Microsoft and Yahoo! have sent out emails marking the start of the New Year to explain to their customers how they expect 2012 to unfold in terms of the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance. To read the previous DBS Internet Marketing blogpost on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, click here.
Their key aim is to have Microsoft Advertising adCenter provide the paid search results for Yahoo! sites in the UK, Ireland and France during the first half of 2012. It has already been implemented in the US, Canada and India.
As part of that transition, they intend as early as 17th January to start testing the delivery of paid search results from adCenter on Yahoo! traffic. They say that there is nothing you need to do in preparation for the test and that the ad test will be limited to a small percentage of Yahoo! traffic, but do warn that you may see some fluctuations in your usual adCenter campaign traffic. Microsoft Advertising say that “as a routine best practice, we recommend that you closely monitor your campaigns and prepare to increase your budget if it is more than 80 per cent depleted.” Yahoo have said that tests will continue until the transition is complete, and urge people not to draw any conclusions from what they observe during the tests as the results may not be indicative of future performance will full Yahoo! and Microsoft volumes.
Microsoft added that they will also soon be “improving your adCenter campaign management experience” with simplified location targeting. They say that this will help you reach more relevant users with new Language and Location targeting options, which will replace the option to target by Language and market. The changes will enable you to reach users in multiple locations that speak the same language, and allow you to select locations you wish to target at the campaign or ad group level, from bundled countries to the individual city level. Microsoft strongly recommends that you check your ads are serving the locations you want after the change has been rolled out.
