It’s been a little more than a year since the Yahoo/Bing merger was announced, and a couple months ago, Yahoo began testing Bing search results. A lot of talk has been made about how this will influence organic search, but what about paid search? This deal could be an instant boom for those doing PPC. Following are 7 possible advantages:

1. Market Share Gets Instant Boost

Yahoo and Bing reach more than 154 million searchers. This equates to a volume of 4.4 billion monthly searches and a 28.6% search share in the U.S.

The expanded market place will improve scale of reach. Previously, volume was an issue with both Yahoo and Bing. With their combined forces it does add a certain appeal since the opportunity for volume is greatly improved.

2. Harmony Between Yahoo/Bing

Rather than competing with each other, they will now join forces. Together they can both take aim at their more handsome brother, Google. This unified focus should help move the meter on increased market share.

3. One Login

I think we are all looking forward to having all data in one login. Managing both Yahoo & Bing via one platform should boost efficiency and performance. This will cut down on the time it takes to toggle between both engines. It should allow for more opportunity for data analysis and optimization improvements.

4. Innovation

Now that the minds from Yahoo and Microsoft have been brought together, we expect new cutting edge ideas and strategies. (At least, I hope this is the case) Personally, I’m hoping this merger succeeds. At the moment, Google is still the 700 lb gorilla. We all know that.

This will always be the case until Yahoo and Bing give people a reason to choose them over Google. I highly doubt Google executives are losing any sleep over this merger. But if this merger does accomplish what is hoped for it will at least force Google to step it up even more. This will be good for all of us.

5. Simplified Reporting

I will admit that I actually liked the Yahoo reporting. The good news is, Bing still provides adequate reporting necessary for effective optimizations. While the Bing reporting interface is much different compared to Yahoo, I have found the reporting in Bing to be just as effective. All it really takes is to get into the reporting center and get your hands dirty.

6. Standard and Advanced Match Dies

I was never crazy about Yahoo matching. We always had a fun time explaining just how Standard and Advanced matching truly works to clients. It almost felt like a gray area. Fortunately, Bing already uses Broad, Phrase, and Exact match. I certainly prefer these match types. They open the door for additional keyword iterations and traffic opportunities. These match types also help filter out unwanted clicks and can improve account efficiency.

7. Microsoft AdCenter Desktop Tool

In case you haven’t heard of this, its Microsoft’s version of the AdWords Editor. This tool actually works quite well. I have been using this tool for about three months. It has saved our PPC team a large amount of hours. It’s a good thing Microsoft got this tool working prior to the launch. Yahoo has a desk top tool. I used this one for a short time and always had trouble with it. I’m sure the focus was shifted to the Microsoft tool. Fortunately it appears to have paid off.

7 PPC Advantages to the Yahoo/Bing Merger is a post by SEO expert Todd Julien. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

A fool and his money are soon parted. This old time Idiom has never been truer especially when it comes to poor PPC management.

1) Website not clearly defined

All the traffic in the world can’t overcome a poorly defined website. Sites that are confusing with poor navigation will lead to poor website conversion rates. Remember, that finding the winning PPC recipe takes time and effort. If possible, test different versions of your site. Sometimes a landing page will work better than a 50-page website. Regardless, be sure to synchronize your keywords, ads, and site. PPC is a science of relevancy. Matching keywords, ads, and pages improves user experience. On the other hand, failure to do this will have a negative impact on conversion rates and quality scores.

2) Failure to implement AdWords tracking and Google Analytics.

With PPC virtually every metric is measurable. Without tracking, how do you know which page, keyword, or ad is working and what’s not working? Don’t do anything with PPC unless you can track it.

3) Sending traffic to broken pages

Sending traffic to broken pages only results in wasted money. Be sure when pages are deleted the corresponding PPC elements are also taken offline. PPC accounts should always mirror the website.

4) Not evaluating the competition

Frequent competitive reviews will help keep your pulse on the competition. Using your core keywords, you can easily study your competitors messaging and website in just a few clicks. From this info you can counter and find a hook that will differentiate your company from the competition.

Keep in mind you won’t really know what is working until you test it yourself. Be sure to also study your competitor’s ad text. At any time you might be competing with 9 other advertisers on the search network. Make sure you are always testing more than 1 ad at a time with a strong call to action. You should also rotate your ads evenly. You can then determine the best messaging based upon CTR and conversion rate.

5) Allowing campaigns to run on auto pilot

You might remember that old infomercial with the catchy tag line “Set it and forget it”? PPC is not a set it and forget it. If you have this mentality you might as well throw your money into the Fire Place. I recommend evaluating your PPC campaigns every day. This will help keep your finger on the pulse of your PPC campaigns. Many PPC managers don’t review data often enough. Failure to check in on a regular basis can result in lost revenue.

The bottom line is, don’t take shortcuts when setting up your PPC account. Setting up PPC accounts the right way takes a lot of research and time. However, the amount of money you will save in the long run will make the time you spent worth it. Stop donating wasted dollars to the Search Engine Slush Fund.

5 PPC Management Blunders That Will Burn Your Cash is a post by SEO expert Todd Julien. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

]]>