With this latest partnership agreement, Yahoo ads will now be available via the Bing Ads platform, providing advertisers and marketers with a single, integrated platform.
Microsoft recently announced that the company is updating their partnership terms with Verizon media to provide advertisers with more convenience. The new partnership will further strengthen ties between these two companies.
Verizon Media Group, previously known as Oath, is a huge conglomerate that owns AOL and Yahoo, among several other brands. And, the partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo had existed for over a decade and can be traced back to 2009, when the two companies came together for the first time.
What are the terms of this new partnership?
As per the latest announcements, Microsoft owned Bing Ads will be the exclusive search advertising platform for the entire list of brands owned by Verizon Media Properties, including the popular Yahoo and AOL, among other brands.
Earlier in 2015, when Yahoo was independently owned and not under the Verizon umbrella, Yahoo retained the right for up to 49% of search ads on its platform via Gemini. The remaining 51% of ads flowed through Bing Ads.
Now with the new announcement, all ads on the Yahoo platform will be via Bing Ads. It is to be noted that previously Yahoo had signed a three-year deal with Google in 2015. With the new announcement, Google and other search platforms will have no share in the Yahoo search inventory.
Apart from Yahoo, the new announcement ensures that all search inventory on the other Verizon owned properties like – Aol.com, AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail, TechCrunch, Huffington Post, and others will be exclusively routed via Bing Ads.
How does the new partnership impact native ads?
Microsoft is introducing new ad placements on its platform MSN. Oath Ad Platforms, which was earlier known as Gemini, will have exclusive third-party access to the new native ad inventory introduced on MSN.
Additionally, the Microsoft Audience Network which caters to native ads will have access to inventory on all Verizon owned properties. You can monitor native ad performance on Verizon Media properties using the syndication traffic channel on Bing Ads UI.
If you are wondering what happens to the once popular AOL platform, it’s worth noting that Bing Ads took over AOL search from Google, back in 2015. Bing continues to power the organic search results and ads on the AOL platform.
What does this mean for advertisers and marketers?
Search ad buyers can now reach Yahoo’s audiences using the Bing Ads platform. Microsoft reports that with this move, it plans to increase ad clicks by 10 to 15% in the US.
Apart from the increase in click volumes, Microsoft also expects to provide advertisers with other tracking and reporting features like – audience targeting using Microsoft Graph, and ad optimisation powered by data from MicrosoftAI and LinkedIn data.
When is the transition set to occur?
The transition from Yahoo ad networks to Bing Ads will occur from 15th March to 31st March of this year. By the end of the transition period, 100% of search volumes on Verizon Media owned properties will be handled exclusively by Bing Ads.
What are the measures advertisers should take to handle the transition?
- Keep your ad budgets in Oath ads during the transition period, to avoid loss of volumes.
- From March 15, copy ads on your Oath platform to Bing.
- During the transition, ads will continue to be served on both platforms. So, ensure that you closely monitor bids, budgets, and traffic.
On 31st March, the Oath Ad platform will stop supporting paid search traffic completely. Continue your campaigns from the Bing Ads platform.
