Yahoo search users in Britain, France and Ireland will start seeing ads from Microsoft’s adCenter from next week onwards, as the two tech companies reach the final lap of long-due transition in form of the MSFT-Yahoo search alliance in Europe. And as part of it, search advertisers still on Yahoo! platform in these countries will be required to migrate to the latter, since Yahoo Search Marketing accounts there will soon denote read-only status.

The transition will take place for users in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, later this year. The alliance implementation is arriving at its logical end, combining both Bing and Yahoo! Search audiences on a unified global platform – Microsoft Advertising adCenter. It will gradually overlap all Yahoo! Search pages. The process will conclude by the month end. Underlining the logistics of this transition, an official adCenter post mentions:

“As Yahoo! ad serving finally moves to it (adCenter), and your clicks and impressions in that account begin to increase, you will see a corresponding decrease in clicks and impressions in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. It’s thus important to continue managing your campaigns across both platforms throughout this transition phase, in order to avoid missing out on any potential clicks.”

The company has shared a few tips for users to successfully see through this transition:

• Those having a Yahoo! Search Marketing account, yet to transition the same to adCenter, should not wait till the last moment. There’s a basic transition portal provided under the adCenter tab, once you sign into a Yahoo! account. Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers would need to follow instructions from the search engine for transitioning to adCenter.
• It is recommended to increase adCenter budget to prepare for the additional traffic. As the company suggests, your budget equals what you’ve previously been allocating on both platforms – Microsoft and Yahoo! Search. It is advisable to increase your budget limit if it’s within a 20% range of getting fully depleted.
• It is time to revisit the bidding strategy as well, and increase keyword bids to face increased competition in the adCenter auction from the new advertisers joining it. Also, make it a point to expand your bids across as many match types as possible and make use of negative keywords to make sure your impressions remain relevant and steady..
• By closely monitoring the account during the transition phase, and following  a checklist for the purpose, small businesses in particular can manage their ad campaigns without any hassle.

Meanwhile, several enhancements are being made to Microsoft Advertising adCenter, including enhanced global targeting capabilities and a redesigned menu bar that lets users navigate the tool more easily with a greater intuitive experience. An improved Multiple Changes feature will facilitate bulk changes in fewer steps. A new negative keyword enhancement (negative keywords set at both the campaign & ad group levels now combined) makes way for greater scalability. The enhanced ‘market’ distribution channel will ensure more relevant traffic from your target location.