A new study has found that the Yahoo Microsoft search alliance has gained ground on Google.
Yahoo Microsoft alliance changing the face of search
A new study has found that the Yahoo Microsoft search alliance has gained ground on Google.
The research was conducted by paid search marketing platform provider Marin Software and marketing technology provider Razorfish.
They found that the search alliance has increased their share of paid search impression by 4% and clicks by 2%, while Google’s share was reduced by the same percentage.
Better traffic quality on the search alliance is also driving higher conversion rates.
Excluding the impact of seasonality, conversion rates for the search alliance increased by 12% during the research.
Ed Stevenson, European MD of Marin Software expects this trend to continue.
He said, “With continued growth in the paid search market, Yahoo! and Bing will become increasingly important channels for advertisers seeking incremental traffic and revenues.”
“The Search Alliance is paying healthy dividends for the advertisers who had the foresight to build out and optimize campaigns prior to the transition.”
“Given the favorable market conditions in place today, we expect more media dollars to flow towards Yahoo! and Bing as advertisers increasingly adopt the unified platform.”
This is backed up by the study’s findings, which show the costs-per-click for the search alliance ended the year 20% below industry benchmarks.
That has meant significantly lower cost per acquisition for advertisers.
The increased relevance of the Yahoo Microsoft alliance was not recognized at first, Joshua Palau, Vice President of Search at Razorfish said his company had predicted the alliance would have a minimal impact on search.
The company now believes the alliance will lead to more competition and innovation in search.
