Yahoo-Bing

Merger:
Game Changer?
POV from Geary Interactive
JJ Bannasch, Media Supervisor

What is Unified Marketplace?

The Yahoo-Bing search alliance, also known as Unified Marketing Impact:
Marketplace, is a partnership that means that search re-
sults for both organic and paid search campaigns on ya-
hoo.com and bing.com will be powered by the MSN/Bing
• Decrease in
algorithm. In short, Yahoo is disappearing from a SEM man- impressions and
agement point of view, but the search experience for us-
ers will remain relatively unchanged.
click volume
• Increase in CPCs
Synopsis • Potential increase in
Overall user experience with Unified Marketplace will im- CVR
prove. As a result of a smarter algorithm, paid search man-
agers need to be much more strategic with campaign
architecture and structure, keyword grouping, ad copy
strategies, deep linking search traffic, keyword specific
landing page development and overall user experience
throughout all stages of paid search (pre and post click).

Contact us / info@gearyi.com / 619.756.6700 / www.gearyi.com

Likely impacts:
Decrease in impressions and click volume – As the MSN/Bing algorithm is focused
more on landing page quality and relevance, certain keywords may be filtered
out altogether if they do not meet the minimum threshold of landing page qual-
ity. Because of this, paid search campaigns may experience decreases in vol-
ume when compared to historical Yahoo and MSN volume.
Increase in CPCs – CPCs may increase because the marketplace will be more
competitive and consist of more advertisers. It will be important to make sure bid-
ding strategies are aligned with campaign goals. It is also anticipated that CPCs
will be unstable during the early stages of the merger as new advertisers will be
adjusting their bids to determine the right ranking strategy. Judgment of Unified
Marketplace should be reserved until it is stable, possibly at the end of 2010.
Potential increase in CVR – The MSN/Bing algorithm favors landing page quality
and relevance. Our research shows that conversion rates should go up when
compared to previous Yahoo conversion rates. This is because Yahoo was based
on CTR and volume—not necessarily the relevancy of keywords to ads and land-
ing pages.

Why the buzz?

Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo shows the company’s desire to increase market share. This
new marriage of the number two and number three search engines will have a significant im-
pact on how search experts plan, manage and optimize campaigns. Subsequently, marketers
could see a dramatic impact if the transition is not managed properly.
Ad Serving Transition & Timing – By the third week of October, it is expected that 40% of Yahoo/
Bing paid search ads will be served by Bing. The remaining will incrementally switch over until
it’s complete at the end of October.

What does this mean to users?

At first, Yahoo’s users might not notice a change in search listings when their results are driven
by Bing’s algorithm. The first thing most users will notice is a change in the paid search ads that
appear on Yahoo.com. The Bing algorithm is much more sensitive to campaign quality and
the relevancy of keywords to landing pages—especially when compared to Yahoo’s algo-
rithm that is based heavily on click thru rates.
Implications for paid search
The Bing algorithm shows only the most relevant keywords/ ads and landing pages for cam-
paigns, so it is essential that best practices are implemented and required. Experts need to be
much more strategic with their campaigns from ad copy to keyword-specific landing pages.
Clients that use one landing page for their search efforts will lose major ground to more strate-
gic campaigns from competitors. They will also see a large decrease in impression share from
Yahoo/Bing search traffic.
Implementing these mandatory best practices will also benefit marketers’ Google Adwords
accounts. The implementation of these strategies will help increase Google’s quality score,
decrease CPCs and increase overall market share on targeted keywords.
Initially, Unified Marketplace is going to be a very unpredictable channel as numerous adver-
tisers have not historically managed a Bing paid search account. With new advertisers enter-
ing the market, CPCs will be all over the place with practitioners making quick adjustments to
their new campaigns. Other advertisers will also be testing the waters with Unified Marketplace
and trying to identify a new ranking/ bidding model for their accounts. However as previously
stated, a drop in impressions and traffic should be expected with a stricter algorithm.
Since traffic from Yahoo and Bing reach different audiences, certain types of accounts will
suffer from the inability to exclude or manage each audience separately. B2B campaigns, for
example, do not perform well with Yahoo’s audience profile.
To end on a positive note, the majority of advertisers will see an increase in CVRs with their
paid search campaigns. Since only the highest quality of traffic is served ads and generating
traffic, paid search agencies and managers can increase efficiency, but scaling up conver-
sion volume will be a bigger challenge moving forward. It will be imperative for marketers to
implement best practices and create landing pages specifically for paid search campaigns.
Without a relevant path to coincide with every step from keyword to conversion, paid search
efforts will suffer.

G
eary Interactive is the leading Real
Results digital marketing agency that
provides nationally recognized, full service
capabilities in a performance driven model. Geary is a
three time MIXX Award winner that was also named a
Top Agency by B2B Magazine and a Fastest Growing
Company by Inc. Magazine.
For more information about Geary‘s search markeitng
expertise, contact us at info@gearyi.com or
619.756.6700.