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It’s all too tempting when it comes to paid advertising to focus all your efforts on Google AdWords − it does hold the majority market share by a country mile after all. But that doesn’t mean to say that you should be leaving Bing Ads as a mere afterthought, or even ignoring it altogether.
Despite Bing currently holding just over 11% of the desktop search engine market share in the UK, there are significant advantages to using their advertising platform which – we strongly believe – make it a serious contender.
Of course, we’re not suggesting you cut out Google AdWords altogether, but, by using the two platforms seamlessly together – and with some clear thinking and strategy behind it – you could in fact see an even higher return on your investment.
Why?
Well, first off, because Bing uses the same auction dynamic that we see on AdWords. That means they show ads based on the search term used, taking into account three key factors. Firstly, the bid amount – of course, they want to make as much money as they can. But Secondly, the relevancy of your ad to the search term (they want people to click on your ad just as much as you do, because they only make money when they get a click!). And finally, the landing page experience (sending those who clicked to a relevant page that addresses their search query). Like in AdWords you can therefore control and tailor your budget and spend to ensure you’re only paying for relevant clicks.
Of course, there’s still the small matter of popularity, but when considered in its own right, Bing’s smaller market share can play to the advertiser’s advantage. With a lot of companies still looking at Bing as an afterthought, there is far less competition on the platform.
Less competition means cheaper costs per click, better ad positions and better click through rates – which results in even better results for you. In fact, we tend to see Bing is up to a third cheaper to advertise across than Google, and for the right business significantly higher conversion rates.
What’s more, high levels of competition on AdWords means that highly selective targeting can be difficult if you have daily targets that you’re trying to reach – you’re far more likely to hit those budget goals using additional search engines!
Then of course there’s different demographics to consider. Naturally, certain ads will appeal more to certain demographics, and by testing this, we’re able to decipher exactly which demographics those are. Bing users are mostly made up of an older demographic, with the majority of users aged 45 and over, so by not advertising there at all, you just might be missing a trick. Especially as those older consumers tend to be far wealthier than their younger counterparts. They’re also more likely to pick up the phone and call you!
Finally, the Bing Network claims an audience of 142 million unique searchers, 68 million of which are searchers not reached on Google. So, whilst we’d be unlikely to suggest using Bing for your paid search channel alone, we’ll always recommend that it’s carefully considered as an additional channel, that will help you to achieve the best return on your campaign budget overall.
Need specialist help integrating Bing into your paid search advertising? Let’s talk.
