Grow Your Business With Bing Or Google Ads Or Both?

Microsoft Advertising (formerly known as Bing Ads) or Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) or both? That is the question. I often get asked if I also know the “tool” Bing in addition to Google Ads. Well, yes, I do but they aren’t really that different from each other, and yet there are some differences between those two advertising platforms that we can talk about. In this blog, we are going to have some fun and look at the differences between Bing and Google. Let’s just dive right in!

The first major difference we can talk about is age. Google Ads was born on October 23, 2000. Back then, it was known as Google AdWords. Do people still say that by the way? Bing Ads is quite a bit younger, i.e. it was launched in 2009.  If we look at a market share graph, you might cry out “why would any sane person want to advertise on Bing?”

(Source: Statista 2020)

Google Ads will always be the major player be it on the GDN (Google Display Network), Google Search, or YouTube. There is enough ecosystem to build full-fledged campaign from upper- to lower-funnel and with YouTube being the #2 search engine, it seems like a no-brainer. So, the 2nd difference is the large gap in market share. However, don’t disregard Bing quite yet. Actually, Bing has over 30% of the desktop market share and that can yield you a good ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend) depending on your vertical. Some verticals have high spenders converting from desktop traffic. B2B is one viable opportunity and so are verticals where an older and more conservative demographic spend more. In other words, if you don’t consider Bing, you could potentially lose out on revenue. Our digital marketing guru Neil Patel wrote an excellent blog on Bing’s potential that you can read here.   

Now, it is true that Google Ads has much stronger performance in regards to mobile traffic. If most of your conversions are coming from mobile traffic but some high-rollers are coming from Bing traffic due to an older, more affluent demographic searching on desktop then it’s a good strategic move to combine both platforms in your marketing efforts. Microsoft Advertising also tends to have less competition, lower CPCs (cost-per-click), and from my own experience, a rather high-quality intent click-through traffic. 

Both paid platforms have the goal to put your ad on top of the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) of course. According to WordStream, Bing shows more ads on top of the search results, i.e. above the organic results. That’s where we want to be. No question, being on top will yield more clicks and increase your chance for conversions. Google Ads, having the largest market share, will give you this result while Bing can give you high-quality traffic at lower cost if your vertical supports this opportunity. 

Google Ads gives you the leverage of a powerful funnelization strategy that Microsoft Ads cannot quite yet compete with. For more information on this, you can read our blog “Digital Marketing And The Importance Of The Marketing Funnel“. Hands down, Google Ads gives you the reach. But, the reach on desktop is still very significant on the Bing platform. Again, if your vertical yields good revenue from desktop and from an older, higher-income demographic, you need to strongly consider giving Microsoft Ads a percentage of your marketing budget.

In regards to ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend), Microsoft Ads, at least from my own experience, tends to be a slower platform with leads showing a higher ROAS at the 60-day or 90-day mark. If you have more long-term goals to build ROAS growth then Bing is a good “Joker” (providing your vertical supports this strategy) to play to add to your overall total revenue.

If you’d like to find out how we can help your business grow then contact us here. If you already have Microsoft Ads or Google Ads campaign or both for that matter we can offer you a free audit with recommendations. For now, wherever you are, stay safe out there and look forward to a much better 2021. Cheers!   

Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash