If it’s been a while since you thought about Bing as part of your advertising mix, it’s time you reevaluate. With 34% of the PC market share, and 9.8 billion monthly queries across all devices, Bing is much larger than many digital marketers think, and it’s continuing to grow:
- 18% of monthly searches on Bing are new search queries
- 28% of clicks (paid and organic) come from searches that are unique to the Bing network
- 66 million Bing searchers cannot be reached on Google
These stats just go to show how Bing’s audience matters just as much as Google’s, and if you’re still thinking, “I don’t need to be on Bing”… then keep reading.
Our recent Bing webinar discussed why and how to capitalize on this specific market. If you missed it, this 3-2-1-style infographic recaps it nicely:
3 Key takeaways
1. Search is becoming more pervasive
We’ve been heading in this direction for quite a while now, and by 2020, 50% of search will be voice or image activated. Consider virtual assistants, like Alexa and Cortana. Searches with these assistants account for 10% of global search volume, which is over 50 billion searches per month.
Wondering how this affects Bing? The lowest recorded word error rate came from voice recognition within the Microsoft ecosystem (Cortana, Windows 10, etc.), all powered by Bing.
With images — whether it’s an image found online or uploaded — you can now highlight a part of that image on Bing (for example, asking what a particular image is), and Bing will respond with similar images. It may also show potential products you might want to buy.
All of this new voice and image technology will only continue improving traditional search as we move forward into the future.
2. We’re living in a cross-device world
The average person owns roughly four connected devices, which makes it much easier to connect to the people who matter to you.
With powerful campaign management tools, ad insights, and intelligent audience
targeting capabilities, Bing gives you the ability to reach a large and diverse audience. So much so that more than half of the U.S. population are your potential customers on these devices.
3. Bing accounts for 1 in 5 searches across all devices & 1 in 3 searches on PCs
To excel in a cross-device world, platforms must be able to fit perfectly into a cross-device marketing strategy — and Bing does just that. Bing is available across many of the world’s most popular devices, and on some platforms many people wouldn’t even expect:
- It’s the default search engine on Amazon Kindle’s native browser, SilkTV on FireTV, and Bing Videos on Echo Show
- It’s the default search engine on Microsoft Edge, Xbox consoles, Office, and powering Cortana on Windows 10 devices
- It provides image search results for Siri across Apple devices
2 Great questions & answers
Q: What are some ways I can improve my PPC advertising?
A: Layer and segment your targeting.
Keywords are great for PPC ads, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Layering and segmenting your audience helps control who, where, and when you reach a given audience. It also allows you to exclude undesirable audiences along the conversion path.
In-market Audiences also helps significantly improve your PPC advertising strategy. This Bing Ad feature is made up of curated “remarketing” lists of users who are potentially ready to purchase. Since these lists are pre-created and available in Bing Ads, there is no need to build your own audience lists, like other retargeting solutions. With over 205 In-market Audiences to choose from currently, the feature is extremely effective and easy for any business to use.
Bing’s Syndicated Partner Network is another way to expand your PPC advertising reach. The network includes all Bing-powered ads displayed not only on Bing.com, but also on Microsoft-owned sites and third-party publisher sites including Outlook, Skype, and MSN.
When you create a Bing Ads campaign, you’re automatically opted-in to those owned-and-operated sites, and to some key partners, such as Yahoo, AOL, Amazon, and Apple. By opting into syndication, you also receive access to a set of high-quality syndication partners, including CBS Interactive and the Wall Street Journal.
Need more proof?
- Without syndication, 24% of potential clicks across all devices are lost to competitors
- On average, CPC is 21% lower than Bing/Microsoft sites across all devices
- 77% of all mobile conversions on the Bing Network came from syndication
Q: How can I create engaging ads?
A: Use everything at your disposal.
Generate higher click-through rates with ad extensions, including:
- Sitelink extensions and expanded sitelink extensions
- Callout extensions
- Structured snippet extension
- Image extension
- Location extension
- App extension
- Review extension
- Call extension
1 Quote
John Lee, Learning Strategist, Bing Ads, Microsoft:
The way we search today is dictated very much by the devices we have and use. As more connected and smart devices permeate our world, search will not just be on our desk or in our pocket but will be available on our wrists, in our appliances, in our cars and in emerging technologies like Mixed Reality.
Get even more in the Bing webinar
Every customer’s journey is different, and oftentimes it involves multiple devices, platforms, and search engines. If you’re ignoring Bing to advertise exclusively on Google, there’s a very good chance you’re missing out on a huge pocket of potential leads that can only be found on the Bing network.
Watch the Bing webinar replay to learn what the platform can offer your business.