Paid search evolves as Yahoo and Bing join forces
Mark James spoke on the Yahoo/Bing search transition and on how to navigate your way through the changes at SEMPO Boston’s event on Nov. 18, 2010.
Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft search) search transition
- 1 algorithm on 2 platforms
- Accounts for 37.1% of searches
AdCenter attuned to landing page conversion
- The algorithm is tuned to expected performance: Are searchers finding what they need?
- Traffic may be dropping, but conversion rates are increasing
Yahoo-Bing integration’s impact on paid search
- Real-time budgeting
- Updates every 10-15 minutes
- Can control overspending
- Recommend setting budget caps to desired traffic
- Last week: 97% of all campaigns remained within the budget cap
- Can redistribute budget based on traffic fluctuations
Yahoo-Bing search tips to increase your website visibility
- Use query logs
- Search query performance report
- Expand from broad and phrase match
Microsoft Advertiser Intelligence
- Negative terms can block exact match
- Ex: Want “mortgage calculator” and have blocked “calculator”, will block both
- Ad Optimizer
- Will determine highest converting ad & display 90% of the time
- Landing page relevance weighed more heavily
- Be sure ads and pages match
Sources such as, Microsoft Transition Center, will help to transition your business smoothly through these digital changes.
For further information on the Yahoo/Bing transition and Microsoft’s Teresa Elliott’s insight on the topic, view Designated Editor’s post Bing and Yahoo search integration complete: What’s the impact on paid search?