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Yahoo Japan search advertising tips for 2024

By Elly Kang on April 26, 2024

What is Yahoo Japan?

Yahoo Japan is the second most popular search engine in Japan, after Google. Google has a search engine market share of 78% in the country, whilst Yahoo Japan comes in second place with 11%.

However, it would perhaps be more accurate to refer to Yahoo Japan as a web portal, rather than just a search engine. And as a web portal, Yahoo Japan reigns supreme. Yahoo Japan is actually the most visited website in Japan, attracting users seeking a wide range of information and services.

The screenshot below shows what Yahoo Japan’s homepage looks like on a computer:

The screenshot below shows what Yahoo Japan’s homepage looks like on a mobile phone:

As you can see, Yahoo Japan has an information-rich design that straight away displays plenty of content to the user, such as news, weather, articles, shopping, display ads and more.

This may look “cluttered” to many Western marketers, but it is actually the preference of Japanese internet users. Due to this, Yahoo Japan has a more loyal audience in Japan than many of its competitors. Yahoo Japan’s comprehensive design provides benefits and incentives for users to stay on Yahoo Japan and use its services.

Given Yahoo Japan’s popularity in Japan, it is an important platform for search engine marketing in the country – but I understand that this can be daunting if Yahoo Japan is not a search engine you are familiar with.

Never fear – in this blog post, I will explain the basics of search advertising on Yahoo Japan. Let’s begin by looking at how search ads display on Yahoo Japan’s search engine results page (SERP) and how this compares to Google.

How search ads display on Yahoo Japan’s SERP

The illustration below depicts the typical layout of a search engine results page on Google versus Yahoo Japan:

As you can see, the search engine results page of Yahoo Japan closely resembles that of Google. It features a mix of paid and organic results, and it may display information from external websites like YouTube or Wikipedia as organic content.

The difference between ads and organic results is not particularly clear, making it challenging to distinguish them. Therefore, users can sometimes perceive search ads as being native content, even though they are indeed ads.

Responsive search ads on Yahoo Japan

Yahoo Japan’s responsive search ads are comparable to Google’s responsive search ads. In fact, guidelines on the number of headlines and descriptions, as well as character limits, for these ads are exactly the same on both search engines.

Therefore, you can use ads created for Google directly on Yahoo Japan. This has the advantage of being efficient as there is no additional workload or time needed for platform-specific ad creation.

The screenshot below shows an example of a responsive search ad on Yahoo Japan. As you can see, it looks very similar to what you might see on Google:

Final thoughts and tips for search advertising on Yahoo Japan in 2024

So, how can you efficiently utilise Yahoo Japan in 2024? Since Google holds 78% of the search engine market share in Japan, it is not recommended to run search ads exclusively on Yahoo Japan. Instead, it is recommended to run ads simultaneously on both Google and Yahoo Japan, taking advantage of the fact that Yahoo Japan’s search ads have the same format as Google.

This sameness allows you to easily run advertising campaigns on both Google and Yahoo Japan at the same time. By doing so, you can reach more users efficiently, maximising performance within the Japanese market without investing additional time and effort in creating separate ads.

Yahoo Japan remains the most visited website in Japan, providing an excellent opportunity to conduct PPC advertising not only with search ads, but also with various display banner ads across the Yahoo Japan website.

And remember, to truly connect with your Japanese audience, it is crucial that your search ads are both linguistically accurate and culturally relevant.

Need help with marketing on Yahoo Japan?

I hope this blog post has been a useful overview of the key tips and trends to think about when doing Yahoo Japan search advertising in 2024.

If you would like assistance with any aspect of Yahoo Japan search advertising, reach out to Webcertain today! Our friendly team of Japanese advertising specialists will be happy to help.

Want to learn more?

This blog post is part of a series on APAC digital platforms in 2024. Check out the others below:

You can also watch our webinar recording on this topic here.

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Elly Kang

Performance Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elly is a Performance Marketing Manager at Webcertain. With a background in digital marketing, she has managed PPC campaigns for several major corporations. She has experience working across various APAC advertising platforms including Google, Naver, Yahoo and Kakao. She has lived and worked in both the UK and South Korea, the latter of which is where she now resides. Elly’s journey reflects her adaptability and expertise in navigating the dynamic landscape of performance marketing across diverse cultural contexts.

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