It is time to get ready your account for a smooth transition to Microsof adCenter from Yahoo Search Marketing account, with the deadline fast approaching. Most users are already in the process of finishing the process or have already done so. The combined scale and reach of the two companies is aimed at letting them speed up the pace of innovation for providing a better search user experience, and assisting advertisers derive better results.
Campaign data transition process
For those left behind, Microsoft ‘s Ricky Poole serves a timely reminder in a public posting: “Given the busy time of year this is, both professionally and personally, there is something you are supposed to do, but haven’t yet! With all of the hustle and bustle of holiday season, I wished to remind any of users in the US and Canada, who may have Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns.”
The transition tool is slated to close on January 5, 2011. Taking this into account, the company has come out with a transition overview for small businesses. Those who will fail to transition their PPC accounts to adCenter from Yahoo! will be needed to do the same manually through exporting and importing their campaigns after 5th of the next month.
The company has prepared an elaborate transition checklist that smaller businesses are required to review, to help make sure that they are well prepared for completing a hassle free transition from Yahoo! Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter. It has also released a detailed feature comparison guide, so that they are able to familiarize themselves with capabilities and other important features of adCenter.
Steps for smooth transition of Yahoo! account to adCenter
Users can create a new adCenter account, or indicate that they already have one, which they will continue to use. They can make use of the transition tool for copying Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns onto adCenter.
Once the process is done, the new adCenter account will get active and the existing campaigns will continue to retain the same status (paused or active) as within respective Yahoo! account, so users may be required to un pause the campaigns to start advertising on Yahoo! Search, Bing and partner sites.
Grasp differences between two setups
Users will also be required to download a tool, namely Microsoft Silverlight, which will let them check and address differences between adCenter campaign and Yahoo! Search Marketing setups. Installing Silverlight will make the process easier to execute and at no additional cost to users.
Once they log into their Yahoo! Search Marketing account, they will be directed to a new tab called ‘adCenter’ automatically. They can go through the Compatibility Report to fix incompatibilities between ongoing Yahoo! campaigns and the adCenter platform prior to the transition.
