Yahoo Test Microsoft Search Advertising System

Beijing time July 21 morning news, according to foreign media reports, the first time last week, Yahoo engineers began to use Microsoft's search advertising system test keywords, the two sides have taken an important step in search cooperation.

Test keywords

This so-called "shadow test" (Shadow test) can simulate the Yahoo advertisers use Microsoft adcenter system, the effect of keyword ads. AdCenter will soon be a paid search technology shared by Microsoft and Yahoo. The test results will help determine whether Yahoo and Microsoft will be able to officially co-operate this fall.

"The next few weeks will be critical," said David Karnstedt, head of efficient frontier, a U.S. search marketing firm. ”

Yahoo and Microsoft announced a partnership a year ago, hoping to fight the market leader Google. The test is part of a carefully deployed plan.

The U.S. search market is about $12.4 billion trillion, although Yahoo and Microsoft share a total of less than one-third, but it is enough through advertisers to get better returns, but also for businesses and shareholders to generate more revenue and profits.

Microsoft hopes to use the 10-year revenue-sharing agreement to bring its online services sector to profitability. Yahoo said the deal could help it compress costs, putting more effort into developing display ads and providing search results in more creative ways.

Integration and testing process

Microsoft Bing search engine will provide search technology for Yahoo site, both small and medium advertisers will use the Microsoft adcenter advertising system to buy keywords and advertising on the Web page, the two sides of the large advertisers are the Yahoo's sales team responsible.

While Yahoo is free to choose any mobile search and search advertising partner, the company says it will continue to work with Microsoft in the US, Canada, UK and French markets. Yahoo says the shift in these markets will be done in parallel with desktop operations and will soon expand to other markets.

Mark Morrssey, head of Yahoo's integration team, Mark Morrissy that Yahoo and Microsoft have been testing search algorithms over the past two months through the "video test". This algorithm can generate free search results on their web pages.

He said the project was still on schedule and that engineers were currently working to eliminate system vulnerabilities. They hope to gradually increase the flow of Yahoo through Bing, and eventually make some fictitious requests to the system for stress testing.

"The most challenging scenarios will occur between 100% and 130% of system capacity, as this is not just a test function, but also a test of the limits of the infrastructure," Mo said. ”

The process of moving Yahoo's advertisers to Microsoft adcenter will be more complicated. Microsoft must increase the processing power of adcenter to 4 times times the current. Engineers must also integrate the functionality of Yahoo's Panama search advertising system into adcenter, such as allowing advertisers to better control where ads appear.

Roi

The key question is whether the partnership will bring better returns to advertisers and lead to more revenue from the unit search for both sides.

Efficient Frontier's second-quarter figures showed that Microsoft advertisers ' average ROI is 21% higher than Google's, while Yahoo is 25% lower than Google. Advertisers are looking at ROI because it helps them measure the performance of search ads in the overall advertising plan.

Chris Lien, head of Marin Software, the US search marketing company, said Yahoo's relatively low return could offset Microsoft's dominance and reduce the attractiveness of the merged platform to advertisers.

However, Yahoo and Microsoft are still planning a handover in the US and Canada on October 15, giving advertisers, advertising agencies and search engine marketers enough time to convert before the Christmas shopping season. Morrissey said the two sides had achieved every important breakthrough on schedule, but they still had to wait until the merged system could provide a good enough return on investment before it was officially released. (PEI)