By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
As you’re probably aware, Yahoo! announced a strategic alliance with Microsoft, which is wending its way through the federal regulatory process, and which would position Bing to be the search and monetization engine for both companies. Yahoo! would focus on its strengths as a producer of Web media sites, from finance to sports, as a marketer and a leader in on-line display advertising that accompanies published Web sites.
It appears that Microsoft is pressuring Yahoo! to drop its successful and highly profitable Paid Inclusion program. The Paid Inclusion program has been a compelling and dependable source of revenue for advertisers. It consistently delivers a return on ad spend that surpasses Google, Yahoo Search, and Bing.
I can only guess that Microsoft is adopting Google’s view of ethical internet behavior and is dropping the program because it believes that it is duplicitous to allow companies to buy PPC advertising in an area of the web page that has been traditionally reserved for “free” or “organic” listings. It may fear that an association with a program that has been as controversial as the SSP program may degrade the value of the brand.
Other than that, it just doesn’t make sense to stop a program that is making Yahoo! a lot of money, while allowing companies to display their full product array across the Yahoo! network via a product data-feed submit. Typically “spidering” will pick up maybe 20% of a sites products. The Yahoo Paid Inclusion program gave companies the means to monetize all of their products and to make the organic listings act like a PPC campaign.
In addition, the tight criteria imposed on companies advertising through the Paid Inclusion program ensured a more tightly controlled, relevant, and positive search experience for the end user.
I’ve been doing business with Microsoft, and MSN, since 2000. It has often made seemingly unprofitable decisions. But I guess $60,000,000,000 companies move to their own logic and rhythms. It helps when you have millions of people biting at the bullet for the opportunity to buy Windows 7, the operating system that a more careful, caring, and customer oriented company would’ve introduced years ago instead of Vista.