Microsoft and Verizon Media – formerly Oath – recently announced a new partnership making Bing Ads the single global platform for all search advertising campaigns on the AOL and Yahoo networks. Search campaigns targeting the AOL and Yahoo networks will be fully managed within the Bing Ads platform after the Oath/Verizon ad platform is transitioned out at the end of March.

The AOL and Yahoo search updates follow an announcement from Microsoft and Bing earlier this month that the two companies had signed a multiyear global native advertising partnership. The native advertising portion of the partnership allows Verizon to expand its native ad inventory to include Microsoft’s network.

Details

Microsoft announced that the new partnership with the AOL and Yahoo networks could result in search campaigns targeting the US to see experience an increase in clicks of up to 15%. The increase in click traffic could result in campaigns being limited by budget.

This partnership allows advertisers to leverage the benefits of Microsoft AI and audience targeting across the AOL and Yahoo search networks. Bing Ads audience targeting and platform features will be a significant technological step up for advertisers currently running search ads on the Oath ad platform.

The migration of search campaigns from Oath to Bing Ads will begin on March 15 and will be completed by March 31. Search campaigns will no longer be able to be managed on Oath after March 31. Advertisers with search campaigns live on the Oath ad platform will need to re-create their campaigns in Bing Ads.

Insight

The partnership provides opportunities for advertisers currently running ads on both networks. The increased traffic provides Bing Ads advertisers more opportunities to target high quality users, but the increased traffic will require close monitoring of campaign budgets as the transition occurs. Current Oath ad platform advertisers will have access to significantly more tools and automation than they currently have.

The partnership also strengthens the position of the Bing Ads platform.  The expansion of Microsoft AI and audience targeting across additional networks will continue to improve the capabilities of those tools.

Conclusion

The Microsoft and Verizon Media partnership represents a step forward for both Verizon/Oath search ads and Bing Ads.  Advertisers will need to beware of potential changes in traffic if the are currently running on the Bing Ads platform or are considering expansion.