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In my previous article from March, I’ve talked about how Google had changed its policy toward online pharmacies advertising through AdWords and how it affected the whole industry. Guess what? Now Yahoo is following suit.

Starting June 7^th, 2010, Yahoo Search Marketing is adopting the same policy as Google’s regarding online pharmacies advertising using paid search marketing. Since Yahoo and Bing are merging, Bing is having the same policy toward online pharmacies as well. The policy is outlined as below:

Prescription Drugs

Advertisements for online pharmacies and prescription drug products are restricted based on applicable laws. To be fair to all of our pharmacy advertisers, we make no exceptions.

• U.S. Market:
• Online pharmacies (including pet pharmacies) that advertise prescription drugs to the U.S. market must be accredited by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program or Vet-VIPPS program. Please visit http://www.nabp.net/programs/accreditation/vipps/ for more information.
• Advertisers must target the U.S. only.
• Canadian Market:
  • Online pharmacies (including pet pharmacies) that advertise prescription drugs to the Canadian market must be accredited by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA). Please visit http://www.ciparx.ca/pages/join_cipa.html for more information.
  • Advertisers must target Canada only.

Link to the original policy page: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/ysm/sps/articles/editorial5.html

Even though I talked about how residents in the States can still search for Canadian sponsored ads by changing the geographical extension of their search engine, it seems like most legit Canadian online pharmacies don’t plan to advertise in Canada.

At this moment, all the ads from Canadian online pharmacies are still running on Yahoo.com, but this is probably just do to all the Yahoo staff are swamped by the Yahoo-Bing merge, but eventually all ads will be shut down.

So, that’s it, folks. This is the end of once a great industry.

Pitstop Media offers ROI based internet marketing services. If you need help with PPC management or PPC optimization please contact us for a free, no obligation quote. We’ve helped companies reduce their paid advertising cost by as much as 48% and increase AdWords conversion rates by as much as 410%. See our internet marketing case studies.