Using Bing Ads
Most people who think about search engines and placing ads on them immediately think of Google, and that’s a natural thing to do given Google’s market dominance over recent years. However, Bing, and therefore Bing Ads we feel is always worth considering as part of a PPC strategy.
Some statistics show in the USA Bing now accounts for roughly 25% of search engine volume. That is potentially going to grow over time and indeed some devices and browsers now offer Bing as the default search engine. Nevertheless, many people still often overlook Bing because of the historical association of Google with making search engine requests. Much in the same way that we say we are going do the ‘hoovering’ when we mean vacuuming, we say we are going to ‘Google it’ when we mean ‘search it’.
So what is Bing Ads?
Bing is the Microsoft alternative to Google and hence, Bing Ads is their version of Google Adwords. Bing is an easy to use search engine and in terms of ads offers a possibly cheaper and much less competitive marketplace in which to place your ads.
However, while Bing and Google are competitors, there are huge similarities between the two. Where Bing search engines allow you to run ads on Bing search engines and partner networks, Google essentially works the same.
To set up an ad on Bing you need to bid for the use of specific keywords that you think people will search for in your ad, and therefore, when a user conducts a Bing search and uses your keywords, Bing compares the bids and the ad quality of the competing businesses and then displays them in a certain order. Obviously the better your ad and your bid optimisation, the more prominently your ad will be displayed.
The pros and cons of Bing Ads
Undoubtedly Google has a much bigger customer reach than can be provided by Bing search engine currently, but this can have advantages too. On average cost per click of a Bing Ad could potentially cost less than a Google AdWords advert because there may be more competition on Google in certain niches bidding for the same keywords.
We recommend a practical and realistic approach to a PPC strategy is to use both formats for your ad placements. This way you are hedging your bets and can potentially enjoy more results though Google AdWords, but through Bing you will reach a broader audience. It is then your choice how much you invest in each ad format (monitoring performance with analytics will help judge this).