Top-line Questions
Q: What does the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance cover?
Q: What is Microsoft responsible for in the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
Q: What is Yahoo! responsible for in the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
Q: What milestones have been reached to date as part of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
Q: When will the transition take place in Europe?
Organic Search Transition
Q: What does the transition of organic search on Yahoo! mean?
Q: Will my site ranking change when Yahoo! Search results are supplied by Bing?
Search Account Transition
Q: What happens to my Yahoo! Search account?
Q: Is there anything that I should do to prepare for the transition?
Q: What happens to a Yahoo! advertiser’s account history after the transition?
Q: Will training be available to learn more about Microsoft Advertising adCenter products, tools and capabilities?
Q: Will Yahoo! Search include Bing functionality, such as Shopping and Visual Search?
Q: How does Microsoft Advertising adCenter determine ad position?
Q: Will it cost me anything to transition my account?
International and Multi-Market Accounts
Q: What should advertisers with operations in Europe only do?
Q: I heard the Republic of Ireland will be separate from the UK at the time of transition. Is this correct?
Editorial Policies
Q: What editorial policy will we work with?
Q: What does the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance cover?
A: The search alliance covers algorithmic search (web, image and video) and search advertising. It does not include any aspects of display advertising, vertical searches or Yahoo! site searches, such as queries on Flickr or Yahoo! News.
Q: What is Microsoft responsible for in the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
A: Microsoft will be responsible for the organic search serving platform used by both companies, including web, image and video results. Microsoft will also be responsible for the search advertising platform that will be used by both companies (Microsoft Advertising adCenter), and will manage the search advertising marketplace, including the Microsoft Advertising adCenter API. Microsoft will be responsible for marketing to and support of small and medium-sized search advertisers.
Q: What is Yahoo! responsible for in the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
A: For premium advertisers and agencies, Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide sales force for both Yahoo! and Microsoft paid search advertising. Premium advertisers are generally brand advertisers, large agencies and other high-volume accounts.
Q: What milestones have been reached to date as part of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
A: Most notably, we completed the transition of organic results globally (except Korea) and paid search in the US, Canada and India. Yahoo! Search is now powered by Bing around the world. The completion of ad serving transition for the US, Canada and India means that the US, Canadian and Indian traffic from both the Yahoo! network and Bing is now coming through adCenter for accounts operating in these countries.
Q. When will the transition take place in Europe?
A: Following the completion of the Indian transition and the learning gathered in North America, Yahoo! and Microsoft are now ready to resume transitioning European markets, beginning with the UK, Ireland and France as part of the global rollout of our search alliance. We are working toward completing the paid search transition by the end of April. However, we are keen to bring you the benefits of our combined audiences sooner and may accelerate the transition in these markets if we can do so while still maintaining a quality experience. Approximately three months in advance of the paid search transition in a given country, Yahoo! and Microsoft will jointly begin working with their customers and partners to prepare them for the upcoming changes. Customers and partners will also be notified in advance of the further organic and paid search transitions.
Q: What does the transition of organic search on Yahoo! mean?
A: It means all organic search listings on Yahoo! Search are powered by Bing, the search engine from Microsoft. Microsoft is providing results for all web, image and video searches, while Yahoo! continue to innovate and personalise the search experience for users on Yahoo! Search. This transition is completed in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Republic of Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Western Sahara, Yemen, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Q: Will my site ranking change when Bing supplies organic search results for Yahoo!?
A: Now that Yahoo! Search results are powered by Bing, the ranking of your web properties is now 100% based on how the Bing algorithm indexes and ranks the relevance of your site for a particular search query, as Yahoo! cannot change the order of the results it receives. To ensure that their sites are properly referenced and indexed by the Bing algorithm, webmasters should register their websites and sitemaps in the Bing Webmaster tool: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
Q: What happens to my Yahoo! Search account?
A: Advertisers will receive multiple communications from Yahoo! and Microsoft with details on what to expect during the transition process. When the transition period begins, Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together to help ensure a smooth transition for your campaigns to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform.
Q: Is there anything that I should do to prepare for the transition?
A: At this time, you don't need to do anything to prepare for the transition, and we encourage you to keep managing your Yahoo! Search and Microsoft Advertising adCenter accounts as usual to continue to receive traffic. We will communicate with you frequently before the transition to provide schedules, updates and tips that will help make it as seamless as possible.
Q: What happens to a Yahoo! advertiser’s account history after the transition?
A: Account history (reporting and scoring) will not be carried over from the Yahoo! Search Marketing platform during the transition. Existing Microsoft Advertising adCenter accounts will retain reporting and performance history; advertisers starting new accounts on Microsoft Advertising adCenter must re-establish their keyword and account histories. Naturally, the marketplace will shift when the Yahoo! Search traffic is added, so advertisers need to monitor and optimise their accounts throughout the traffic transition to ensure that they're achieving the best results.
In addition, Yahoo! advertisers will continue to have access to the preceding 13 months of their Yahoo! Search Marketing account reporting and history after the transition for a certain period of time.
Q: Will training be available to learn more about Microsoft Advertising adCenter products, tools and capabilities?
A: We will provide educational emails, site content and webinars to inform and educate our advertisers regarding all the tools and features of Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Q: Will Yahoo! Search include Bing functionality, such as Shopping and Visual Search?
A: Bing is only providing Web, Image and Video results on Yahoo! Search. There are no plans to extend the Bing Shopping and Visual Search experiences on Yahoo! Search.
Q: How does Microsoft Advertising adCenter determine ad position?
A: Similar to Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft Advertising adCenter determines ad rank based on several factors, including the amount that you bid, your ad’s relevance and your ad’s click-through rate.
As a result of each company continuing to own its own consumer search experience, there may be differences in the number of ads that are displayed in each location on the page. For a given search term, Bing could display three ads at the top of the page and two on the right-hand side, whereas Yahoo! might display two ads at the top of the page and three on the right-hand side.
Q: Will it cost me anything to transition my account?
A: No, there will be no advertiser fees involved in the transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Q: What should advertisers with operations in Europe only do?
A: No action is required from advertisers in Europe until they receive instructions from Yahoo! and/or Microsoft. The paid search transitions will occur on a market-by-market basis. At this time advertisers should continue to manage and optimise their campaigns on Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Advertising adCenter separately. We will provide advertisers with updated timing information well in advance of when transition activities begin, with further details to help them plan and prepare.
Q: I heard the Republic of Ireland will be separate from the UK at the time of transition. Is this correct?
A: Yes, the Republic of Ireland will be a separate marketplace from the UK when the organic and paid search transitions are complete in these markets.
Q: What editorial policy will we work with?
A: On April 4, 2011, we updated the Editorial Guidelines (UK, FR) in Microsoft Advertising adCenter to prepare for the search alliance. These editorial guidelines have been agreed upon by both companies and are now in effect for all campaigns in Microsoft Advertising adCenter. Work with your Microsoft account manager if you have questions about the editorial guidelines in Microsoft Advertising adCenter. Once you transition your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns into Microsoft Advertising adCenter, adCenter will manage the editorial reviews and the Yahoo! teams will be trained on how to handle related processes.
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