Here at StubGroup Advertising we’re constantly analyzing trends in the search marketplace (like the recent Mobile Armageddon) for insights into the future that we can leverage to help our clients succeed.
So of course we were immediately on top of the April 16th announcement that Microsoft and Yahoo amended their search partnership.
In the last month we’ve been thinking through the ramifications of the deal and have talked to reps at Microsoft and Yahoo! to get clarification on the rather vague announcement.
SUMMARY OF THE NEW AGREEMENT BETWEEN MICROSOFT AND YAHOO
- At least 51% of Yahoo!’s desktop search traffic will run through Bing.
- 100% of ads shown for Yahoo! mobile searches can run through Yahoo! Gemini.
- Microsoft will become the exclusive sales force for ads served through the Bing Ads interface.
HOW THIS WILL AFFECT YOUR BING ADS CAMPAIGNS
There are two important modifiers:
“At least” — Yahoo! is allowed to exclude Bing from 49% of desktop search traffic queries, but the question is, will they? Probably not right off the bat. Maybe as they build their capabilities and grow their advertiser base.
“Can” — Yahoo! can run 100% of mobile searches through Yahoo! Gemini, but will they? You might not realize that they’ve been able to do that for over a year and have not. This tells us that they’ve found it to be more profitable to stick with Bing on at least some mobile search queries, and that probably means that we’re not going to see a huge change on July 1st.
There are still many questions about how the amended search partnership will affect Bing traffic levels.
Our strategy here at StubGroup Advertising is:
- Find out as much information as possible
- Prepare to respond quickly to changes in Bing Ads
- Wait and see
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