Microsoft and Verizon Media announced a new search partnership that will use the Bing Ads platform to reach audiences across Bing, Yahoo and AOL networks. This means that ads on Verizon Media properties, which include Yahoo and AOL, will be exclusively served by Bing Ads.
There has been a longstanding partnership between Yahoo, AOL and Bing ad networks, but this is a new, updated partnership.
Yahoo and AOL are owned by Verizon under Verizon Media Group, which was formerly Oath.
The change is that, now, Microsoft’s Bing Ads will be the sole search advertising platform used by Verizon Media, which includes Yahoo and AOL.
Microsoft has stated:
This enhanced partnership will make it easier for marketers to manage search advertising campaigns. Additionally, by aligning campaigns under Bing Ads, marketers will benefit from the deep audience understanding contained in the Microsoft Graph coupled with Microsoft artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to connect to the right audience with the right message across any device. As our partnership evolves, we continue to keep user privacy and security as core principles in how we approach our advertising business.
Continuing to grow the volume of high-quality clicks and conversions clients receive through Bing Ads has been a top request. We estimate that our enhanced partnership could result in an increase in clicks across the Bing Ads marketplace for customers targeting the United States of up to 10-15%. While exact results will vary by client, Bing Ads users should closely monitor their budgets to ensure they are ready to capture these potential increases in click volume. Microsoft and Verizon Media are working to complete the full transition of worldwide traffic by the end of March 2019
Previously, 49% of Yahoo ads were served through other platforms, such as Gemini and Google – Bing Ads made up 51%. However, now all search ads are served by Bing Ads.
Platforms this covers include:
- Yahoo.com
- Yahoo Mail
- Aol.com
- AOL mail
- Huffington Post
- TechCrunch
Why does this mean for digital marketing and search advertising?
Essentially, this new enhanced partnership means advertising on Bing, Yahoo and AOL will be simplified and much more efficient. It can all be managed in the Bing Ads platform that many advertisers will be familiar with.
For businesses using search ads, this means you can access audiences on Yahoo and other Verizon-owned platforms all through the Bing Ads platform.
This means you can find a larger audience through using Bing Ads, and in theory, more clicks on your ads. This also means ads on these various platforms will benefit from Microsoft’s audience targeting, which includes Microsoft AI and LinkedIn data.
This is planned to come into effect by the end of March 2019. In the meantime, it’s been advised that users of the Oath Ad platform should continue using it during the transition as to not lose traffic. Come March 15th, advertisers should copy ads from Oath to Bing. Ads will be served on both platforms, so it’s advised you monitor budgets and bids closely. And then, as scheduled on march 31st, the Oath Ad Platform paid search will come to a halt, and all of Yahoo’s Search Network will be served up by Bing Ads once the transition comes into full swing.
