Questions and Answers about the adCenter Integration

How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance affects you

On Feb. 18, 2010, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced that the Search Alliance had been given the green light by U.S. and E.U regulators.  There were naturally a lot of concerns by our search advertisers about how this would affect their campaigns. On May 6, we posted an article on our upcoming integration with Microsoft adCenter. You, our advertisers, weighed in with many questions and comments. Below, we answer your questions.

Dilip asks: “Does Microsoft adCenter accepts payments by PayPal?”

Yes they do: click here for more info.

deweykung asks: “What about singular and plural word that YSM see them as same word but Bing does not?”

Microsoft and Yahoo! will jointly review any discrepancies in editorial policies prior to beginning advertiser transitions, and make modifications as necessary to operate a fair and quality marketplace, and to make the transition as easy as possible for advertisers and publishers.

Ranjan asks: “Will liquor advertising keywords, which we currently use on Yahoo!, work on MSN’s? MSN’s current policy does not allow liquor keywords like scotch, liquor baskets, etc.”

After the transition, Yahoo! will have the ability to continue to display some ads that Microsoft does not currently display on its own sites (e.g., adult ads), and vice versa. However, no specific decision has been announced regarding liquor-related keywords.

Jason  asks: “I currently manage many Yahoo! and Bing advertising accounts for customers. I know there will be one log in however, since there will still be two search engines, will there still be two platforms, within, Microsoft adCenter, to manage bids and so on for Yahoo! and Bing?”

All Sponsored Search advertisers will use the adCenter platform for their paid search campaigns following their transition, and the Yahoo! Sponsored Search system will be decommissioned. Once Yahoo! Sponsored Search advertisers are transitioned to Microsoft’s search platforms, we anticipate that advertisers will be provided with distribution controls that will allow them to select traffic from the combined marketplace of Bing and Yahoo!, or from the full affiliate network. However, advertisers will not be permitted to select traffic only from Bing or only from Yahoo! Search.

Matias Leiva asks: “Will the new platform allow us to run FLASH driven and video capture pages? Currently adCenter pauses campaigns that have video-driven capture pages since they can not read the file.This has been a drag for marketers, as the web continues to transition to video than actual ‘web copy’.”

This has not yet been determined. We’ll continually be communicating with you on subjects such as this throughout the transition period.

Bosco asks:  ”I use both but adCenter does not have Tracking URLs. Is this going to get fixed? Also, ad scheduling is better in Yahoo. Are all features, that are currently missing, going to get implemented in Adcenter?”

While Microsoft is committed to continuing to improve its products, we cannot guarantee that all features in Yahoo!’s paid search platform will be matched in Microsoft’s. However, we are working with our advertisers to make sure that all key features of Yahoo! Sponsored Search are included.

M$ asks:  “What about Yahoo! search partners, is Yahoo! going to keep them? Will we still be able to block them? Will there still be an Ad Delivery Report?”

After the transition, your ads can appear in search results on both Yahoo! and Microsoft sites, as well as all of Yahoo!’s and Microsoft’s distribution partner sites, such as Facebook and CNBC. Yahoo! and Microsoft are in the process of determining the controls that advertisers will have to manage where their ads will be shown in the unified search marketplace.

Microsoft and Yahoo! are reviewing the current reporting capabilities offered by the two companies to determine which reports and data will be offered to advertisers at the time of transition and on an ongoing basis. We are also working with our advertisers to understand which reports are most critical to offer post-transition. You can expect some changes in report terminology, and look and feel, but we will help you navigate and use the adCenter reports.

— The Team