CANNES, France — Yahoo will open up its recently-unveiled Ad Manager Plus ad software to use on a self-serve basis – and is offering users’ search history as a targeting characteristic.

“People use search every day to show (purchase) intent – that search-based data has never been able to be used in a programmatic environment,” according to Yahoo’s head of the Americas, Ned Brody.

“Display advertising is going to perform better if you only show those display ads … to people who searched for the car in the previous days.

“For the first time, you can use Yahoo search data to find that consumer who matches that search profile anywhere on the web.” The self-serve access for advertisers is “coming soon”, Brody said.

Brody spoke with Beet.TV during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Please find more coverage of the festival here.