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For many of us in Digital Marketing, advertising on Bing rarely crosses our mind, or at least we place a much heavier emphasis on Google Ads. However, this is a flagrant mistake for any Digital Marketing campaign. Bing advertising may not be appropriate for every campaign but as a starting point, it should be considered for every search engine PPC (Pay per Click) campaign. In this blog post we will dig deeper and provide you with clear reasons as to why implementing Bing into your paid search strategy could benefit your over-all Digital Marketing campaign.
Bing Ad Platform Facilitates Integration with Google Ads Platform
In the past, the main issue most of marketers ran into regarding Bing Ads was the complexity and frustrations that got paired with it. It didn’t seem worth the effort to master their PPC platform if you could get enough search volume by exclusively using Google Ads. However, that was then – and this is now. Over the last several years, Bing has put a lot of effort into optimizing their platform and making it as user friendly as possible. Probably their biggest move was to integrate the Google Ads platform with the Bing Ads platform so with one simple click you can easily transfer your Google Ads campaign to Bing Ads. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
The advertising networks are also quite similar. Both Google and Bing use partner sites and have their own search engine. When advertising on Google your ads can be shown on its famous Search Network and the Display Network, which contains a vast number of websites on the internet. Bing, however, also has its partner sites and additionally own two other search engines. What many of us forget is the fact that Bing is part of Microsoft, who just recently extended its Bing Ads-Yahoo deal. This means if you launch your ads on Bing they will also show on Yahoo and the lesser known AOL. Now I hear you thinking: “All good, but the reach of Yahoo and Bing together isn’t nearly as much as Google’s reach.” Correct. However, before throwing the idea out of the window, you might want to approach this as an opportunity. 30% of all searches in the US are done through Bing or Yahoo. This means there are 63 million people that aren’t reached by Google. So, if you are running a U.S. campaign and it is as easy as transferring your Google Ads campaign to the Bing Ad platform, why not give it a try?
Take User Traits into Account
Now, don’t get us wrong, we don’t want you to blindly jump onto the Bing Ads wagon. If you are not sure to use either Bing or Google, or if you are considering placing your ads exclusively on either Bing or Google, you should definitely take a closer look at who your audience is. Since the search volume of Bing Ads is considerably smaller than Google Ads, it’s important to first analyze your target market and see if they are more particularly using Bing or Google. Each campaign and target demographic are different and merits this preliminary analysis. This information is usually easy to find out with a few simple Google (and Bing) searches.
When it comes down to Bing, research has shown that 85% of Bing users are located in the United States and are generally blue collar rather than white collar. Therefore, if you are planning on going international, Bing may or may not be the right place to advertise. Google is known for its worldwide reach, and still holds (by far) the largest search market share in all countries except for Russia, China, South Korea and Japan.
When zooming in on the age categories, the age groups that are mainly represented on Bing are people older than 35 years of age. As a consequence, we find that over one-third of the Bing network has a household income of $100,000 or more. Whereas on Google we find a younger audience inclusive of Facebook users and usually university educated.
There are many aspects that may influence your decision on whether to include a Bing PPC search campaign in conjunction with a Google campaign, however your target audience will likely be your most important one.
Google Ads V. Bing Ads | Which is More Cost Effective?
Let’s dive into the financial aspect of your paid search options. We already acknowledged that Bing indeed has a lower reach and a lower keyword traffic volume than Google. However, the cost per click on Bing is significantly lower. We calculated the average CPC based on six different industries and found that Bing is 71% less expensive than Google. While this may not be the driving force behind your final decision, but 71% is a big number. And most certainly should be taken into account.
With this said, you could consider Bing over Google if you find that your PPC keywords are prohibitively expensive on the Google Ads platform (some keywords on Google now sell for over $75 per click). Some of the most expensive industries for Cost per Click prices on Google are insurance, real estate, personal Injury law, loans and mortgage. Some of the keywords related to these industries on Google can sell for over $75 per click). Whereas on the Bing platform, the same keywords will cost a fraction of the price. To find out if Bing ads could be cost-effective for you can check out the Bing Ads preview tool. It allows you to insert any industry keyword, and it will show you its monthly search volume, the CPC and total estimated clicks you could receive based on your budget. This tool even offers you a small preview of how your ad might look like on the Bing search engine.
In general, Bing has less competition which makes it easier to stand out and could potentially provide you with a higher ROI.
DuckDuckGo | Don’t Forget the New Players
We’ve mainly been talking about Google Ads and Bing Ads, but there may be another new shark in the pond. DuckDuckGo has grown tremendously in popularity mainly due to its privacy-focused approach. At this moment, its market share remains microscopic compared to Google’s, but take a look at their traffic numbers over the last few years. In January 2015, DuckDuckGo had a daily average of 5 million search queries. Now in 2019, this number is five folded to 25 million search queries on a daily basis! We are not saying you should start advertising on this search engine, but we certainly should keep an eye on them in the future. As privacy is becoming the number one priority for many people, we predict that DuckDuckGo’s market share will only increase over time.
Bing vs. Google | Google is the Powerhouse but Bing should not be Overlooked
In general, there is no one right answer regarding this issue and a lot depends on what your company’s needs are. However, to find out whether Bing Ads is something worth considering, we suggest as a first step, determine who your target audience is. Is your target group more present on Bing or Google and do you mainly target the US or are other countries involved? If your campaign is US focused, with close to 30% market share Bing should always be considered. Not as much in Canada where Google has an 80% of the market share. Additionally, you’ll want to compare the cost-per-click between the two search engines as well as search volume. Once considering these important factors you can make a more informed decision on whether to go with one or the other or both. However, one thing is for certain – Bing Ads should not be ignored when considering a Search marketing campaign.
If you are still unsure, after creating your Google Ads campaign, you can easily transfer the entire campaign to the Bing Ads platform by importing your campaign from Google Ads and monitor. You can then monitor your results on both platforms from both campaigns and decide, based on your real time statistics, which one is working better for you (or if both are working well together).
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As you mentioned in your article bing ads is good for USA Market but most of the people around the world using google it’s giving more relevant information but they need to change algorithms in keyword targeting for better reach