Last week I tuned in to a webcast entitled SMN Webcast June 24: Yahoo! Microsoft Alliance – What? 
How? When? in the hope of receiving some answers about the impending Yahoo! Microsoft PPC transition which is going to impact all search marketers in the near future.
The presented webcast itself had no real surprises, it was the standard information that has been rehashed by multiple parties at both Microsoft and Yahoo! If the words ‘transition’ and ‘alliance’ are not ringing any bells, it is time to get updated and the easiest way to do so is to visit the official transition centres: Yahoo Transition Center and Microsoft Transition Center.
Of course, on these websites you will find official information, carefully crafted corporate speak that is designed to appear to tell you a great deal, without telling you much at all. These sites will not answer all those burning questions like ‘Will I be able to bid separately on Yahoo! and Bing?’ or ‘Will historic reports be available for my Yahoo! PPC account?’
Going back to the webcast – the most juicy part, when it is a controversial topic is the Q&A because it forces all those directors and managers to answer questions on topics that they would prefer to avoid. In this webcast, there was a deluge of questions and given it is not being made available on-demand I took the liberty of writing down the questions with accompanying answers.
Hopefully, you will find some answers and if you are lucky, you may find the answers you were hoping for. The style is short hand as I was doing my utmost to accurately capture the information. Please also note that these questions were answered by individuals from Yahoo! and Microsoft in a Q&A format. This means that some of this information has not yet been publicly shared on each company’s transition center. Ultimately, when it is shared, the information below may evolve as greater clarity is provided.
The purpose of this information is to give you a snapshot into the implications of the transition and how it will very directly impact your day to day PPC management on Bing and Yahoo!
Will I be able to bid separately on Yahoo and Bing Search?
No, after the transition this will not be possible. There will be some other controls in place – for example, you will be able to create separate campaigns for Yahoo and Bing Partners
Historic reports available for Yahoo PPC?
13-months looking back reports will be available
Will my paid results look exactly the same in Yahoo.com and Bing.com?
Overall page design on Yahoo will look the same
Yahoo will be getting paid results from Bing engine, the order of the ads will be the same, but there may be differences in presentation on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
Will there be a distinction between traffic coming from Yahoo vs. Bing?
We don’t know the exact way that we will display it, but there will not be a distinction within the AdCenter reporting interface. You will however, be able to see this in more complex Analytics logs and we do not yet know how this will be shared
Will reporting easily show what clicks/conversions occurred on Yahoo vs. which ones occurred on Bing?
No the reporting will not distinguish between the two search engines
Are there planned changes to the adCenter APIs? If so, what is the timeframe?
The adCenter APIs will be available in the next few days – that includes the broader adCenter desktop tool release. Marin Software is supporting these changes completely in its tool
Will the conversion tracker code remain the same?
We are working through the pain of having to retag a whole set of pages – working through with our Microsoft counterparts to see whether the same tags could be used so that the advertiser does not have to retag the pages (this is not final – still working through this)
Is the shift from 92 days to YOY reporting a historical shift or just from the transition moving forward?
Yes – will be able to look back full year – this change should be occurring shortly, it is not just transition related
Will there be a search query report?
Yes, this report is available in Bing
Will revenue be captured by the Microsoft adCenter tracking pixel?
In the current iteration it does not capture revenue but we are working on this and in the next version of adCenter this should become available
Are Yahoo & Bing keeping their own trademark bidding policies or will there be one single unified policy?
Currently both teams are working together to develop one unified policy – not yet available but this is being worked on by both teams
Will the negative keyword limit be raised in Bing?
Yes, the limit is 1024 characters in Bing. We are looking to increase this to several thousand (only in next iteration of adCenter)
Does that mean the Yahoo Campaign History will not be migrated over?
Correct, history will not be migrated over from Yahoo.
Will adCenter support a product feed for retail clients?
Marin Software has this functionality to manage product feeds. AdCenter does not currently have this functionality
When are you going to start the transition phases in markets outside US/Canada?
Timelines publicly announced: all markets will be transitioned over a period of 18 months
The first quarter of 2012 is when we expect everything to be migrated
Do not have specific markets locked down to timeframes yet – planning as early as next year to begin rollout plan for international markets
