Microsoft Bing Ads VS Google Ads : The Pros & Cons
Since 2000, Google Ads ruled the PPC world, dominating almost all of the market, until Bing Ads arrived on the scene in 2006. Bing (formerly known as MSN) was one of the first three major search engines to begin selling advertisements on their website. Bing later renamed their paid search network “Bing Ads.” Since then, Bing Ads has become Google’s main search engine rival and is locked in a constant battle for users.
Many users consider the two platforms as competitors, but they work best hand-in-hand. Undoubtedly, GOOGLE has the majority of the search market, but we should also consider Bing Ads. Marketers should be thinking in terms of Google Ads plus Bing Ads, rather than Google Ads vs. Bing Ads.
Let’s take a look at both advertising platforms before checking out the pros & cons.
Google Ads
Google Ads is composed of two advertising networks: Search Network and Display Network.
Search Network: Text-based ads that appear next to the search results as people search for related products or services. They have the “Ad” tag next to the search result URL.
These ads are triggered by Keywords. If a query contains the keywords that match our mentioned keywords, our ad could appear in the search result.
In Search ads, you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad. So, they are also termed as Pay Per Click (PPC).
Display Network: Display ads are shown on the Google Display Network.
The Google Display Network consists of third-party websites that have agreed to display Google ads. This network includes over 2 million websites, reaching 90% of internet users. So, every ad you run has the potential to appear in front of that 90%. That is great news for marketers!
Display ads aren’t just for websites. They can appear in an array of different formats, such as Text, Banner, Gmail, Apps, Pre-roll, and interstitial ads (YouTube).
Bing Ads
Microsoft-owned Bing ads have 3 search engines:
- Bing
- Yahoo
- ALL
When you advertise on one of the above platforms, your ad will appear on all three, which opens up campaigns to the audience across all Bing, Yahoo, and AOL-owned and operated sites, including various partner websites.
Bing Ads vs Google Ads
Let’s analyze some aspects of Google Ads and Bing Ads:
Display URL
Both ad networks show display URLs below the ad headline. Bing highlights its display URLs with bold formatting. Google Ads doesn’t.
Description text
Both Google and Bing allow 80 characters in one longer description field, which was limited to 70 characters in Google (two separate description lines limited to 35 characters each) and 71 characters in Bing.
Keywords
Both Bing and Google provide a keyword research tool, negative keywords, and broad match targeting. The main difference between these two ad platforms is that Bing has a much lower traffic volume for keywords.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Bing Ads manage to have higher CTRs for shopping & financial services search verticals, since Yahoo and MSN both grant financial reporting. The main reason for this is that they offer a great deal of shopping – financial resources & ads in those search verticals on those platforms reach a highly interested audience, receive more engagement, and have higher CTR.
Differences: Bing Ads vs Google Ads
To help you decide which ad network you should be using, let us take a look at the most important areas of each network.
Budget:
When comparing Bing and Google Ads, one of the most critical differences is price. The average CPC on Bing Ads can be up to 70% lower than Google Ads.
According to ReportGarden, CPC averages $7.99 on Bing Ads and $20.08 on Google AdWords.
And it’s also found that in the automotive industry, CPCs were 32.5% lower on Bing PPC than Google ads, and in the insurance industry, 59.2% lower than google ads.
It’s very important to keep in mind that Bing and Google don’t always get the same amount of traffic. In some cases, Bing Ads CPC is lower, but the traffic quality is also lower.
As a result, users end up paying more for conversion than they do on Google Ads, and vice-versa— with the right traffic, Bing Ads can generate more sales at a lower CPC.
Fortunately, since competition is much lower on Bing networks, it’s easier to get the traffic you want at a very low cost, resulting in high ROI.
Network Reach:
Everyone knows that Google is the largest search engine in the world and has millions of visitors every day. So, it should be no surprise that Google Ads gets more traffic when compared to Bing Ads.
On the other hand, the Bing network is fast-growing, too. Just take a look at these statistics:
- Bing now has 34% of the search engine market share (desktop) worldwide
- Bing Network has over 5.4 billion monthly searches.
- Approximately 136 million unique searchers utilize Bing.
A key point to note is that Bing Ads reach 63 million searchers around the world that aren’t reached with Google AdWords. The bottom line is that if you are not using Bing Ads, you’re missing a great opportunity.
Demographic:
Young people use Google much more than any other search engine. So, if you’re looking to target a younger audience, then Google is your best shot.
On the other hand, Bing allows advertisers to reach an older and more educated audience. Almost 40% of the Bing Network ranges from 35 to 54 years old, and nearly ¾th of Bing users are over the age of 35:
And also, about 1/3rd of the Bing Network searchers has a household income of over $100,000, and almost ½ of the Network has a household income of $75,000 or more:
These demographics summarize that Bing allows you to reach an even wider audience — a specific demographic of consumers — and produce even greater results than AdWords.
Quality of Traffic:
Since you pay for every click you receive, making sure every click is legitimate is crucial for a successful campaign. You must prevent competitors, robots, and unhappy customers from committing “click fraud” on your ads.
Although both networks have anti-fraud measures in place, it’s hard to say which is better at detecting fraudulent clicks.
Google doesn’t have any fancy stats to influence you to buy their traffic, but as the most comprehensive paid search network in the world, you can expect to receive relevant clicks from Google Ads.
For Bing, when it comes to traffic itself, according to research from Bing Ads, the average Bing audience spends 35% more online when shopping from their desktops than the average internet user.
Ad Restrictions:
Google currently has a list of all the types of ads they ban and have restrictions on, which includes:
- Alcohol
- Adult content
- Copyright content
- Gambling & games
- Healthcare & medicines
- Political content
- Financial services
- Trademarks
- Legal
- Bridge pages to affiliate links
Bing Ads also has a list of restricted content advertisers are not allowed to show:
- Dating
- Hate speech
- Peer-to-peer file sharing
- Political and religious content
- Suffering and violence
- Sensitive advertising
- Tax collection
- Unregulated user-generated content
As you can see, some restraints are related, such as political content ads and adult ads, but overall, Bing is more relaxed on what users can advertise.
More advantages of Bing ads
Bing Ads is not just about elongated reach, an older and higher-income audience demographic, less competition, lower CPC, and potentially better ROI. Many other advantages come into play.
Increased granular control:
Bing offers extra granular targeting at the ad group level. While in Google, the ad groups remain limited to their campaign-level settings. Bing Ads allows for changes to be made at the ad group level as well. Bing also allows advertisers to assign various ad campaigns to different time zones, which Google AdWords does not offer.
Import your Google Ads campaign:
The Bing Ads platform offers advertisers an option to import their existing Google AdWords campaigns into Bing Ads directly. Within a few steps, your campaign will be up and running without having to recreate everything from scratch.
Advanced device targeting:
Because of how limited mobile ad targeting can be with AdWords, Bing Ads has Google AdWords beat when it comes to devise targeting. Bing allows advertisers to focus on specific audiences according to their device type and Operating System. Bing also gives the option not to show campaign ads on desktops when you only target mobile users.
Sitelink extensions:
Bing PPC offers advertisers a chance to add additional information that can persuade search engine users to click through, similar to AdWords.
When site link extensions are displayed, they catch the user’s attention more quickly due to the overall ad appearing much larger than others in the SERP list.
These additional links can range in content from pricing, demos, content downloads, free trials, and more.
Greater Transparence:
Bing is fully transparent when revealing details about its search partners, allowing users to see exactly where their traffic is coming from. Bing provides accurate reports on the performance of every search partner in a campaign, which includes details of all metrics, from impressions to conversions.
Higher Engagement and Conversion Rates:
Users that click Bing PPC ads appear to be more engaged with the sites and post-click landing pages they are diverted to. The conversion rates also are much higher. A study conducted by Search Engine People found that in the automotive industry when compared to Google Ads, Bing Ad users converted at 10%-56% higher rates.
Conclusion: Which One Should You Use—Bing Ads or Google Ads?
The best digital ad strategy is to use both platforms simultaneously if your budget allows it.
Google Ads may be the best with digital ads, but Bing advertising is excellent for complementing your PPC strategy and filling any gaps in your online appearance.
With Bing Ads accompanying your Google Ads campaigns, you can extend the reach into new and unique regions. Additionally, Bing possesses higher positioning, less bidding competition, and a much lower cost-per-click, despite Google having higher search volume.
Use both Bing Ads and Google Ads to create effective ad campaigns, providing an optimal landing page from ad to post-click landing page with NetConnect Digital Agency.
