As we continue to make progress implementing various aspects of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, our two companies continue to work together towards the goal of providing a quality transition experience for advertisers in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, while being mindful of the holiday season. An important part of our approach is to do the necessary tests to help ensure all of our systems and processes are in place.
In mid-July, we began testing the delivery of organic results from Bing to Yahoo! Search, which may gradually increase to up to 25% of Yahoo! Search traffic. We also began testing the delivery of paid search results from Microsoft Advertising adCenter to Yahoo! Search which began with a small percentage of traffic and may increase to include up to 2.5% - 3.5% of live Yahoo! Search traffic in the U.S.
For adCenter advertisers in the U.S., this means you may see some increases in traffic for your search campaigns. Since this test is limited to just a small percentage of up to 2.5% - 3.5% of live Yahoo! Search traffic, we are not anticipating any significant changes to your expected performance, however you may see some fluctuations in volume as adCenter experiences Yahoo! traffic for the first time. Testing will continue throughout the summer and then volume will gradually increase as we transition. Since the traffic percentages are small, advertisers should not draw any conclusions from what they observe during these tests, as the results may not be indicative of the future marketplace with full Yahoo! volume.
As a routine best practice, we recommend that you closely monitor your budgets during this test phase and prepare to increase your spend if your budget is within a 20% range of being fully depleted.
Please remember that, if we feel that it would improve the overall experience, we may defer the transition to 2011.
Additional Q & A
How will this paid search testing impact my adCenter account?
As an adCenter advertiser, this means you may see some increases and fluctuations in the volume of traffic for your search ads during this test. As a routine best practice, we recommend that you closely monitor your budgets during this test phase and prepare to increase your spend if you budget is within a 20% range of being fully depleted.
What Yahoo! sites will be included in this paid search test?
Initially, the paid search test will be on a small percentage of traffic from Yahoo! Search.
Why does my publisher placement report in adCenter show my ads are serving on Yahoo! sites?
Yahoo! Network sites may be temporarily showing on your publisher placement report in adCenter due to the paid search test we are conducting with a small percent of Yahoo! Network traffic. Since this is a system test and not marketplace calibration, the performance seen within the publisher placement reports will not be indicative of the future unified search marketplace performance with full Yahoo! Network volume.
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