If you’re running a business that sells its products or services online, then you’re more than familiar with PPC, affiliate, and other forms of online marketing. Running ads on Facebook, Google, and Amazon, are everyday methods for businesses to promote these days. With so many advertisers trying to outbid and outcompete each other (there are over 1 billion websites in the world), it’s getting more and more expensive to advertise for important keywords.
However, there are still a few ways to get decent CPC in the advertising marketplace. And one of them is Bing. Bing is an underdog in the world of search making up roughly 30% of all online searches. And, of course, Google dominates the rest. That being said, let me argue as to why you should take Bing as a serious platform for your online advertising.
Why Bing is an Underrated Advertising Platform
Bing is fairly unnoticed in the world of online search and advertising due to Google always taking the spotlight. This, in fact, can be quite an advantage to those looking for lower cost alternatives to online advertising. Here are some of the reasons why Bing should be seriously considered when launching your next ad campaign:
Lower CPC
It has been shown that advertising on Bing’s platform can reduce your CPC. What does that mean? It means lower cost per view to your site, and lower cost to convert – more sales! In fact, Bing has been known to achieve a 33% reduction in your CPC. 33%. That is a massive reduction in costs.
Why is this the case? It’s because Bing is the lesser known of search engines. Therefore, advertisers don’t pay attention to advertising on the Bing platform, which results in less competition. Most advertising platforms calculate how they charge you based on the demand it gets for a particular keyword. So, if Google has a lot of demand for the keyword “buy bananas now” and Bing has a lot less demand, then the CPC on Bing will be much lower.
Higher ROI
Since advertising on bing costs you 33% less than on Google, this naturally results in a higher ROI. Spending less on advertising per click (assuming the same conversion) will land you higher returns per dollar spent. Moreover, it has been shown in case studies that Bing also had a higher CTR. This is because Bing places their advertisements more prominently than Google (as they are more focused on clean user experience).
Lower competition
As you may now know, with Bing’s lower competitive advertising space equals more opportunity for advertisers. Microsoft wants a strong piece of the pie when it comes to the search business (and for a good reason). As evident by their generous Bing ads promo code, it’s clear that Bing is trying to prove to advertisers that they can promote your product for a better deal.
Not only will lower competition mean lower CPC but it also means more opportunity to expose your brand to those who use Bing. The lower competition on Bing will naturally it will be easier to offer a competitive edge to you offering.
What are the Cons of Using Bing?
All this time I’ve talked about how great it can be to use Bing to advertise your business but if it’s so damn great to advertise on Bing why isn’t it as popular?
There are two good answers to this: The first is that Bing isn’t nearly as popular as Google is in the search business. The second is that since Google is much more popular and therefore they can provide more tools and better user interface on their advertising platform
So, in essence, with Google, you get a larger audience and more tools for advertisers. With Bing, you get a lower CPC, higher ROI, and a smaller audience. Their user interfaces are quite similar, but Google does provide more tools and a slightly better experience.
Conclusion
Whether it be Bing, Google, Amazon, or some other advertising medium, I believe you should at least try it out. Almost all companies offer some coupon or free trial for advertising with them. That being said, it’s clear with the data presented in this article that Bing can be superior dollar for dollar when it comes to promoting your product.
If you’re starting out, I’d recommend using Bing first as they usually give $100 in free advertising. This also depends on what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling your products directly from Amazon (or its where a bulk of your customers are), then you’ll likely convert best by advertising through them. However, if your audience tends to hang out on Instagram a lot (think teens or young adults), then buying a few shoutouts can be very promising.
Regardless of what you choose, you should always take action and try a little bit here and there to see what platform works best. Don’t throw money at Google cause it has a brand name.
