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 Bing supplies organic search results for Yahoo!?
Q: How can I get help with organic search optimisation efforts?
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! Search advertiser’s account history after the transition?
Q: Will Yahoo! Search include Bing functionality, such as Shopping and Visual Search?
Q: Will training be available to learn more about Microsoft Advertising adCenter products, tools and capabilities?
Q: How does adCenter determine ad position?
Q: Will it cost me anything to transition?
Q: I have a prepaid balance on my Yahoo! Search Marketing account. What will happen to it?
Q: I have not transitioned my Yahoo! Search Marketing account to adCenter.
Q: Will pre-pay functionality be added to adCenter in the future?
International and Multi-Market Accounts
Q: What should advertisers with operations in Europe only do?
Q: I heard that the Republic of Ireland will be a separate market from the UK at the time of transition. Is this correct?
Editorial Policies
Q: Will there be any effect on editorial guidelines? How do I know if my ads will be okay to be served on Bing and Yahoo! Search?
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 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?
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 have now begun transitioning European markets, with the UK, Ireland and France now complete, as part of the global rollout of our search alliance. Advertisers will be notified in advance of the further paid search transitions in their country.
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: How can I get help with organic search optimisation efforts?
A: Bing’s website provides a robust set of materials on search engine optimisation (SEO). An SEO webmaster’s toolbox can be found at http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/. It provides webmasters with valuable information on organising web site content and using non-paying methods, to help improve your site’s ranking in Yahoo! Search and Bing results.
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: If you have not transitioned your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to Microsoft Advertising adCenter, you must do so now. As the transition is now complete, your Yahoo! account will have stopped serving ads and is read-only. You can still transition your account using the easy-to-use transition portal under the adCenter tab when you sign in to your Yahoo! account. You should have received detailed instructions from Yahoo! on how to successfully transfer your campaigns to adCenter.
We recommend that you take the following steps to maintain strong adCenter account performance during and after the transition period.
- Adjust your budget for increased traffic: As the Yahoo! traffic ramps on adCenter you will see an increase in your usual traffic volumes on adCenter. We recommend that you increase your campaign budgets to capture this additional traffic. Once the Yahoo! traffic is fully ramped on adCenter, you should increase your adCenter budget to equal what you were previously spending on both the Yahoo! and Microsoft platforms. As a routine best practice, remember to increase your budget if it is within a 20% range of being fully depleted. Learn more about budgets in adCenter.
- Adjust your bid strategy to maintain your competitiveness: Consider adjusting your campaign bids to prepare for increased competition from the new advertisers joining the auction. You may also want to expand your bids across all match types and use negative keywords to ensure your impressions remain steady and relevant. Learn more about bidding in adCenter.
- Expand your keyword portfolio: Because adCenter has a different keyword matching algorithm to Yahoo! Search Marketing, you will have to expand your keyword lists to avoid missing on traffic you previously received on Yahoo!. You can use the Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool and the keyword suggestion functionality in the adCenter UI to get more insights on keyword expansions.
Q: What happens to a Yahoo! Search 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! Search 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 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: 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 you regarding all the tools and features of Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Q: How does 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 managing its own consumer search experience, there may be variances 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?
A: No, there will be no advertiser fees involved in the transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Q: I have a prepaid balance on my Yahoo! Search Marketing account. What will happen to it?
A: During your account transition, you will have to confirm your agreement to allow Yahoo! to transfer any remaining balance. If you do, any remaining balance in your Yahoo! Search Marketing will automatically be handled in one of the following ways, depending upon the balance amount:
- If your balance was greater than £25 or €25 at the time that the ad serving transition completed and your account was put into a read-only state, we will automatically transfer your balance to your adCenter account. You will receive notification via email when this is completed,expect transfers to be processed soon. If for any reason your balance cannot be automatically transferred, it will be processed as a refund soon (see details below).
- If your balance was £25/€25 or less at the time that the ad serving transition completed and your account was put into a read-only state, your remaining balance will be automatically refunded to you. Expect refunds to be processed soon.
Q: I have not transitioned my Yahoo! Search Marketing account to adCenter.
A: Any remaining balance that was in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account when the ad serving transition is complete and your account is put into a read-only state will be automatically refunded to you. Expect refunds to be processed soon.
Q: Will pre-pay functionality be added to adCenter in the future?
A: As of now we can only confirm that self-serve advertisers in the UK, France and Ireland will be able to use credit card and debit card. Credit cards accepted are Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Pre-pay functionality is not available in adCenter at this time.
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 that the Republic of Ireland will be a separate market 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: Will there be any effect on editorial guidelines? How do I know if my ads will be okay to be served on Bing and Yahoo! Search?
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. Once you start advertising through Microsoft Advertising adCenter your campaigns will be subject to these new editorial guidelines. When you transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter, you may notice new disapprovals in your account. You can use the Disapproved Ads and Keywords Tool in Microsoft Advertising adCenter to help manage your disapprovals and get your revised ads live. |
