Yahoo reveals more on search engine marketing integration

In a follow up to last week’s update on how Yahoo is integrating its search engine marketing platform with Microsoft as part of its ‘search alliance’ deal, the company has answered questions from PPC advertisers and posted the Q&A session on the Yahoo Search Marketing blog.

As part of its partnership with Microsoft, Yahoo will move its PPC search advertising system to AdCenter – the AdWords competitor currently used on Bing. Last week, Yahoo announced that it would provide a “window of time” for Advertisers to make the transition from the Yahoo platform to the new system, offering assurances that it would “protect the holiday period” – a key time for advertisers – and “ensure a quality transition” by postponing the transition if necessary.

Last Thursday, a follow up post on the blog answered the lingering questions of a selection of advertisers about how search engine marketing on Yahoo will work in the future.

Some concrete new information was available in the Q&A session. For example, Microsoft AdCenter will still accept payments by Paypal – and Yahoo will retain its ability to display PPC ads for adult content such as liquor advertising, which is currently restricted by Microsoft, even though it has moved to Bing’s advertising system.

In response to a question about how the two platforms will effectively work within AdCenter, the Yahoo Team responded that following the transition the “Yahoo Sponsored Search system will be decommissioned” and that they expect to introduce distribution controls from “the combined marketplace of Bing and Yahoo, or from the full affiliate network….once [Yahoo] advertisers are transitioned to Microsoft’s search platforms.”

Still, many questions were left largely unanswered as Yahoo and Microsoft are still determining the details of their transition. It remains unclear what features of Yahoo Sponsored Search will be matched in AdCentre, whilst the company says it is still determining the policy on flash driven and capture pages given AdCentre’s penchant for pausing campaigns with video-driven capture pages.

The companies are also reviewing the reporting capabilities offered by both companies “to determine which reports and data will be offered to advertisers at the time of transition and on an ongoing basis.”