Headed by vice president Ken Mallon, AdLabs wants to deliver “thought leadership” and innovation in digital advertising products.

“To do this, we will mine Yahoo’s vast data repository of campaigns and associated metrics,” said Mallon.

“Successful campaigns change perceptions about brands and increase sales,” he said. “Marketers need new, breakthrough, scientifically tested methodologies to drive these important metrics.”

The first piece of research to emerge from AdLabs looks at the performance of “hyperlocally” targeted ads, but over the years Yahoo’s Labs team has researched areas such as how friends influence one another’s shopping behaviour, what effect frequency of ad exposure has on engagement and the demographic composition of the top 100,000 web domains.

Yahoo Labs chief scientist Prabhakar Raghavan (pictured left with Mallon) said: “AdLabs will build on this success and break new ground in combining scientific rigour with a deep understanding of the practical needs of marketers.”