How Microsoft And Yahoo Can Help Us Help Them

MSN and Yahoo are about to merge their search operations. What does that mean for search advertisers?

It's not every day that I can get my search engine marketing news from the front page of the BBC, but this appears to be that day.

Microsoft and Yahoo have made international news by announcing a deal to pool their resources and create one search platform with a single advertiser interface to control their 25%+ share of the search market. Judging from the reports of the deal that we have so far, Yahoo will be handling sales and support while Microsoft will be driving the technology. Once Microsoft and Yahoo clear the logistical hurdles of the merger (which will take many months and incredible amounts of money), we'll basically be left with Bing as we know it now, but with a much larger user base.

The question is: how will it affect search advertisers?

I think the bottom line is that if everything is done right (BIG if), we'll all benefit from getting a sizable amount of search volume from a search vendor that directly competes with Google. And the reason why has been completely overlooked:

Advertisers, not Microsoft or Yahoo, will make better, more valuable ad campaigns.

Google has dominated the search market for a long time, for a very simple reason. Its ads are better targeted than its competitors' ads, providing a better return for your buck. Even if a click costs 20% more, if it reaches consumers who are interested 30% more often than other outlets, you're going to be very happy with your increased ROI.

While Google's algorithm for matching ads with searches deserves some credit, a lot more credit should go to AdWords Editor, every SEM campaign manager's favorite tool. This tool allows bulk uploads and bid changes to be done in a fraction of the time it takes to achieve the same task on Yahoo or Bing. This means that if you're running a campaign, you can do your own optimization more often, leading to a better targeted, more lucrative campaign.

Google was the only search engine to offer a tool like the AdWords Editor, until a few weeks ago when Microsoft finally rolled out AdCenter Desktop. The Google tool is undeniably better (Microsoft's tool is, laughably, not cut-and-paste compatible with Microsoft's own Excel), but this is the first sign that we've seen that any other search engine has discovered that the more you let advertisers optimize their own campaigns, the better their campaigns will be, and the more money they'll allocate to your engine.

Since Yahoo and Bing will soon have the same advertiser-friendly interface and increased market share, advertisers will find it easier more worthwhile to help these engines help themselves by creating more detailed, accurate, and efficient campaigns.

The burden is still on Microsoft's technology team to create an engine that delivers organic results as reliably and accurately as Google to drive up the user base. There's still a lot of work to be done by Microsoft in that department to be sure, but they've made steps in the right direction. If they play their cards right (again, BIG if), we may see a legitimate competitor emerge from this deal, to everybody's benefit. And all they have to do is make it easier for us to do the work for them.

Matt Beckemeyer
Director of SEM and Analytics, MMi Agency

Posted: 08/04/09 | Responses: 0