The Yahoo to Microsoft adCenter transition tool closed just last week, but Efficient Frontier reports that advertisers may already be experiencing gains from the Yahoo-Bing alliance. Early data from Efficient Frontier’s Q4 online marketing report reveals that the transition could be producing some positive paid search trends.
The company reports that there was a temporary dip in the quality of traffic advertisers received at the start of the transition, but revenues per click picked up once traffic quality was restored. Over the course of the transition period, Yahoo-Bing RPCs shifted from being 20 percent behind Google to being on par with the search giant.
Moreover, Google RPCs declined during the fourth quarter. Yahoo-Bing RPCs, on the other hand, showed gradual gains over the course of Q4 2010.
Dr. Siddharth Shah, director of business analytics at Efficient Frontier, seems to anticipate that good things are in store for Yahoo-Bing. "Smaller advertisers will start allocating greater budgets to Yahoo-Bing as they notice the higher ROI opportunities," he said.
Whether working with Yahoo-Bing or Google, smaller advertisers will likely benefit from locally targeted paid search campaigns in 2011. As Brafton reported, the buzz at Affiliate Summit West 2011 suggests that paid search must go local, and evidence shared at the conference indicates it pays to target nearby consumers.
