Yahoo! has launched SmartAds, a new ad platform that allows marketers to deliver tailored display ads to highly targeted audiences.

"Yahoo's SmartAds gives marketers what they want from online advertising: the ability to deliver customized marketing messages to consumers and still engage very large audiences with their brand," said Todd Teresi, Yahoo's senior vice president of display marketplaces. "By enabling marketers to reach consumers on a more tailored basis and helping creative agencies support those customized campaigns, we can provide an even more engaging, relevant online experience to the more than 500 million users of Yahoo-branded products and services."

The launch of SmartAds could help pull Yahoo out of a perceived slump, which was most recently highlighted by the shakeup of the company's leadership and the return of founder Jerry Yang as well as the departure of Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo's top North American saleswoman.

"This fills a need that some advertisers have needed for a while, applying personalization to display ads, so they work like search and listing ads," David W. Kenny, chairman and CEO of Digitas, told The New York Times. "Yahoo has a real advantage in SmartAds because of the data from their big and engaged audience, the combination of deep display and improving search capabilities, and the new changes to work with us at the technology level instead of just selling inventory."