By JJ Bannasch, Media Supervisor
The Yahoo-Bing search alliance, aka Unified Marketplace, is a partnership that means that search results for both organic and paid search campaigns on yahoo.com and bing.com will be powered by the MSN/Bing algorithm.
This new marriage will have a significant impact on how search experts plan, manage and optimize campaigns. Subsequently, marketers could see a dramatic impact if the transition is not managed properly. Geary has a complete POV document, and we can help your team manage this transition. Below are the key facts that your team should be aware of immediately:
Overall user experience with Unified Marketplace will improve. As a result of a smarter algorithm, paid search managers 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).
The Bing algorithm
The Bing algorithm is much more sensitive to campaign quality and the relevancy of keywords to landing pages—especially when compared to Yahoo’s algorithm that is based heavily on click thru rates. Therefore, paid search marketing options for refined, long tail keywords could diminish as landing page quality and relevancy will suffer.
Likely implications for paid search campaigns:
* Decrease in impressions and click volume
* Increase in CPCs
* Potential Increase in CVR
Initially, Unified Marketplace is going to be a very unpredictable channel as numerous advertisers have not historically managed a Bing paid search account. With new advertisers entering 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.
