14 DAY TRIAL // Mid-July 2010 brought with it the green light for Microsoft and yahoo to start testing the implementation of their anti-Google alliance. The duo have been hard at work melting Bing and Yahoo into each other after they received the go ahead from antitrust authorities in the US and Europe, earlier this year. With the latest move, the actual Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance is starting to take shape, with users an advertisers leveraging the search engines of the companies starting to see the first results.
According to Carolyn Miller, from the adCenter Community Team, both search giants are laboring to deliver a smooth transition and a quality experience to their respective customers by the end of 2010. For the time being, Microsoft and Yahoo are focusing on the US and Canada markets, with additional countries and regions planned for transition in 2011. The latest series of tests debuted by the two companies are designed to ensure that the necessary systems and processes are ready to support customers.
“In mid-July, we began testing the delivery of organic results from Bing to Yahoo Search, which may gradually increase to up to 25% of Yahoo Search traffic. We also began testing the delivery of paid search results from Microsoft Advertising adCenter to Yahoo Search which began with a small percentage of traffic and may increase to include up to 2.5% - 3.5% of live Yahoo Search traffic in the U.S.,” Miller explained.
This will automatically lead to jumps in traffic for search campaigns ran through Microsoft adCenter. However, the Redmond company did emphasize that adCenter advertisers in the U.S. will only see modest traffic increases. Miller did warn customers to only take the new data for their ad campaigns in a testing context, and not to attempt to draw any permanent conclusions based on the new activity, since the experience with the full Yahoo volume coming later this year, may differ completely.
“Since this test is limited to just a small percentage of up to 2.5% - 3.5% of live Yahoo! Search traffic, we are not anticipating any significant changes to your expected performance, however you may see some fluctuations in volume as adCenter experiences Yahoo! traffic for the first time. Testing will continue throughout the summer and then volume will gradually increase as we transition,” Miller said.
Testing does mean that advertisers will need to pay closer attention than usual to their budgets. “Prepare to increase your spend if your budget is within a 20% range of being fully depleted,” Miller added.
Of course, Microsoft emphasized that the finalization of the Microsoft and Yahoo search alliance implementation for the US and Canada will only happen if the testing indicates that it will be the best experience possible for customers. “Please remember that, if we feel that it would improve the overall experience, we may defer the transition to 2011,” she noted.
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