Search Alliance Update #2

More of the what, when and how on the transition from Yahoo! Search Marketing to Microsoft Advertising adCenter

Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work diligently toward preparing the U.S. market for our announced search alliance, and so we thought it was time to provide you with another update on our progress, what to expect, and to answer a few frequently asked questions.

Our goal continues to be the completion of the transition in the U.S. and Canada before the start of the 2010 holiday season. In late summer, we intend to offer a window of several weeks during which you can choose the time to initiate and complete your transition. Of course, we will continue to keep you informed and aware of any changes that you may need to make to prepare your Sponsored Search account for the transition.

In the meantime, there is nothing you need to do with your account, other than to continue to manage it as you have been. Keep in mind that you still need your Yahoo! account, so that you can continue to receive the traffic that we can provide between now and the transition!

Passing the bucks
Money is always important to businesses, no matter what the topic. Rest assured that any remaining balance in your Yahoo! Sponsored Search account can be transferred to your new or existing adCenter account, or refunded to you via a check, shortly after all ads are serving from the adCenter system.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I’ll just start my transition now, on my own.” Fact is, it isn’t necessary to open a new adCenter account right now. If you don’t already have an adCenter account, you will be able to move your Yahoo! account over in a few months when the account transition tool becomes available, and doing it this way can retain many of your account settings and structure.

However, we realize that some advertisers may want to start becoming familiar with the adCenter platform before account transitions begin; and if that’s the case, you’re free to open an adCenter account at any time—just continue to manage your Yahoo! account as usual, as you’ll continue to receive Yahoo! network traffic, until and during the transition period.

If you already have an adCenter account, our advice is to continue to manage this account, as well as your Yahoo! account, as you have been. This will enable you to continue to reach both the Microsoft and Yahoo! Network audiences until the transition is complete.

Waving the green flag
Over the next several months, we’ll provide you with more specifics on the actual transition timing, and we’ll give you plenty of notice before any action is required on your part. We will communicate with you prior to the transition to provide schedules, updates and tips that can help make the transition as seamless as possible.

Once the transition window has opened and the account transition tool is available, you’ll be able to initiate your transition anytime within the window for maximum convenience. We’ll give you more details on this as we get closer to the transition period.

Please keep visiting this blog, as well as the Yahoo! Transition Center, to stay in the know.

— The Team

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43 Comments Add your own

1. Austin | June 22nd, 2010 at 12:10 pm

What will happen to adult ads?
2. steve | June 22nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm

I am interested to know that as well… Will MSN allow adult advertising as Yahoo (and Google) currently both do.
3. brad | June 22nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm

Dido.. will all ads that currently run on yahoo, run on msn after the changes?
4. Johnny | June 22nd, 2010 at 3:51 pm

I think the transition is going to be a difficult one since they are unable or unwilling to give details about it. Can you say clusterfudge?
5. Stargazer | June 22nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm

For those of us who endured the pain and suffering of the upgrade to Yahoo’s “Panama” system, it’s really unfortunate that we’re being forced to use the MSN Adcenter, which in many ways is inferior IMO. When I 1st heard of the merger I was hopeful the process would go the other way.
6. Austin | June 22nd, 2010 at 6:11 pm

I really doubt MSN will allow adult ads to run, as they have always tried to have the squeaky clean family friendly image.

All I care about/want to know is that the adult ads I am currently running on Yahoo will still run on the Yahoo search, without an increase in CPC considering they won’t be running on Bing.
7. christopher | June 22nd, 2010 at 6:55 pm

this is a great yahoo thanks
8. Cyber Monday Deals | June 23rd, 2010 at 1:32 am

I am interested to know that as well… Good Job
9. Black Friday Deals | June 23rd, 2010 at 1:44 am

this is a great news yahoo thanks
10. Black Hat PPC | June 23rd, 2010 at 2:32 am

Is there going to be transparency between the search engines so that advertisers can see where their ad’s are being delivered?
11. deweykung | June 23rd, 2010 at 5:47 am

Could you really give me the exact date instead of “late summer”?
I guess if you can’t make it end before end of September, I would ask you politely to postpone the process to the next year. I positively sure you know the reason.
12. Search Engine Optimization Vancouver | June 23rd, 2010 at 5:59 am

@black hat ppc
there wont be and you wont be able to cherry pick either. that was in their previous post.

@Austin
if i was i would start looking for some other traffic sources. overall MSN policy will be in effect for everybody since MSN is taking over that part. the only thing that might not change is if you are dealing with a person in yahoo, that person will still be your point person but other than that you are on MSN baby .

all in all this is a good move for MSN and Yahoo. More for Yahoo then MSN I think. They need to get together and work together if they are going to even attempt taking piece of pie from Google. Right now Google is eating everything including the table that pie sits on )
13. Mike | June 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 am

We can only hope for an update/upgrade to MSN AdCenter and its API.. Has anyone used the dayparting in AdCenter? You set day of week and time of day in different areas. Time of day is broken into only 6 time frames.. Last I checked you could not download a report with the adid in it. The list goes on and many functions in the UI are limited to ad group level. I feel bad for those w/o API access and hundreds of ad groups..
14. Wigs Hair Extensions | June 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm

What will happen with our balance and key words?
15. Kathy | June 23rd, 2010 at 12:46 pm

At what cost? Most of our searching customers use Google.
16. John | June 23rd, 2010 at 1:05 pm

Adcenter is terrible compared to Yahoos Panama interface.

Obviously Google Adwords is much better, but moving everything to adcenter is a step backwards.

And if what SEO Vancouver says is true, (you wont be able to partition traffic between Yahoo and MSN) that’s just beyond bad. Those are two completely different interfaces and audiences which require different bidding and messages.
17. long island SEO | June 24th, 2010 at 8:26 am

this is going to suck. for those of you that have use msn before, and dealt with their customer service and reps, you know that this is going to be a miserable experience. the only factor that makes me a bit comfortable is knowing that i will be keeping my yahoo reps through the transition.

additionally, any of you that have used the msn platform know that it is shit, as well as their desktop application. cant wait to see all the backlash and the inevitable huge client drop off before, during and after the transition.

o, and by the way, how does everyone feel about the fact that their accounts quality score will start from scratch as if you are a brand new advertiser? as a long time account holder, this makes me very nervous and i know that my costs will increase significantly.

not to mention, as SEO Vancouver said, you wont be able to choose to not show ads on bing? thats a major issue for me aswell.
18. joe | June 24th, 2010 at 11:25 am

Yahoo sucks, can’t wait for them to go..
19. Braids By Breslin | June 24th, 2010 at 12:07 pm

We cancelled MSN a while back so we can’t wait for this transfer to consolidate.
20. Sheri | June 24th, 2010 at 4:56 pm

I’m extremely worried about the changes. I was also hoping that it would all go to the Yahoo side, as I like yahoo much better. I have tried all of the main search engines, & get more traffic from Yahoo by far. It’s also the cheapest for me. I’m wondering if our bid pricing is going to change. Since Yahoo brings in the biggest part of my business, I am very worried that my business is going to change drastically. And I think it’s crazy to do it right before the holidays. Many companies busiest time of the year! I think they should definitely wait until after the holidays. Very scared about how all of this is going to go.
21. Marc | June 24th, 2010 at 7:11 pm

What about online gambling (UK)?
22. PPCMojo | June 24th, 2010 at 10:30 pm

When is MS AdCenter going to increase their negative keyword counts. Limiting it to 1024 characters is insane.
23. Joel | June 25th, 2010 at 2:45 am

I’m new to this game but I do know that I signed on to Yahoo & Google and rejected MSN because their system and processes were so convoluted that I could not deal with them…and they were looking to be way more expensive. Anything Microsft creates will be a Brilliant Idea that will take many years to fix. They tend to leave the gate unprepared and under-tested every-single-time
24. Brian | June 25th, 2010 at 8:55 am

When the transition happens, are Mac users going to be shut out of their own accounts? Right now, as far as I know, Microsoft Ad Center does not work with ANY Mac-compatible browser. You can’t even sign up for MSN on a Mac, let alone administer an account.

I hope I at least get fair warning, so I can shut down my account before I am cut off from it.
25. Online Shopping | June 25th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

I’m excited about the transition. Makes management easier.
26. arnold lynn | June 25th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

I am a little worried I have used google and msn and dont get the traffic i do on yahoo.I pray that my company can survive this.First the economy hurt me and now this to worry about.
27. James Young | June 26th, 2010 at 9:15 am

I feel a lot like #26, Arnold Lynn.

Things are constantly being messed with!!!

There is no stable environment anymore!!!

It took several weeks, eight hours a day to correct the transition from Overture to Yahoo!

I am happy with Yahoo just the way it is now!

Don’t change or merge anything!!!!
28. Jen | June 27th, 2010 at 3:22 am

Will the interface be the same as yahoo at the moment or will we have to relearn how to create a good campaign and all the reporting functions
29. Greg Grycner | June 27th, 2010 at 9:14 am

I have an adcenter account from a few years ago, but I miss placed my log in link and information. Can you send me the link where I can log into and also request a lost password?

Thanks,
Greg
30. wendell | June 28th, 2010 at 6:09 am

Seven Years Ago I ask in a letter to Mr Gates
for help,
31. ratchanon | June 28th, 2010 at 8:12 am

ok.
32. Horace Moning | June 28th, 2010 at 11:27 am

Dear Sirs:I don”t have a website yet but i want to be sign up so when i do i will have you.
33. PsychicDeals.com | June 28th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

My primary concern is that Yahoo ads have 40 character titles and Microsoft have 25 characters.

Does anyone know if we’re going to have to go through and manually find 15 characters to trim off of our 40 character titles? OR will the 40 characters remain after the transition?
34. Russell | June 28th, 2010 at 5:31 pm

This is a step backwards for Yahoo they should not do this. Adcenter people don’t know what they are doing in search one bit. I had a rep help me with my campaign from adcenter and what a mess they made! They told me to put in 100’s of keywords into 2 ads? That structure always wastes tons of money. To make things worse they don’t allow my keywords that produce the highest quality leads for college. Adcenter always sucked and always will unless Yahoo teaches them their mistakes. I for one will use cheaper ppv and other traffic sources because they work faster and get one thousands of high quality clicks. Adcenter is very slow and not nearly enough traffic to make any money. Bottom line they will give google more cash and customers because they suck!
35. Russell | June 28th, 2010 at 5:33 pm

This is a step backwards for Yahoo they should not do this. Adcenter people don’t know what they are doing in search one bit. I had a rep help me with my campaign from adcenter and what a mess they made! They told me to put in 100’s of keywords into 2 ads? That structure always wastes tons of money. To make things worse they don’t allow my keywords that produce the highest quality leads for college. Adcenter always sucked and always will unless Yahoo teaches them their mistakes. I for one will use cheaper ppv and other traffic sources because they work faster and get one thousands of high quality clicks. Adcenter is very slow and not nearly enough traffic to make any money. Bottom line they will give google more cash and customers because they suck!
Free Education Guide
36. Russell | June 28th, 2010 at 5:34 pm

Russ
This is a step backwards for Yahoo they should not do this. Adcenter people don’t know what they are doing in search one bit. I had a rep help me with my campaign from adcenter and what a mess they made! They told me to put in 100’s of keywords into 2 ads? That structure always wastes tons of money. To make things worse they don’t allow my keywords that produce the highest quality leads for college. Adcenter always sucked and always will unless Yahoo teaches them their mistakes. I for one will use cheaper ppv and other traffic sources because they work faster and get one thousands of high quality clicks. Adcenter is very slow and not nearly enough traffic to make any money. Bottom line they will give google more cash and customers because they suck!
37. Free Education Guide | June 28th, 2010 at 5:35 pm

This is a step backwards for Yahoo they should not do this. Adcenter people don’t know what they are doing in search one bit. I had a rep help me with my campaign from adcenter and what a mess they made! They told me to put in 100’s of keywords into 2 ads? That structure always wastes tons of money. To make things worse they don’t allow my keywords that produce the highest quality leads for college. Adcenter always sucked and always will unless Yahoo teaches them their mistakes. I for one will use cheaper ppv and other traffic sources because they work faster and get one thousands of high quality clicks. Adcenter is very slow and not nearly enough traffic to make any money. Bottom line they will give google more cash and customers because they suck!
38. Rahul | June 29th, 2010 at 3:48 am

Now Google is TOP and Yahoo is second. After the transition Yahoo will die. No one wanna use adcenter. I think we are going to get out from yahoo and concentrate only in adwords. Yahoo is going to die…
39. Carol | July 1st, 2010 at 8:35 am

I agree with most of these comments – the Adcenter reps I spoke with on the phone don’t have a clue when it comes to PPC campaigns – it’s like talking to used car salesmen, that sell scooters. Bad joke.

If all of the Yahoo! placed ads running now get the same treatment as the current Bing ads, 70% of them will be declined because of the Adcenter ad approval filters. This could wipe out 85% of our business. This transition stinks to high heaven.

We spend between 200-600 dollars a day with Yahoo! right now, so will have to see if they want to KISS that money goodbye for good.
40. leeds4ever | July 1st, 2010 at 9:17 am

I also agree with most of these comments on here, this is a step backwards for Yahoo, this is madness!!!!!!!
41. Curtis | July 6th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

MADNESS I SAY.

Yahoo has been dead. They are trying to sell off their dying hold on search to the only party willing to buy… MSFT.

I have a hunch PPC was never profitable for Yahoo, even after large investments in the Panama UI.

Microsoft is never one to quit, especially when behind, so they just keep pushing. Bing didn’t work like he hoped… so lets buy Yahoo out!

Hooray for capitalism and the right to fail, but the real travesty is that MSFT is trying to save face by using their own inferior ad serving platform instead of Yahoo’s

The whole thing would work much better if MSFT inherited Yahoo’s Panama platform.

AdCenter is by far the most cumbersome and least functional ad serving vehicle I’ve used. Worse than industry brains, worse than double click.

Compound the crapiness of adcenter with no way to partition traffic between MSN and Yahoo, iffy character constraints, no forecasted release date whatsoever and you have the makings of a large vacuum in search advertising.

Who will fill this void? Google? Poised and ready with ever expanding ad extension and location targeting options. Or some new player? My bet is on google…
42. Kenny | July 7th, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Wow… I agree with all that say the MS/BING interface is a mess and the Yahoo interface is better and Adwords is best. Since MS seems to be calling the shots and probably doesn’t read this blog, we should all lobby for Panama over at MS/BING. We’ll be doing them a favor if they listen. (they won’t)
43. Jarad | August 3rd, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Yahoo… why is your search desktop tool such a piece of junk? Why did you choose Adobe to develop it! WHY!? Whoever made that decision at your company should be shot, tied to an elephant and dragged through the street while a marching band walks over them… then have the elephant fall off a cliff into fire and spikes landing on top smashing the incompetent moron that choose to make a platform in Adobe! Crash Crash SLOWWWW SLOWWWWWWWWW dumb. Google domination. They create usable software versus flashy unusable NON STABLE software. Nice job Yahoo!

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