Bing has long been the understated hero of the search engine world. It powers Amazon's Kindle, Apple's Siri, and is the default search engine on Microsoft's Cortana. It receives billions of searches each month, and although Google still takes the lion’s share of search budgets, Bing has seen consistent double-figure growth in paid search revenue for five quarters in a row.1
This growth means that missing out on being exposed to potential customers and not taking advantage of its great service simply isn’t an option. Allocating a low budget to Bing search Ads underestimates what a powerful tool it can be for you and your business partners. Here are a few other reasons why Bing rightfully deserves an important seat at the table of your search strategy:
1. Less competition
Having fewer competitors putting all of their budget into Bing Ads brings about its own advantages, namely that there is less competition for places. This means that for many of your most important keywords you may find a cheaper cost-per-click, better ad positions, and increased Ad visibility.
2. Hey big spenders
You want to be sure your targeting is hitting the most valuable prospective customers. People searching on Bing have been shown to spend an average of 25% more than the average Internet user.2 Obviously, you want your brand to remain at the forefront of this audience's mind. Especially as 55 million of these people are searching on Bing, and no other search engine.3
3. Precise targeting
Bing allows you to cut out unnecessary spending on audiences that are indifferent to your product by controlling your customer demographic. Increased device targeting means that Bing can further target an audience that uses particular devices such as iPhones, smartphones and tablets. So factoring in Bing search to your PPC strategy ensures that you are able to effectively target potential customers without alienating customers who are not currently the right audience for you.
4. New call conversion capabilities
Marketers, business leaders and those business innovators who are fighting for success now have a better opportunity than ever before to understand the customer journey. Infinity call tracking has teamed up with Bing Ads to integrate two already powerful systems. Infinity call tracking now plugs directly into the Bing Ads platform so you can see if your Bing Ad is affecting the number of sales you receive by phone. This pairing builds an understanding of the customer journey, showing you the ROI of your campaigns and how to generate further success.
5. Social media integration
Bing effectively integrates social media and social media extensions. In 2014 Bing began to show the number of Twitter followers an advertiser has next to their ad. In an age of social media where everything from; where a customer chooses to go on holiday to which soap they use to clean their hands, is decided via influencers and celebrity bloggers, it is obvious why this has proven to be a useful tool in the customer journey.
6. Easy implementation
Did you spend a lot of time building your AdWords campaign, and are worried about doing it all over again for another search engine? You can now directly import any existing Google AdWords into Bing Ads so you won't have to start from the beginning to create a campaign.
7. High conversion rates
People that click on PPC ads have been shown to be more engaged with the sites that they are sent to. After all, there is a reason they were searching. Here is where Bing shines, according to a study by Search Engine People, users convert at up to 56% higher rates than those who click on Google ads.
Bing is a fast developing, rapidly innovating search engine that is quickly carving out a highly valuable offering for all search marketers. Users who see the conversion of business as a priority will take Bing seriously as an important tool for their businesses and increase its involvement in PPC strategy.
If you use Bing Ads, or would like to use them in the future, and would like to understand the full effect they are having on revenue and phone calls start a conversation with Infinity today.
This piece was a guest blog by Briony Hemmings.
References:
1) Microsoft: Bing Ads revenue grew 15%, Campaign, (February 5, 2018)
2) Ascending to success with paid search, Bing
3) Key differences between AdWords and Bing Ads, YouTube, (Jan 18, 2018)
