4 Reasons to Consider Advertising on Bing
Wondering where to find the nearest Starbucks to get your fall pumpkin spice fix? “Just Bing it!” …said no one ever.
Despite underwhelming popularity, Bing is bigger than you think, and while certainly not the most popular search engine, about 33% of all searches in the USA last year were from Bing. While clearly “little brother” to the almighty Google, Bing often doesn’t get the credit it rightly deserves. As marketers, we cannot ignore its presence!
There are a lot of reasons we recommend you consider incorporating advertising on Bing into your strategy. Worried about rocking the boat with your current mix? Try an 80/20 approach and allocate a small portion of your Google paid search budget to Bing Ads and test the waters. Diversifying your marketing mix between Google and Bing will also allow you to test different audiences who frequent each platform. For example, Bing is typically known for having an older, wealthier user-base. According to Bing, about 40% of the network is between 35-54 years old and over one-third of Bing users have a household income of over $100,000.
Consider these four reasons for using Bing in your Search Engine Marketing plan.
1. Less Competition (and advertisers want to keep it that way!)
While some companies are laughing at the thought of including Bing in their SEM plan, others are reaping the benefits of a fairly untapped marketplace.
2. Lower CPC
Inherently in business, a lower amount of competition means lower overall costs. This rings true in the PPC universe as well. Google Ads is a crowded space, and fighting your way to the top of the SERP means you are going to have to pay for it.
The average overall CPC in Google Ads is $20.08, while Bing is just $7.99 (via reportgarden)
3. Higher CTR
The average CTR on Bing is 2.38% (about 50% higher than Google). Although the two platforms look almost identical, Bing Ads go almost unnoticed in the SERP with a subtle, monochromatic “Ad” logo. Likely a contributing factor to their higher CTR.
4. Import Campaigns Directly from Google Ads
Often, one of the most time-consuming parts of launching a paid search program is laying the groundwork for your account structure, keywords, and ad copy. Luckily, Bing is integrated with Google Ads. So if you are already running campaigns on Google, you can easily import those directly into Bing.
While Bing Ads are definitely an underutilized tool, don’t expect to see the same amount of search volume as your Google Ads campaigns. Google still remains the unequivocal search powerhouse.
Still not convinced on paid search in general or wondering where to even begin? Check out our post on 4 Considerations Before Starting a Paid Search Campaign to help you get started.
