Dec 28, 2010 09:55 GMT  ·  By

Advertisers taking advantage of Yahoo! Search Marketing should focus on completing the transition to Microsoft adCenter in the next week if they intend to take advantage of the tool offered to streamline the migration. Microsoft is advising customers to make the jump as soon as possible, preferably by January 5th, 2011, a date after which all transitions will have to be performed manually.

Of course, there’s really nothing to stop yahoo advertisers from making the jump to adCenter after January 5, but, according to the software giant, it would be better for them to do it within the next week.

This is of course the case for Yahoo advertisers in the United States and Canada, which are the first to be migrated to Microsoft adCenter.

“Given what a busy time of year this is for everyone, both personally and professionally, you may have the feeling that there’s something you’re supposed to do, but haven’t yet,” revealed Microsoft’s Ricky Poole.

With all of the holiday hustle and bustle, I wanted to take a minute to remind any of you in the US and Canada who may still have campaigns in Yahoo! Search Marketing that the transition tool will be closing on January 5, 2011.

“If you have not yet transitioned your PPC accounts from Yahoo! to adCenter, after January 5th you will need to do so manually through exporting and importing your campaigns,” he added.

US and Canada are the first two markets to experience the results of the Yahoo and Bing marriage.

This is valid both in terms of the actual search results, as well as in regards to the advertising platforms powering the two search engines.

Microsoft and Yahoo received the green light to build a stronger competitor for Google in 2010, and as a part of the agreement Yahoo search results are returned by Bing, with Yahoo advertisers needing to move to adCenter.