Although details of the deal are as yet unclear, reports from numerous credible news outlets worldwide suggest that after many months of negotiation, the global giants are set to unveil an agreement that will see Yahoo sell search ads under Microsoft’s nascent Bing brand. While estimates of the global market share the partnership will hold vary from 12% to 30%, Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency believes that the news will have a positive impact upon the industry.
“It’s been 18 months since the rumour mill first started touting the possibility of a deal involving Yahoo and Microsoft, and the industry as a whole will be delighted to see what’s become the search business’ longest-running soap opera finally approaching a conclusion. The devil will be in the detail, but given the alarming dominance that Google has held over the market for so long, the prospect of a serious challenge to their position is good news for everyone,” said Lyndsay Menzies, Chief Operations Officer at bigmouthmedia.
“Although the impact in the UK will be minimal, with the combined entity still only accounting for a market share of around 5%, competition in any market is good for consumers. If the partnership succeeds in growing their market share still further, the renewed challenge could force Google to become more competitive.”
With the precise details of the agreement still a closely guarded secret, the news that Yahoo has finally succumbed to Microsoft’s advances has spawned widespread speculation over the deal’s possible ramifications. While the prospect of a serious competitor to Google’s Adwords system is being touted as a move that could help push PPC advertising prices downwards, other commentators have suggested that the deal could force the search giant to reconsider its policy against paying commission to partner agencies.
“There are still more questions than there are answers about this deal, but If Yahoo’s paid search ads are powered by Bing then we will have another credible search engine to consider for paid search budgets. That may result in some instability as bid management platforms adapt to cope with the new landscape, but it will help keep cost-per-click prices down,” said Andrew Girdwood, bigmouthmedia’s Head of Search.
“But if Bing is only going to supply Yahoo with organic results then it still means Yahoo is out of the search game. They’ll not be developing their search engine, are unlikely to return to it and will in essence become an ad management platform – the long term effects of which remain to be seen.”
About bigmouthmedia
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest and most experienced digital marketing agency and was rated the UK’s #1 Search agency for Search Engine Optimisation and PPC in the 2009 NMA Marketing Services Guide.
Bigmouthmedia’s 200+ online marketing experts across 12 international offices maximise online brand exposure for our clients by means of integrated digital strategies incorporating SEO, PPC, Social Media Marketing, Affiliate marketing, Display Advertising, Online PR and Copywriting.
Bigmouthmedia’s multilingual digital solutions deliver outstanding ROI for over 300 world leading brands including British Airways, Tesco, ebay, Sky, Cisco, BT, Comic Relief, Barclaycard and Europcar.
