Yahoo on Friday launched an analytics service that allows advertising on Yahoo sites to not only measure the performance of their online ads but also compare them with their radio, TV and print campaigns, writes CNET. Yahoo has partnered with Marketing Management Analytics (MMA), a unit of Aegis, to provide the service. Apples-to-apples comparison of adspend effectiveness across various channels will allow companies to better determine how much money they want to spend in each, said John Nardone, chief client officer at MMA.

The new service is based on econometrics - using statistics to create predictive mathematical models of marketing situations, taking into account the various factors that influence sales.

"Clients are shifting more and more of their total spend online, and need to move beyond measurement of clicks and pageviews to understand what is really working to drive sales," Nardone is quoted by ClickZ as having said.

Online display and search adspend is projected to increase at an average annual rate of 10 percent over the next five years, according to a study released Thursday by JupiterResearch.

It predicted that the U.S. online advertising market would reach $11.9 billion in 2005 (a year-over-year increase of 28 percent), $13.6 billion in 2006 and $15.1 billion in 2007.