In the modern world, being able to conduct an effective online marketing campaign is essential for maximizing the profitability of your company or marketing agency. Much of the focus for online advertising is on Google and Facebook, where advertisers ostensibly get the biggest bang for buck regarding advertisement campaigns. However, diversifying your marketing strategy with the nicely optimized Bing Ads campaign can help reel in the revenue for your agency, clients, or own personal business. Understanding the ins and outs of Bing Ads is not only prudent, but can be a difference maker for your clientele and associates as Bing reaches different audiences and industries more efficiently than its counterpart Google.
Much like Facebook Ads and Google Ads, their Microsoft funded counterpart Bing Ads offers the tools for individuals to tap into a powerful network teeming with prospective customers. While Bing has significantly less users than Google and Facebook, writing off the search engine could be a tactical error considering that even the Bing Ads website itself acknowledges its position with patron’s testimonials. Here’s an excerpt from one: “We might not get as much of the volume as with Google Ads, but the volume of traffic that we get converts really well at a lower cost.”
Indeed, the lower cost of Bing Ads is an attractive selling point for the software and a solid reason why you ought to tap into their network and potentially gain better return with your cost per click investments. Couple the reality of efficient conversions with the fact that according to ComScore the majority (35.6%) of desktop searches are conducted from Bing, the waters might be warm enough to stop overlooking Bing as a second-rate engine and dive right in. Bing has truly grown into itself and we can see why when considering that it comes integrated into virtually every Microsoft software imaginable. The net result of its availability is 11 billion searches in the span of one month. No small numbers by the growing Bing engine. If we consider that any exposure to your product on any engine could lead to cross pollination (so to speak) of search engine users, your exposure is that much greater and your overall ROI on marketing campaigns becomes a reality much more readily.
One final thing to remember is that the different networks have a certain degree of exclusivity, with Bing having up to 27% of their clicks from searches that are exclusive to their network. If you still aren’t sold on forking up the dough to cast a wider net, we are going to break down how the numbers stack up for the not-so-puny Bing engine. Four key metrics will be compared to google: click through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), conversion rate (CVR), and cost per action (CPA).
Click Through Rate
Bing’s average CTR is 50% higher than what is seen on Google Ads, which may be due to the fact that Bing has an edge with their expanded text ads. Last year both Google and Bing rolled out expanded text ads, which shook up the playing field for online marketing. Presently, it appears Bing has an advantage with its CTR with the new expanded text ad features. The Bing search engine peaked in the Employment or Career service sector at 3.53% average CTR. Several other industries had significant average CTR with Apparel and Accessories clocking in at 3.33% and Finance and Insurance reporting in with a CTR of 3.51%.
Cost Per Click
One of the major selling points of Bing Ads is that it boasts a low CPC value which is 33% lower than what is offered by Google Ads. The affordability of Bing coupled with its strong footing provided by Microsoft helps to produce this advantage. While Google established its hegemony over the online search engine market over the last 20 years, Bing has been able to rise from infancy learning from and copying the techniques trail-blazed by Google and others. This culminates with competitive technology at a rate that is much lower than what Google currently offers for access into its network. Additionally, many advertisers overlook Bing which also contributes to the low pricing available (less advertisers do well for an easier bid at ad auction) and enhances the CPC of the prospective marketing agency looking to gain an edge over the competition in most industries.
A very important distinction between the two engines is that Bing still features ads on the right-hand margin of the SERP, a UI display which Google has since forgone with the AdWords rebranding. This difference also contributes to having that expanded space available for lower bidding companies that are queued up and ready at the consumers behest. While Bing can confer many advantages on CPC and CTR, some industries are more cost effective on one or the other. Its important to continually research which is doing well (and why) to intelligently invest your time and resources.
Average Conversion Rate
Across all industries Bing has an average conversion rate of 2.94%. When considering any numbers regarding your marketing campaign its good to imagine your target audience and the actual audience you are attracting. The beauty of enhancing your online dragnet with the incorporation of Bing Ads is that you gain a new target audience and set yourself up for the crossover you might expect if a desktop user then conducts a mobile search. Between devices users have different presets which they may not bother to change. For instance, a PC user might hop on to their Google Pixel during their lunch break to track down the right product for their needs. With a diversified marketing strategy reaching into several networks, your ads will be there at every step of the way, queued up and piping hot for the moment a prospective consumer converts to purchaser and then full-blown fanatic.
Presently, Bing’s audience primarily searches from desktop device, while Google users frequently search from mobile devices. This difference in audience is critical to understand as the distinction correlates with different industries and their prospective sales cycles. Consequently, recent data showed that Bing’s highest average conversion rates at 6.81%, 5.57%, and 5.13% for Careers and Employment, Finance and Insurances, and Real Estate have significance for those tasked with analyzing trends and making investments in the search engine advertisement market.
Average Cost Per Action
The average CPA for Bing across all industries is approximately $41.44, making the engine’s CPA 30% lower than Google Ads customer’s average. This may seem obvious due to the engine’s lucrative CPC values which are cheap relative to Google’s current standard. Of course, there is a reason for this vastly lower difference in values, and that is because Google still handily commands the market and (possibly) delivers the most bang for any one individual online marketing need. Having a diverse footing in the search engine industry allows a marketing agency to finesse its resources and truly optimize outcomes for its patrons and their businesses. Part and parcel of the beautiful game of marketing is hitting the right audience. Importantly, Bing has an older and more affluent audience than Google, using this information wisely can help you target the right people at the right time for excellent ROI bolstered by efficient and flexible marketing campaigns.
