• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 6, 2016

Yahoo Japan worked with L.A.-based AdMax Local to build out technology that will enable small-and-medium-size businesses to automatically create and manage paid-search advertising campaigns across the engine's advertising network.

Beginning Wednesday, advertisers using Yahoo Japan's Sponsored Search will have an option to use the engine's platform, Raku Ads, powered by AdMax Local technology, which makes the platform programmatic. The combination of the two companies' technologies automates paid-search text ads, which has been a challenge for SMBs.

Yahoo Japan's prior tool, Easy Ad Creation, only supported part of the search advertising process such as ad creation and submission, but it was a manual process. It didn’t automate those pieces. Advertisers needed to do it all themselves, Ben Gibson, global managing director of AdMax Local, told Search Marketing Daily.  

The two companies have worked together for several years, building out the solution. "I believe this is the first time a search engine media owner partnered with a technology platform to power and manage the creation of its search advertising platform," he said. "How they are created and managed is radically changing."

The automated platform no longer requires advertisers to create keyword lists or write and choose ad copy. The service aims to support advertisers spending as little as $50 per month to as much as several thousand, Gibson said.

AdMax Local divested from The Search Agency in April 2015. The two have some joint investors, and remain sister organizations, but the company is now a separate legal entity.

Now AdMax Local provides a software-as-a-service platform to large companies wanting to manage search marketing campaigns for small-and-medium-size businesses. The company initially managed paid search in Google AdWords and expanded the platform to manage other media sources such as Bing in North America and Yahoo Japan in the Japanese market. It also expanded to manage responsive Web sites and landing pages.