This is the sixth post in our “Are You an Amateur?” series. In this post we discuss 11 reasons you should be advertising on Bing (most amateurs don’t, and focus exclusively on Google).
Talk to any advertiser about pay per click and it would seem as if Google is the only platform in the world. Although Google captures about 67.5% of the search market in the US (03/2013), Bing/Yahoo captures about 25.9% (Bing powers Yahoo). Further, studies have shown that Bing searchers are more click happy than Google searchers, making Bing advertising attractive in certain markets.
So why are so many advertisers ignoring Bing? For starters, their advertising interface has a horrible reputation. And for good reason: it looks like what Google might have looked like in 2002. It’s wonky, tedious, and slow. This is the number one reason I come across when talking to pay per click managers about why they don’t use Bing. Further, it’s no secret that people hate the Bing interface, leading to questions about why Microsoft hasn’t taken steps to make life easier for advertisers.
Aside from having a poor interface, Bing gets less monthly searches than Google. However, 25.9% of Billions equals hundreds of millions of searches per month. That’s a lot of volume.
And last but not least, Google searchers are considered more ‘savvy’ than Bing users. The reason for this is because Bing comes as the default search engine on Internet Explorer (pre-installed on most PCs), which is considered by many to be the worst performing web browser available (Chrome, FireFox, and Opera are the other options). The logic is that anyone who uses Internet Explorer is behind the times, and is therefore less savvy. Honestly I agree, as IE stinks, but that doesn’t mean people using IE aren’t spending money online.
Bing Advertising (the good side)
Ok, so their interface stinks and their searchers aren’t quite as savvy. Now let’s consider the reasons you should advertise on Bing (hint: there are way more reasons you should than shouldn’t).
For starters, advertising on Bing allows you to reach 162 Million unique searchers (comScore Core Search, January 2012). Remember what we said about 25% of Billions?
Second, bids on Bing tend to be lower (Hubspot). Unfortunately, advertisers are starting to catch on, as Bing spending went up by 154% while CPCs went up by 11% in 2012 (RimmKaufman). Despite the increase, CPCs are still lower than those found on Google.
Third, Microsoft announced that somewhere between thirty and forty percent of Bing searches fall under the health, travel, shopping and local verticals. In other words, if your business falls into one of these four categories, you could be missing out on a lot of volume.
Fourth, Bing consistently shows more pay per click ads at the top of their SERPs (search engine results page) than does Google. More premium space means more clicks and more sales (WordStream).
Bing Pay Per Click continued…
Fifth, Bing is much more customer service friendly. Conflicting reports indicate that you have to spend between $100,000 and $500,000/year to get a dedicated rep at Google (meaning you are dealing with hourly workers in India or somewhere similar if you are not spending that much and need customer service). On the other hand, Bing only requires that you spend $500/month to quality for live customer service with someone at their headquarters (Entrepreneur). As you can imagine, this can be insanely helpful for those of you running complex campaigns.
Sixth, Bing users are 58% female versus 45% on Google (SEOMoz). Remember what we said about being in the shopping vertical….. :)
Seventh, Bing allows you to import your AdWords campaigns into their interface. This feature alone, combined with some minor adjustments, means you can get a Bing campaign up and running very quickly. Further, you don’t have to import your entire campaign. If you just want to get your feet wet, you can start with a small chunk (your highest performing ad groups most likely) and expand as the numbers start to come in.
Eighth, when attempting to advertise on ‘search partners,’ Google forces you to use both Google and their search partners. Bing, however, allows you to target just the search partners (known for lower quality but cheaper traffic) (PPCHero).
Ninth, it’s been shown that B2B campaigns can generate more traffic at a better ROI on Bing versus Google (SearchEngineWatch).
Also, “Rich ads” on Bing average a whopping 30-35% click-through-rate. Further, those numbers are 40-50% higher than the CTRs for normal text ads (Yahoo/Microsoft). Those numbers are almost impossible to achieve on Google.
And last but not least, Bing’s “Share of Voice” functionality gives you dramatically more insight into where you are losing impressions and clicks relative to anything Google has to offer (Search Engine Land).
Conclusion
In conclusion, ignoring Bing could be a costly mistake. While Bing’s users may be a little behind the times with their browser choice, the fact remains that Bing is driving a high level of volume for less money than Google. And with how cutthroat PPC has become, we as advertisers must do everything we can to keep our costs down.
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