Bing cuts ties with Yahoo

Just when Marissa Meyers’ week couldn’t get worse, Yahoo’s on-again-off-again relationship with Bing is off, Bing further cutting its ties this week.

Last year Bing, half-way through the original term,re-negotiated its 10-year deal with Yahoo. Under the original agreement, Yahoo’s ad sales teams handled premium accounts  for both companies. Bing has since beefed up its search sales force to more than 400 sales staff and has just announced they are taking back control of all advertiser relationships and account management: Bing handles Bing customers, Yahoo handles Yahoo customers.

Microsoft has openly stated they are “All in with search advertising” and has been integrating Bing into the Microsoft ecosystem in Windows 10, Xbox, Cortana, native advertising on MSN (and beyond on syndication partners, Amazon devices, and Apple’s Siri and Spotlight search). The video from Bing below is a good insight into its commitment to grow the Bing offering and market share.

Why should you care?

Bing really is emerging as the sleeping giant of search globally. With massive resources, the company is now actively improving the platform and partnerships.

While search volume is still relatively light on Bing in NZ, the conversion rates are generally higher and CPCs lower than Google. So, as we have said before, a smart SEM strategy would be to invest around 10% of your paid search budget on Bing as a starting point and adjust from there based on search volume, CPC and conversion rates. This will bring your overall cost per conversion down and provide a better ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).

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