Feature Comparison

To better understand the feature differences between Yahoo! and Microsoft Advertising adCenter, the following guide outlines the key variances between the two platforms.
Account Setup Budgeting & Bidding Campaign Management Keywords & Ad Customization Reporting  

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Distribution Tactic
Set at the account level

   Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Ad Distribution
Set at the ad group level

Microsoft adCenter allows you to choose whether you’d like to distribute your ad groups in the search auction, the content auction, or both.


If you are importing campaigns from Yahoo!, the distribution settings will be maintained in Microsoft adCenter. For example, an account with content match turned off in Yahoo! Search Marketing will have content distribution in Microsoft adCenter turned off at the ad group level.


In Microsoft adCenter, serving content ads to partner sites is automatically turned on when you create a new campaign or ad group.

 

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Network Distribution
Search ads

   Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Search Network Distribution includes the entire network
Search ads
In Yahoo! Search Marketing you had the option to choose Network Distribution for search ads to the entire Yahoo! network, Yahoo! Search only, or Yahoo! Partners only. In Microsoft adCenter your search ads will display on all Bing and Yahoo! search networks and syndicated search partners.

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Market
Set at the account level

   Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Language and Market
Set at the ad group level

As you transition your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to adCenter, you will need to select the language and market for your ad groups. This is the language in which the ads are written and the market through which the ads are distributed.


In Microsoft adCenter, English – India is considered its own market. If you want to run a United States English language campaign and a India English campaign, but the messaging is different for each market, you could create one ad group with the language and market of “English – United States” (bing.com and search.yahoo.com), and another ad group with the language and market of “English – India” (bing.in and search.yahoo.in). In this way, you will have ads distributed to the local search engines for all of your target markets.		   Ad group settings

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Blocked Continents
Set at the account level

   Microsoft Advertising adCenter: N/A

Microsoft adCenter does not currently allow you to block distribution in certain continents; rather, it enables you to select distribution in the locations that you want. If you had blocked continents in Yahoo! you will need to update these setting in Microsoft adCenter by targeting customers by geographical location.

  

 

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Blocked Domains
Account level for search and content

  

Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Enhanced Website Exclusion

Campaign and ad group level for search and content ads
If you have Blocked Domains set in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account, you will be pleased to know that Microsoft adCenter provides even more control to block sites than what you previously had in Yahoo! Search Marketing. Yahoo! Search Marketing allows you to block up to 500 domains that you do not wish your content and search ads to display on at the account level. With Microsoft adCenter, you can control these settings at a more granular level. Now, you can block up to 500 websites you do not wish your search and content ads to display on at the campaign and ad group levels. If you are transitioning your campaigns over from Yahoo! Search Marketing you will need to reenter the websites you’d like to exclude in Microsoft adCenter, since your blocked domains from Yahoo! Search Marketing will not automatically carry over into Microsoft adCenter.   Website exclusion

 

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Time Zone

Set at master account level

  

Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Time Zone
Set at account and campaign levels

If you transition your Yahoo! account to Microsoft adCenter, your master account level time zone will be automatically set as the default time zone for your account in adCenter, which will carry down to all of your campaigns for that account.


In Microsoft adCenter you have the additional ability to also set a time zone for each new campaign individually. The time zone should be where your office is located because it’s used for billing purposes and to help control your daily and monthly campaign budgeting. The time zone is not associated with the location of your potential customers.

 

Yahoo! Search Marketing: Username and Password
Associated to contacts

  

Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Username and Password
Set at customer level and assigned to accounts

If you manage multiple accounts with Microsoft adCenter, you can have one username and password set at the customer level, that you can use to access the multiple accounts you manage. With Yahoo!, you have separate usernames and passwords for each account.


This is a key benefit with adCenter to help you save time by allowing you to sign-in to Microsoft adCenter just once while you manage multiple accounts. If you do not already have an adCenter username and password you will be able to create one at the time of your transition to adCenter.