5 Reasons to Add Bing Ads to Your Search Campaign

It's easy to overlook Bing Ads when planning your online marketing efforts. Google is the undisputed king of search with more than $67 billion in ad revenue in 2015 — by comparison, Bing finally achieved profitability in the first quarter of this year with just $1 billion in revenue. To describe Bing Ads as Google's little brother might be too much of a compliment. Search is Google's world, and Bing is just living in it. Still, Bing has proven itself as a viable upstart in the search business. In April 2015, Microsoft renegotiated its contract with Yahoo to allow Bing's ads to appear on 51 percent of Yahoo desktop searches — a nice boon for Bing's bottom line. Microsoft also sold Bing's display network and map data assets, streamlining the platform's approach toward search. And now Microsoft is broadening Bing's potential by incorporating it in several emerging products and technologies. You’ve heard of Cortana in Windows 10? Yep, that's powered by Bing. What does this mean for you, a small business owner? Put simply, you shouldn't ignore Bing Ads just because it's dwarfed by Google AdWords. Microsoft has invested heavily in Bing's success and those efforts are paying off. Bing Ads offers a viable alternative option for connecting your business with new, potential customers. Here are five reasons why you shouldn't hesitate to make Bing Ads part of your long-term marketing plan. 1. Bing Ads Are Often Cheaper and More Effective As you could probably guess, most advertisers turn to Google. AdWords is really your only option for reaching the largest number of consumers with the least amount of effort. Bing is much smaller than Google in terms of reach and revenue — which also means there are far fewer advertisers on Bing's search network. And that means less competition for marketers who want a piece of Bing's action. And less competition means cheaper costs per click — up to 33 percent less, according to some studies. Not only is Bing usually cheaper, but advertisers also get higher ad positions than they would on Google's more crowded search network. And higher ad placements usually result in higher click-through rates and conversions! Even though Bing doesn't reach nearly as many people, these benefits are enough to make Microsoft's ad platform attractive. 2. Bing Ads Let You Effectively Cut Off Tablets Google caused a collective groan from PPC marketers by taking away the ability to block traffic from tablets. In Google's eyes, tablets are the future of home computing and should be treated the same as desktops. For everyone else, tablets are giant smartphones both in how they function and how people use them — and that means lower CTRs and conversions than desktop searches. Similar to Google, Bing has altered its device targeting options so tablets and smartphones can't be completely turned off. However, Bing allows for incremental bids to be set on both types of mobile devices. Want to turn off tablets? Simply set your incremental bids on tablet traffic to decrease by a substantial percentage. It's not a bulletproof way to ensure you'll block all tablet traffic, but at least you won't spend much money on the few clicks that slip through. 3. Bing Ads Let You Choose Your Partners Want to choose between advertising on Google or its search partners? Well, you can't. Google doesn't let you choose one or the other. Either way, you're stuck with Google's primary network. You also don't get to see which search partners might be running your ads. This is a problem because, while search partners often provide cheaper clicks, sometimes that traffic drastically underperforms. Bing, on the other hand, gives you complete control. You can advertise only on Bing and Yahoo, or only with search partners — or you can run your ads on all platforms. Also, if you choose to target search partners, you can run reports to see exactly who those partners are. You can then take the additional step of blocking underperforming partners from running your ads. It's a fantastic benefit that can make search partner targeting so much more worthwhile. And you can't get that with AdWords. 4. Bing Ads Give You More Control Over Demographics AdWords allows plenty of demographic targeting options for the Google Display Network, but demographic targeting isn't an option for search network advertisers by default. Note that it’s possible to get demographic targeting for Search, but you need to go through a Google rep to get it turned on in your account. Bing Ads, on the other hand, offers both gender and age targeting options by default. This is handled similarly to device targeting — rather than completely block certain demographics, you can decrease bids to specific demographics to effectively exclude them from your campaigns. These adjustments are made at either the campaign or ad group levels, giving you the ability to split test different ad groups with unique demographic targeting settings. 5. Bing Ads Are More In Tune With Social Extensions A strong social media following is a strong indication of being an online authority — and that's why Bing started testing social extensions back in 2014. If your business has a large Twitter following, then Bing's automated social extensions will display your number of Twitter followers alongside your ad. It's a meaningful extension that can boost your ad's credibility and help drive conversions. AdWords also has social extensions, but only for Google Plus. And who uses Google Plus? It's no secret that Google has bent over backward pushing its social media platform, but Bing's social extension provides a much more meaningful and socially relevant benefit. Want more Google AdWords Tips? Click here to get the Ultimate AdWords checklist.

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5 Reasons to Add Bing Ads to Your Search Campaign

Phil Frost

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