I attended a seminar today that discussed the Microsoft (AdCenter) /Yahoo (Panama) transition. I have hit several preliminary discussions on this topic at conferences, but this was the first one that had any real information about the Microhoo transition.

The seminar was lead by representatives from Microsoft and Yahoo and they set forth a time-line that showed the transition starting in August for completion by mid-October. They were careful to point out that this transition only effects search results and paid search campaigns (not other services such as Yahoo/Hotmail mail, Yahoo/Live log-ins etc).

After the transition, all organic and paid search results on Yahoo and Bing displayed will come from Microsoft. Presentation of the results may differ, but rank and ad order will appear the same in search results for both.

Once complete, the plan is to use the AdCenter interface to manage and view the performance of ads running on Yahoo and Bing with a single bid strategy across both engines. There was a good deal of discussion about  improvements being made to that AdCenter desktop to provide better support and performance for very large campaigns. The interface will have improved import/export capabilities.

Yahoo users will see new features including.

• Exact, Phrase, and Broad (formerly advanced) match options
• Match types will not apply to negatives (AdCenter is adding ability to have more Negatives)
• Separate bidding for misspellings, plural, and singular terms
• Create custom reports, improved keyword tools
• Content Network support
• 30 character headline drops to 25 (!)
• Microsoft’s Dynamic Keyword Insertion method
• A search query report will be available.
• No decision yet on how Yahoo conversion tracking will be migrated/supported, but it sounded like Microsoft conversion codes will be the norm going forward.
• Bidding/Trademark policies will be merged into a single policy.

The transition sounded somewhat like the transition from Overture to Yahoo Marketing. If you already have campaigns running in Yahoo (Panama), you won’t be forced to migrate (at least not immediately). Once Panama users migrate their accounts to the AdCenter, any accumulated conversion history from old campaigns will be lost.

More information at:

• http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2010/02/18/search-alliance/
• http://advertising.yahoo.com/transition/en_US

SEM Huntsville adcenter, AdCenter Desktop Beta, bing, microhoo, microsoft, yahoo marketing

I have assisted with a number of product beta’s over the years, but was flattered when Microsoft contacted me to do an interview about my involvement in the AdCenter beta program.

see: Thank You for Helping Improve Microsoft adCenter

SEM Huntsville adcenter, AdCenter Desktop Beta

I have been participating in Microsoft’s AdCenter beta program. This type of desktop PPC management tool is essential to managing PPC programs. I have participated in, and managed several beta programs in my career and you expect things to be a clunky at first. if you have used the early releases, I am sure you would agree, there was room to improve.

A Little History

We were once satisfied to manage out PPC campaigns in an excel spreadsheet. Tabbing, cutting, pasting, searching and replacing. However the bar was raised when Google’s AdWords Editor program was released. My weekly drill of checking position and conversions was made dramatically easier with the release of AdWords Editor. Tasks that required HOURs to perform in a spreadsheet were reduced to minutes. Read more…

SEM Huntsville AdCenter Desktop Beta, adwords, ppc, SEM Huntsville