How different is advertising on a portal homepage across the world…

In today's world, there are multiple versions of Yahoo! homepage (USA, India, Australia, UK…) and in various languages. All of these pages have ads and as one would expect the performance of placing ads on these pages in different countries varies dramatically.

It is very fascinating to measure the impact of the same creative with similar message placed on the homepage of the same portal like Yahoo! or MSN. The performance varies dramatically – why? Few major reasons that would cause this are:

1. The difference in the audience on the homepage in different countries. One particular country might be reaching business users vs. the other countries might be reaching to the average 25-45 year old women.
   
2. The differences in the reach and frequency. The average number of times an average user is exposed to the ad affects the likely hood of a consumer interacting with the ad. Also, the number of consumers reached also affects the performance – the less the number of consumers reached, the less the awareness of the product.
   
3. The type of creative could also make a lot of difference. Expandable banners could increase the performance in one country vs. the expandable ads in the other country might not attract the consumers as much.
   
4. A particular message could attract more consumers in a country vs. the other.
   

It should not be assumed that if a Yahoo! homepage ad performs very well in USA, then it will perform as well in India or Australia or Japan. The performance can and will vary. Historical results must be used to make the decision of placing the ad.