After subtracting partner commissions, display advertising revenue was $452 million, flat year on year, while search advertising revenue came in at $414 million, up 11 percent.

In the meantime, she promised that customers, partners and investors will see measurable, concrete and consistent progress toward this goal. The third-quarter results, she said, provide "a solid foundation on which to grow."

For the sake of comparison, the U.S. online ad market grew 14 percent in the first half of this year to $17 billion, according to a recent study sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by PwC US. Search ad spending grew 19 percent, while display ad spending rose 4 percent, compared with 2011's first half.

Mayer stressed the importance of mobile and said Yahoo's mobile offerings and usage have been "growing nicely." She highlighted as achievements in this area a redesign of the Yahoo mobile search page in 23 countries and an updated version of the Flickr application for Android mobile devices.

However, she said the company needs to do more in the mobile arena. "We've made progress, but Yahoo hasn't capitalized on the mobile opportunity," she said. In particular, the company hasn't effectively optimized its websites for mobile, and it has "underinvested" in its mobile front-end development, she said.