When it comes to search engines, businesses have multiple options to drive traffic, increase visibility and boost conversions. However, the majority of users rely on two major platforms: Bing and Google. These two search engines dominate the digital landscape, influencing how users find products, services and information online.
Since its launch in 1997, Google has dominated the search engine market, capturing around 89.82% of global search. Microsoft Bing’s share is smaller, at 4.45%; it can be a great alternative for businesses that are looking to grow their paid strategies. Whilst both engines can offer powerful solutions to help your business achieve its goals, it can be daunting to decide which one to use.
In this blog, we’ll explore six key benefits of using Microsoft Bing for your paid media efforts and analyse why incorporating Bing can help your business achieve its goals. By the end, you will have a clear understanding of Microsoft Bing and its benefits compared to other platforms, such as Google.
Audience targeting
Bing attracts a unique demographic compared to Google, with most users conducting searches on their work PCs. This positions Bing as a valuable platform for advertisers who wish to target business professionals, with studies showing users who use the search engine to be slightly older at 45, more educated and more affluent.
One advantage of using Bing for B2B campaigns is that 52% of B2B users on Bing are decision makers, according to Microsoft. Decision makers within the business have the authority to decide on whether to make a purchase decision, making Bing a powerful platform for users who want to ensure their ads are placed in front of the right people.
For businesses and advertisers, this audience advantage allows marketing budgets to be used more effectively through targeting professionals that closely match ideal customer profiles. This can help improve overall engagement and lead quality. Compared to other platforms, audience targeting isn’t as powerful, which can result in poorer quality leads and less budget being spent on relevant users. This presents an opportunity for businesses and marketers to utilise Bing to reach precise, relevant and affluent audiences.
Cross reach audience exposure
Microsoft owns a vast ecosystem of other platforms, such as Outlook, MSN, and LinkedIn, providing strong cross-channel exposure and performance. For example, LinkedIn has grown into the world’s largest platform, with over 1.2 billion members from 200 different countries worldwide. The platform enables professionals to connect with other users in their industry, develop new skills or explore new job opportunities. According to Microsoft, advertisers who utilise LinkedIn targeting within their marketing strategy can see an increase in 16% of click-through-rates, making it particularly valuable for businesses that are in niche B2B industries with specific targeting.
Furthermore, cross-channel exposure ensures that you are nurturing customer relationships and leveraging full-funnel marketing. By reaching users across multiple touchpoints – search, email, display – businesses can stay on top of the customer’s mind throughout their purchasing journey. This strategy increases brand awareness but also business engagement and conversion rates, as the customer is more likely to convert with a brand they already know and trust.
Cost advantages
In recent years, advertisers have seen their cost-per-click (CPC) rise heavily, particularly on Google ads. This ongoing cost increase makes it difficult for advertisers to gain real results on smaller budgets due to intense competition, with some critics arguing that Google Ads is geared towards businesses with large-scale budgets.
Below are three key areas as to why Google has increased its CPC in recent years.
- Increased Competition – With roughly 65% of small to medium businesses using Google Ads, competition is fierce and demand for keywords leads to increased costs as the auction requires higher costs to secure higher placements.
- Smart Bidding – The increased use of AI-driven bidding strategies (such as Maximise Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS) led users to pay more for higher-intent users, rather than clicks.
- Inflation and Economic Pressures – Broader economic factors, such as inflation, affect CPCs due to businesses willing to pay more per click to maintain their visibility on the SERP, resulting in higher costs.
Whilst Google sees higher costs, search engines such as Bing can offer much lower CPCs, with some data suggesting it can be up to 70% cheaper compared to other platforms. One of the main reasons Bing is cheaper is due to decreased competition; as mentioned above, the majority of the search engine market share belongs to Google. As the market is more saturated, this leads to more aggressive bidding wars, leading to increased cost and competition. In contrast, Microsoft Bing has fewer advertisers, resulting in less competition, less aggressive auctions and more cost-effective clicks, whilst still maintaining a strong visibility on the platform.
Advanced targeting
Microsoft Bing has many advanced targeting capabilities that businesses can leverage to reach highly relevant audiences on the platform. From integration with other Microsoft platforms or utilising first-party data, advanced targeting through Microsoft can help brands deliver more personalised ads whilst maximising the return on their marketing investment.
LinkedIn profile targeting
Unique to Bing, you can target users based on their LinkedIn profile information, such as company, industry or job function. This can be particularly valuable for B2B businesses; for example, a financial firm looking to target big corporations may find the keyword ‘financial advice’ to be too broad; however, pairing this with LinkedIn profile targeting can ensure the ad is being displayed to a business and someone who has decision-making power.
Remarketing
Remarketing is a powerful strategy to ensure businesses stay engaged with users who have visited the site and shown interest, as users don’t always convert on their first visit to the site. In the case of B2B marketing, sales cycles can require 8 touchpoints and involve 3+ people on the buyer’s side. This complex purchase journey can mean it takes up to 12 months to close a B2B deal, so it is vital to ensure your brand stays at the front of their mind throughout their buying journey. Remarketing can lead to improved brand awareness and conversion rates through reinforcing your brand’s message by displaying ads to previously engaged users, improving marketing ROIs
Customer match lists
Customer match lists are a powerful targeting feature within Microsoft Ads, which allows users to build audiences using first-party customer data. This allows brands to re-engage with users who have already interacted with them or target new, similar users in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Setting up customer match lists is simple. Advertisers will have to upload customer contact details that have been consented to on the platform, with Microsoft hashing all uploads before matching them with a potential relevant customer. This provides a great alternative to more traditional remarketing campaigns, as privacy is protected and users must consent before their data is used, making the feature GDPR friendly.
Customer match lists provide a range of benefits for users, such as highly targeted campaigns through relevant audiences, improved conversion rates through targeting users who are already familiar with your brand, and better budget efficiency through spending on users who are more likely to click and engage with your brand.
Custom audience segments
Custom audience segments in Microsoft allow advertisers to use their own data to target particular audiences. A popular strategy is to create lists of users who have spent a certain amount of time on your site, engaged with content, or viewed multiple pages. These high-engagement users can then be remarketed to, ensuring brand messaging stays relevant throughout their buying journey. Whether you’re remarketing to past visitors, nurturing leads or targeting people on different stages of the funnel, Microsoft custom audiences are an effective way to make sure your ads reach the right people.
Predictive targeting
Predictive targeting is a newer feature within Microsoft ads which helps you reach new audiences who are likely to convert or engage with your brand. Through AI-powered solutions, businesses can increase efficiency and save time through predictive targeting, as any manual lists are cut out. According to Microsoft, businesses that utilise predictive targeting saw an increase in their conversion rate by 46%.
Below are some of the best practices for predictive targeting:
- Ensure ad copy and landing page experience deliver a good user experience.
- Pair predictive targeting with automated bidding to drive the best performance.
- Consistently review and adjust content and bids to help drive better results.
Google import
Advertisers can usethe Google Ads import inMicrosoft Ads to save time and ensure consistency across the platforms. The Google import feature is simple: connect your Google account, adjust the import settings and review. This import ensures any Google ad campaigns are placed in Microsoft, creating a seamless transition from one platform to another, whilst keeping brand messaging and best practices consistent throughout.
However, while core elements such as keywords and ad copy can remain consistent, advertisers should review targeting across both platforms due to demographic differences. Microsoft users tend to be older and desktop-focused than Google Ads, meaning performance can vary if left unchanged. Advertisers must take this into account when importing to ensure targeting is aligned with how their demographic behaves.
Tip: Regularly review the auto-import feature and adjust budgets as needed to prevent accidental or incorrect spending.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Microsoft Bing is an underutilised platform by many businesses and is a great addition for anyone who is looking to expand and grow their digital reach through highly specific and targeted campaigns.
In particular, Microsoft’s advanced capabilities – such as LinkedIn or predictive targeting – are a big advantage to businesses that are B2B or work in specific niches that are hard to target through standard keywords. Microsoft’s targeting ensures campaigns are displaying ads in front of the right people at the right time, improving overall return on investment.
Overall, Bing is a great platform for businesses to utilise with many advantages that other platforms don’t have; however, it should be used in tandem and shouldn’t replace Google due to its size. If businesses harness both platforms, they can ensure maximum search coverage whilst tailoring targeting and budgets to the unique audience capabilities of both platforms.
