Yahoo pushes native-ad recommendation boxes to publishers

Yahoo launched its native ad platform Stream Ads last year — a box located beneath articles that suggests other content to users — and now it’s pushing out its native ad service to other publishers, AdAge reports.

The recommendation boxes host content from around a publisher’s site as well as native ads, which that look and feel like the surrounding content (what we call “sponsored posts” here at VentureBeat). With the demand for native ads on the rise, advertisers and ad agencies are increasingly becoming content creators.

Unlike Taboola and other recommendation boxes that host ads and promote content from around the web, Yahoo only showcases content from a publisher’s own web site or from the Yahoo native ad network.

Yahoo’s Stream Ad service is on sports site SB Nation and gamer hub GameSpot. Yahoo makes money when consumers click on native ads, a cut of which goes to the publisher, according to AdAge.

The service has garnered interest among advertisers, especially because it’s cheaper than buying display ads — a part of Yahoo’s business that’s been on the decline. By broadening its Stream Ad service, Yahoo can hopefully make up for the ad revenue loss it’s suffered in recent quarters.

Opening up Stream Ads to other publishers is a part of Yahoo’s greater native ad expansion plan. In February, Yahoo launched Gemini, a marketplace where advertisers can buy native-ad space. Native ads for the Stream Ad service are all sourced through Gemini.

Yahoo also purchased mobile analytics company Flurry last month for $240 million; the startup runs mobile ads inside third-party apps.

The media giant is wise to venture beyond its own sites and online magazines, though this is only the beginning. It’s easy to see how Yahoo could grow even more in the future by continuing to open up its ad infrastructure to other publishers.