Many marketers write off Bing. While Bing is a well-known search engine, it doesn’t have as large of a market share as some other search engine options do. Dismissing the value of Bing in SEM, especially in business-to-business industries, can be a mistake. Bing, with its tether to LinkedIn, has the opportunity to connect brands to executive decision-makers at a lower cost than other options.
Reasons to Consider Bing in B2B Marketing
If you’re looking to expand your reach, take a look at a few of the top reasons why marketers should reconsider using Bing in their B2B plan:
Reach a Wider Market of Potential Customers
Bing may not have as much of the market share as Google, but that doesn’t mean its numbers aren’t significant. On PC, Bing accounts for 14.5% of the market share or over 14.5 billion global visitors each month. Bing has also been around long enough to establish trust among its users. Originally known as MSN Search or Windows Live Search, Microsoft Bing has earned a place in the search market.
Target Demographics With Higher Incomes
Data shows that the highest earners use Bing. In fact, 36% of households in the top 25% use Bing as their primary search engine. Bing breaks it down even further, pulling data from the B2B market. Using this filter, 45% of Bing users have income levels in the top 25%. While in prior years, the largest age range of Bing users was 45-54 years of age, this has shifted. As of 2021, 73% of Bing users are under 45, and 75% of Bing B2B users are also under 45.
Multiple studies have also shown that Bing users not only earn higher incomes but also are more likely to convert. Whether this is due to higher income, a higher average age, or Bing making it easier to click through ads is unclear. In total, 55% of Bing users use the search engine for product research. Another 38% use it for brand discovery. These statistics show that Bing is an effective marketing tool that can encourage higher rates of conversions.
Connect With Decision Makers
One of the biggest challenges of marketing is reaching a brand’s target audience. This can be especially difficult in the B2B industry, as it may not always be clear who makes the buying decisions for a brand. Failing to narrow down targeting to a brand’s target customer can lead to wasted ad and SEM spending.
This is another top reason to consider Bing for B2B marketing, as approximately 52% of decision-makers in a B2B industry use Bing as their search engine of choice. Another 23% of B2B Bing users are senior executive decision-makers. When considering the data, it’s more likely that for brands that want to target the decision-makers of a business, Bing may provide better results.
Reduce the Cost of Ads
Despite access to higher earners and more decision-makers, the cost of advertising on Bing is often cheaper than on Google Ads. Ad costs are determined by the demand for specific keywords or audiences. As Bing has fewer users in total, it usually means that ads and keyword costs are cheaper on average. The lower cost per click available with Microsoft Bing means brands can maximize their advertising budgets.
Increase Advertising Options
In terms of filters and social extensions, Bing also offers a few unique options. For example, Bing ads allow marketers to build keyword lists made up of the most cost-effective options. Targeting when and where to publish ads is also easier for some within Bing PPC. Teams can narrow down ads to display on desktop versus mobile, as well as on Yahoo versus Bing. Other unique targeting options include the ability to choose age range, location filters, or job titles using LinkedIn profiles.
Additionally, running ads on Bing cross-posts them to Yahoo and AOL. The social extension allows brands to share their social media accounts within ad copy, versus the follower count that’s available with Google ads.
Bing or Google Ads?
Many B2B brands will consider at some point whether to advertise using Google Ads or Bing. In summary, Bing offers cheaper advertising that encounters lower traffic but more affluent users, whereas Google enables brands to reach a wider audience, though at a higher price. An effective marketing strategy typically includes both, playing on the pros and cons of each search engine.
Testing performance and conducting A/B testing can also help brands choose the right balance between Google and Bing. Bing also has built-in importing features that allow users to import data from Google to Bing, making it convenient to employ the benefits of both. Even better, since people typically choose a search engine and stay loyal to it, there’s little chance of cannibalization when including both in a B2B strategy.
Bing offers many benefits to B2B brands, including the opportunity to reach a new collection of customers, often at a cheaper price. For the best results, B2B brands can monitor data and track conversions, helping them choose the right SEM and PPC strategy.
