Bing Ads has been through many changes over the last 12 months. Previously, advertisers considered Bing to be a much smaller market and did not see fit to include Bing Ads in their PPC strategies. However we have found that when used correctly, Bing Ads can greatly augment your Google Shopping campaigns.
Microsoft has heavily invested in AI to improve their language understanding and fine-tuned their algorithm that powers search query assessments. Now, according to the Microsoft strapline: ‘Microsoft Advertising can connect you with millions of searchers not using Google’.
Bing connects you with millions of searchers not using Google
Microsoft even stresses that brands could be missing out on lower CPCs, great ROI, higher-value audiences not found on Google and access to searchers on Bing, MSN, Yahoo, AOL and other sites powered by Bing.
Audience demographics
In the past, the Bing audience was generally considered older, with a higher income, possibly less tech-savvy internet users: over the age of 35, with the most common age being between 55 and 64, and most appeared to be parents. One-third of the Bing Ads audience had a household income of $100,000/£80,935.00 or more, and 22% more was spent online with Bing than on average search engines.
This is still generally true; 40% of the Bing Network ranges from 35 to 54 years old, and nearly three-quarters of Bing users are over the age of 35. Bing does offer increased visibility and allows advertisers to reach an older and more educated audience.
40% of the Bing Network ranges from 35 to 54 years old
In many respects, because the Microsoft Network’s audience is wealthier, and are likely to spend money on a product they find online, brands get to see how this translates into more actionable sales opportunities for purchases from the website, phone calls from interested shoppers who find and click on the ads and overall better conversions.
The global Microsoft Search Network records audience data for specific markets, so brands that want to communicate with these specific demographics can be assured that they are reaching the right people and driving the right traffic to their website. For instance, in the last 6 months searches in the retail vertical market segments are from these demographics:
- 75% are under the age of 45
- 45% are female and 55% are male
- 25% have household income in the top 25%
- 37% graduated from college
- 51% are married
- 45% have children living at home
- 2% identify as LGBTQ+
- 13% report having a disability
- and 96% of them visited an online retail store in the past 6 months.
Bing search volume and reach
Since April 2020, Bing searches in the UK accounted for 1.41% of searching on mobile phone, tablet and console. Bing’s Share Worldwide since May 2020 is 2.61%. That is a substantial audience, and can be considered a somewhat untapped audience, especially as many of these users only use Bing.
Google does still continue to dominate search engine use.
UK brands will be interested to see that Bing searches in the UK actually account for 10.3% of all UK searches when Desktop is also included in the stats.
All advertisers want to reach more of their customers and connect with the people who matter.
The Microsoft Search Network UK Desktop Market stats for December 2019 showed they have an audience of 376 million Monthly PC searches with 15 million Unique PC users which is 20.7% of the PC market share.
The Microsoft Search Network should not be overlooked, as it accesses in-depth audience understanding and marketplace insights from a global 12.2 billion Monthly PC searches and 592 million Unique PC users, which is 11.5% of the PC market share in June 2020.
Microsoft Advertising campaigns offer planning tools that help brands to better understand audience data and vertical market segments such as in Auto, B2B and Retail.
Bing mobile targeting
Gaining an in-depth audience understanding and marketplace insights is vital to a brand so they can more easily identify business opportunities and to set clearer, actionable goals for the business.
Who wouldn’t want to expand their audience reach, especially with Mobile ad targeting!
In the USA, in April 2020, 29% of paid Microsoft Advertising (formerly known as Bing) search clicks originated from mobile devices, with 7% of total clicks being generated via tablet devices.
Some impressive conversions data on Bing finds that consumers, once they have made a mobile search, are likely to make a phone call, visit the store or make a purchase within 5 hours of the mobile search. We think that’s pretty good going!
70 % of mobile conversions happen within five hours of mobile search
It is in Bing’s favour that on Amazon, Bing is set up as the default search for Kindle Fire devices. Bing also provides image search results for Siri on Apple devices, and has powered paid and organic search results across all of Yahoo’s proprietary and syndication networks, including Yahoo mobile.
These strategic partnerships with Apple, Amazon and Yahoo account for billions of mobile searches each month.
This stat alone should make brands pay attention to Bing: 70% of Microsoft Advertising mobile queries are from iOS platforms.
Considering Google Ads ‘vs’ Bing Ads?
Consider Google Ads ‘and’ Bing Ads
One of the most impressive stats has to be that the average cost-per-click (CPC) on Bing Ads can be up to 70% lower compared to Google Ads.
Bing Ads CPC can be up to 70% cheaper than Google Ads
Bing Ads reach 63 million searchers that aren’t reached with Google Ads. Many brands question whether they should do Google or Bing Ads. That should no longer be the question, as the best digital advertising strategy, if the budget allows for it, would be to leverage both platforms simultaneously: both Google ads and Bing Ads.
Even though Google has more search volume, Bing can boast higher positioning, less bidding competition, generally a lower cost-per-click, higher engagement and conversion rates. Bing users that click PPC ads tend to be more engaged with the sites and post-click landing pages they’re sent to. They also convert at much higher rates. For example, in the automotive industry, users were converting at 10%-56% higher rates than Google Ads.
Bing advertising offers value for money as there is less competition for chosen keywords and key phrases on Bing, so brands can benefit from paying much less per click.
One of the details that brands and advertisers may overlook, but has a huge impact on running ads campaigns, is that Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) is really easy to run, especially if the brand is already acquainted with running Google ads. The Bing platform is very similar to Google Ads.
Once a brand has created a Bing Ads account, Microsoft wisely lets advertisers import the Google Ad campaigns directly into Bing Ads account. It takes very little time, hardly any learning curve, just a few clicks and all the campaign can be running without having to start from scratch.
Bing Ads have various other advantages over Google as it offers more granular targeting at the ad group level by allowing adjustments to be made at the ad group level. While Google allows advertisers to set their network, location, language, ad scheduling, and ad rotation settings at the campaign level, the ad groups remain limited to their campaign-level settings.
Bing lets advertisers assign different ad campaigns to different time zones which Google does not offer.
Google only lets brands do demographic targeting on the Google Display Network, not on the search network.
Bing has made some really useful and prominent Sitelink extension optimisation options, so advertisers can add additional persuasive information like demos. downloads, free trials, pricing, demos, and help improve click through rates (CTR).
Bing Ads are not as limited as Google Ads when it comes to device targeting and mobile ad targeting. With Bing advertisers can target a specific audience based on the device type and OS. Furthermore, Bing also provides an option to not display campaign ads on desktops, for a mobile only target audience.
A neat final detail that Bing does well in is how easy it is to see social ad extensions which appear underneath the ad copy. This allows businesses to engage directly with customers and invite them to join conversations with the brands via their favoured social channel.
We can see now that Bing can offer a compelling and very complimentary paid search strategy with Google Ads to give brands a fuller online presence, tell their brand story, expand the reach into different, wider areas and measure audience performance.
Give our expert team a call if you want to capitalise on knowing your Bing audience.
