Web hosting specialist 1&1 Internet has launched a new service to help smaller firms set up online marketing initiatives to compete with their larger rivals.

1&1 Search Marketing, which is powered by Yahoo Search Marketing, is available with all of the firm's shared hosting packages and provides an easy way for medium-sized businesses to run sponsored search marketing campaigns on the major search vendors and popular web sites on the Yahoo network, said 1 &1 chief executive Andreas Gauger.

Using their 1&1 Control Panel, customers submit chosen keywords and their bids, and receive monthly reports on rankings and bids as well as competitors' keywords. The system also removes the need for negotiation with vendors or agencies, Gauger added.

"Small and medium sized companies have previously struggled to achieve anything independently, as smaller budgets are most often refused by portals and high interest sites," Gauger said. "Although powerful, our new tools are especially suited to smaller budgets and are easy and intuitive to use."

1&1 also offers banner advertising facilities so firms can design and place their banners using the partner network of AdLink Internet Media.

"We guarantee a high level of transparency [with] 1&1 Banner Advertising, " said Gauger. "It offers detailed statistics about the performance of every banner campaign, such as the number of impressions and clicks and where the banner was displayed."

Customers are charged by page impressions on a monthly basis and can choose between 1,000 or 10,000 page impressions per month depending on their hosting package.