3 Reasons Why You Still Haven’t Missed The Boat On Bing Ads.

Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft adCenter, is a pay per click platform that provides coverage not only to Bing’s search engine, but also Yahoo – known as the Yahoo Bing Network. Bing Ads had been viewed for some time as trailing in the wake playing catch up to the all conquering Google Adwords – as the not so significant other. Although Adwords will continue to have the lion share of the search engine market for the foreseeable future, is there more important criteria you need to consider other than size? Could there now be a reason to use Bing Ads as part of your digital marketing strategy?
Here we look at 3 reasons why Bing Ads may provide an opportunity to increase your potential market and invest your budget wisely. If you were led to believe everything you read about Bing you may be left with an impression not too far away from the internet meme below. Bing was the Google+ of search engines, ironically. This however isn’t quite the case. Your competition may have been using Bing for some time. According to AdGooroo, 55% of Adwords users also have campaigns running within Bing Ads.
 

 

1. You could be missing out on 29% of the Search engine market.

This really can’t be ignored or overstated. According to Comscore Bing and yahoo combined own 29% of the search engine market. This of course is US based data but shouldn’t be dismissed in the UK. The below diagram gives you an idea of the breakdown of search engine share and the demographic using Bing Ads. If you are happy to be missing out on nearly one third of the search playing field, carry on as you were.
 

 

 
 

 2. Lower competition levels means lower cost per click.

No one is pretending Bing & Yahoo have a larger market share than Google. Quite simply, there are a smaller number of advertisers using the platform, which is a fantastic reason to not follow the herd. Less competition means lower cost-per-click. Lower CPC and better (ad rank/ quality score) can translates to a lower cost-per-acquisition. This is pay per click nirvana and exactly the sweet spot you should be looking to hit.
 

3. The Bing Ads Interface is very very similar to Adwords.

The Bing Ads team, when creating and developing the platform, decided that they did not need to create the wheel in terms of it’s usability and this has great benefits for you and your team in getting started in Bing Ads. Adwords users will find that the Bing Ads interface feels familiar. Many elements of Bing Ads are near identical. If you are currently using Google Adwords (as you absolutely should be) here is a How To Guide to import your campaigns into Bing, from Bing themselves. To reiterate, that’s 28.7% of the search engine market in one interface. Is this reason alone to consider Bing Ads?
 

Practical Tip

Be smart about your use of time and resources with Bing Ads and Adwords. If you are currently using Adwords to generate the majority of leads and conversions it would be wise to keep most of your efforts within Adwords, and gradually build on your involvement in Bing Ads. Remember, Bing Ads can drive a lower CPC and higher conversion, however, the landscape isn’t as densely populated. Take your time and be gentle.
 

Conclusion

Bing Ads shouldn’t be an afterthought to Adwords or a platform you “haven’t got round to yet”. For many small businesses the no.1 factor in beginning, maintaining and measuring an pay per click project is budget, or lack of it. If your budget is limited then Bing can give you more clicks for your money due to lower cost per clicks. Your budget can potentially go further. In order to get your products and services in front of the widest audience you may need to use both Adwords and Bing.