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1st Click Works
What the Micro-Hoo Deal Could Mean to Businesses
July 28, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a “merger” of some portions of their business. There has been a lot of talk about whether this is “good” or “bad.” Wall Street clearly thought it was “bad” for Yahoo. But, the big question is: How does it affect businesses that use pay-per-click advertising or are trying to improve their search engine position?
Of course, right now, the deal doesn’t affect anyone. The contract requires Justice Department approval before it can go forward.
However, as the deal is now laid out, Microsoft’s new Bing search engine will power both the Microsoft (MSN) sites and Yahoo sites. The result is that Microsoft’s search engine will be used for nearly 28% of all Internet searches, more than tripling its reach.
Because Bing has generally been accepted as an improvement over the old Microsoft search engine, (some have even suggested that it is better than Google), it now has a chance to be tried by many more people. And, its popularity could grow. The search engine will be incorporated into the MSN and Yahoo home pages, two of the Internet’s most popular and content-rich home pages.
Yahoo’s sales force will handle “display” advertising—the image ads that appear in banners and “skyscrapers” on their content pages. Microsoft’s AdCenter platform will be used to fulfill pay-per-click advertising for both companies.
For the business community, I think there are two consequences of this move:
- It will now be worthwhile to optimize your website specifically for Bing. Bing is so new that my industry is still trying to figure out how to do that. But, I think that Bing may even be able to improve upon the 28% market share. So, there’s no doubt that it would be worthwhile.
- Google Adwords will also have some real competition. Right now, few advertisers bother with pay-per-click advertising on any other platform than Google. I only have two clients who do. And it’s not just because Microsoft and Yahoo can’t bring them as much traffic. A big part of the problem is that it’s difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising on Yahoo and MSN. For most small niche businesses, they just can’t provide enough “clicks-thrus” to provide “statistically valid” data.
Having more data is the biggest benefit to the two companies, too. Having more advertising and search data helps me and my clients. But, in the aggregate, it also will help Microsoft and Yahoo serve the online world better. It will help them refine the way that they target ads—so their entire advertising platform will drive better qualified customers to advertisers. It will also provide them with needed data to better understand the search needs of consumers, allowing Microsoft to further improve Bing’s ability to provide relevant search results.
Posted by Janet Macdaniel on 4th August, 2009 | Comments | Trackbacks
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