In an effort to increase the sales of graphical and premium advertisements, Yahoo! revealed the details of its new Advertising Management Platform or AMP. The project that is still in the developmental stages will enable Yahoo's publishing partners to place advertisements on their own sites as well as on Yahoo!. They would also be able to advertise on other sites that are adding themselves to Yahoo's growing network. The advertisers will be able to focus their advertisements by demographic and geographic targeting and user online behavior.

This step comes amid the growing competition between Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and AOL for online advertising across all sites. Since the recent acquisition of DoubleClick by Google, it is widely believed that Google would try to make headway in the online marketing arena, which as of now is being dominated by Yahoo!. According to analysts, Yahoo! has to deliver AMP on time, unlike its last big project 'Panama' which was marred by long delays.

The AMP program is mainly aimed at the following sections of online marketing:

Advertisers:

• AMP would provide enhancements to advertisers in ad-relevance and performance of online media. Main features being:
• Enable advertisers to target users from multiple sites and networks.
• Provide control and simplicity to advertisers for their business relationships with publishers and managing their return on investment (ROI).

Agencies:

AMP will greatly simplify online advertising, allowing media planners, creative users and account managers and agencies to accelerate the development of value-added services. Main features being:

1. Will facilitate buyers to use their desktops and applications, and will have broader access to broader inventory. Creative users can also design in their favorite creative tools.
2. Will enable account managers to analyze cross-publisher campaign performance data in existing analytics tools as well as offline campaign data, allowing them to make smarter recommendations on media mix and marketing ROI.

Ad Networks:

Ad networks will be able to connect to advertisers, publishers, agencies and other ad networks with an easy to use interface. Main features being:

1. Ad networks will have comprehensive access to demand and supply statistics in all inventories, and would also be provided with tools, specifically built for ad-networks to manage and grow their business.
2. To innovate in a transparent marketplace through the use of an open set of Application Programming Interface (API).

Publishers:

AMP is designed to increase revenue by targeting accelerating premium brands and performance-based advertising. Main features being:

• Advertisers will be able to perform ad selection and inventory management that are designed keeping in mind the value and relevancy of the advertisement to the user.
• Advertisers will be able to manage their own private networks.
• Will enable advertisers and publishers to link together and benefit from greater user reach and advertiser demand.
• AMP will be able to augment or replace an advertiser's ad management system according to the parts and platforms that are most relevant to the advertiser.