The last step of transitioning Yahoo Search Marketing accounts to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform will begin (much) sooner rather than later.  Yahoo announced late yesterday that the process could in fact start on Monday, and the deadline for completion is the last week of this month.

That means things are continuing to run on – or even ahead of – Yahoo and Microsoft’s original schedule, which is good news for both companies.  They should begin to realize the predicted cost savings in short order as a result.

As for how marketers should react, a post on the Yahoo Advertising Blog advised, "Make sure that you have an adCenter account in place-complete with campaigns and budget-no later than October 25.  Otherwise, your ads will no longer be displayed on the Yahoo! Search network."

And the post stressed that it’s also important to "[c]ontinue to manage your Yahoo! Search Marketing account until Yahoo! search ad serving completely transitions to adCenter, which will help ensure that your ads continue to fully serve on the Yahoo! Search network."

Then the only other thing to do is watch out for volume-related experiments, since Yahoo and Microsoft intend to test the system’s technical capabilities.

Let’s hope this transition goes smoothly and no one’s left behind.