Yahoo! Inc.'s new Project Panama advertising program is benefiting its biggest clients by displaying their links more prominently and charging them less for each ad click, according to a report.

Customers with recognizable brands paid 57 cents each time a user clicked on their Yahoo link in the past month, compared with 75 cents in the fourth quarter, Jordan Rohan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in the report. The popularity of the brands also ensured them better ad placement, he said. Rohan cited data from SearchIgnite, a maker of software that manages ad campaigns.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...fer=technology

Sounds like it will be a nightmare for the smaller clients whom compete in bigger spaces. I can't see how they will sell that to anyone other than larger clients. If i thought that they would sell the same ad to me as mister small at a dearer cost than to mister large then bollox to them. I would spend my PPC money building sites and spamming there SERPs.

Sounds like it's basically because CTR is now factored in, not just the bid. Folks are more likely to click "Big Brand Widgets" rather than "no name widgets". Better CTR equals lower CPC needed to keep ad near the top.