When you think of search ads, what do you think of? Google AdWords? You’re not alone. The vast majority of folks who advertise online do so with Google. In 2016 Google generated around $75 billion in ad revenue while Microsoft was around $6 billion. While that’s a huge gap for Microsoft to fill, it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth investing in Bing Ads.
The first question you need to ask yourself is, how much of my traffic is coming from Bing currently? This can help you determine what percentage of your ad budget you might want to devote to Bing versus Google.
We looked at our organic traffic, and Google search accounted for about 38% of our overall traffic, while Bing was about 1%. This means that putting some money into Bing ads would have some value. But what other reasons might you have to invest in Bing Ads?
Less Competition
Hands down this is probably the best reason to advertise on Bing. If you feel that you’re in a dog fight for having your ads seen on Google, you’re not alone. Millions of businesses advertise on Google so it’s a very crowded space. This means that the Cost-Per-Click is going to going to keep going up the more competition there is for the keywords you want. (more on that later)
If you can “hit ‘em where they ain’t” it can be a good strategy to get leads and sales you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. This is especially true for advertisers with small budgets, but large territories.
Less Expensive
Advertising online is a bidding war. Imagine going to a car auction and there’s 10 cars for sale and 1,000 people in the room who all want the same car. It’s going to get heated and expensive. This is pretty much what it’s like to bid for highly sought after keywords on the Google AdWords platform.
From personal experience I know I will log into ours and find that we’ve dropped below first page bid for a keyword that I just raised 2 or 3 days ago.
Now, just imagine that same car auction and only 5 or 10 people are bidding on the same cars. Chances are pretty good you’re going to get a better deal, and have a chance to walk away with the car you wanted.
Higher CTR
Several studies have been done on the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for Bing Ads versus those on Google AdWords. Many show that the Bing has getting a better CTR than Google. Some ideas on that have been that Bing’s ad placement is better, or that the ads themselves look better. Perhaps it’s that they’re more prominent (bigger) than traditional search results.
As you can see, yes they are larger, and the ad badge for Bing is not as prominent as it is on Google. But I think the number one reason is the age demographic for bing users. The most common age bracket for their users is 55-64. It’s not that I’m trying to be agist, but, many in that age bracket are probably more inclined to click on the first link that shows up, not noticing that it’s an ad.
So Should You Invest in Bing Ads?
If you meet any of the criteria that we laid out I think it’s a good way to expand your reach with a minimal investment as compared to other advertising platforms. Social media advertising continues to get more and more expensive, and the competition keeps growing on YouTube.
So here’s the criteria to help you determine if it’s right for you.
- You have a significantly smaller budget compared to your competition (use tools like SpyFu to find this out)
- Your target audience is 50 and older
- Your territory is large but your budget isn’t
- You’re in a crowded marketplace and need to find a unique way to reach people
Take a look at your business, your audience, and your competition. If you can answer yes to any of these, it’s probably a good idea to try advertising on Bing.