After last week’s showing of “Powered by Bing” in the footer of Yahoo Search, now they shifted the gears and moved on to PPC integration. Soon, Yahoo Search Marketing will be powered by Bing as well. When I logged in to one our client’s account yesterday, here’s what I’ve got as as a welcome screen. Please click on the image to see the actual image.
Last night was the second round of meetings with our Yahoo Search Marketing rep. So far so good. Unlike the first session, the one last night was very informative and encouraging. While the first one were just questions after questions and “let’s see what we can get” answers, the second one where straight forward answers.
Below are the highlights of the meeting:
Q - Will we be able to have separate campaigns, one for Yahoo and another one for Bing?
A - No. It will be a unified campaign. There’s no way of doing that right now and in the near future.
Q - One of our main concerns is taking control of the Yahoo Search/Syndication Partners. They are a very different type of audience compared to those coming from Yahoo search. Can we build a separate campaign for the YSP?
A - Yes, certainly. There would still be 2 networks, search and content/display.
A couple of months ago, our rep sent us a powerpoint slide explaining the “alliance” process. This triggered questions more than answering some. After last night’s meeting, our team now has a clearer vision of where to go come 1st week of September.
The deal between the two search giants is now official. Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.
What’s in it for us though? As SEO practitioners, maybe minus 1 search engine to consider. Optimization would now be for 2 big search engines, Google and MicroHoo (whatever they may call it).
For PPC managers though, it poses some questions. Would be AdCenter or Marketing Solutions? What will happen to the PPC campaigns on both Yahoo and Microsoft? Will there be an increase or decrease in CPC, impressions, CTR? What will be the rules? Will there be new ones?
Everything seems to be a wait and see.