mobile. 

‍CTV and the power of Yahoo Blueprint Performance
‍This past year, we’ve seen the power of Yahoo Blueprint across various features and channels, including dynamic creative through Yahoo Creative, but we see the biggest opportunities in CTV. With CTV ad spend projected to grow 13%, reaching $32.6 billion by 2025,⁶ Yahoo Blueprint Performance provides advertisers the opportunity to more effectively maximize their CTV investments. Traditionally viewed as an upper-funnel tactic, CTV is now delivering lower-funnel impact as it becomes more accessible programmatically. This shift is largely driven by the ability to leverage advanced targeting strategies, as well as adopting AI-enabled optimization capabilities like Yahoo Blueprint Performance. Overall, we’ve observed an 8% improvement in CPMs and a 12% improvement in CPAs on average across all CTV campaigns leveraging Yahoo Blueprint Performance.⁷ 

‍Expanding into LIVE CTV
‍As more streaming platforms add live sports to their offerings, many holdouts may finally cut the cord. In fact, 70% of sports viewers are projected to watch sports digitally by 2025, equating to 114 million viewers.⁸ While this is an exciting opportunity, live sports and events can pose challenges for advertisers due to the millions of concurrent viewers, creating surges in unpredictable avails within the CTV bidstream. These surges can lead to audience overfrequency and cause advertisers to exhaust their budgets too early in the day while leaving publishers with valuable supply unfilled later in the event. 

To address these challenges and ensure CTV buyers capitalize on the value of live sports and event advertising, we enhanced our pacing algorithm within Yahoo Blueprint Performance. This update allows us to respond to traffic spikes 10 times faster, enabling advertisers buying in live sports to achieve smoother pacing and more precise delivery against their daily budget.⁹

This advancement benefits not only advertisers but also publishers: 

‍“As more consumers flock to streaming for live programming and tentpole events – especially on properties like ESPN – these innovations and technological investments from Yahoo enable more effective real-time bidding against the unpredictability of live content while ensuring scalable reach and intentional connections with consumers, leading to higher fill rates and ultimately benefitting both our advertisers and viewers alike." - Matt Barnes, VP of Programmatic Sales at Disney

‍What’s next
‍As we look ahead to 2025, we’re working hard to explore new ways to deliver value for advertisers. This includes advanced recommendations, strategies for optimizing campaigns across multiple objectives, and the launch of Blueprint IQ, a generative AI chatbot designed to quickly address advertiser questions, enabling faster and more effective campaign creation and optimization. 

Yahoo Blueprint has quickly become a valuable asset for advertisers, delivering improvements across the campaign funnel and channels. By leveraging advanced AI-driven optimization, Yahoo Blueprint helps advertisers increase engagement rates, drive meaningful actions, and create a more efficient path to achieving their goals. Stay tuned for updates on these exciting developments!

‍Sources

^{¹Internal Yahoo Data, H1 2024
²Internal Yahoo Data, Q4 2024
³Internal Yahoo Data, H2 2024
⁴Internal Yahoo Data, Q2 2024
⁵Internal Yahoo Data, Q2 2024
⁶eMarketer, March 2024
⁷Internal Yahoo Data, Q4 2024
⁸eMarketer, September 2024
⁹Internal Yahoo Data, Q4 2024}

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