Should You Run Ads in Google and in Bing?

If you have been in advertising, and specifically digital or online advertising, you are sure to know and understand that Google is the king search engine out there on the web. So, with Google being a household name at this point, you already understand the power of advertising on Google’s many platforms available to business owners of either large or small businesses. With millions upon millions of people doing searches on Google’s network, it is a fact that there could be tons of traffic that can in some way or fashion end up on your business website, blog, or other destination.

With Google being the king of the internet, we all want a piece of whatever Google traffic we can get our hands on even though we know it is going to cost to do so. So, we sacrifice or set aside a budget to see if we can use Google to our advantage without Google taking too much advantage of us in the process. Those who know how to use and operate Google’s paid advertising platform should have a pretty good idea of whether it is possible for your goals to be achieved or not once you start funneling money through Google Ads.

But is Google the only advertising platform that can get us the results we want and need? That answer is no! Even though Google is the tippy top dog as far as the most used search engine, there are others out there that still have some value to them such as Yahoo, Bing, and AOL (just to name a few). We get asked all the time if Running Ads In Google And In Bing Is A Good Idea? The answer I always give to clients or anyone who wants my professional opinion is, absolutely, positively, without a doubt YES.

What Does Bing (Now Named Microsoft Ads) Have to Offer That Google Does Not Already Have?

The short answer to that is that there is not much of a difference when it comes to the paid advertising platforms of Google and Microsoft/Bing, but the difference is the audience of people that ads serve to on each of those search engines. Yes, Google runs the school, so to speak, with the largest amount of traffic coming through its platform.

Yes, Google has more capabilities to generate traffic than most other platforms. Yes, Google typically sets the trend when it comes to how advertising platforms look, operate, and function. But Google is not the only kid on the block that can get us the results we all want and need to sustain a profitable business.

Microsoft (or Bing) Ads follow in Google’s footsteps when it comes to the look, operation, and functioning of their paid advertising platform for the most part. This has been the norm for years and years as both paid advertising platforms continue to grow and progress in how they operate. Google has changed their platform in some way or fashion a lot more than the other search engines paid advertising platforms, but you can always count on the others including Microsoft Ads to not be far behind. So, with similar functioning as Google Ads, let us move on to what kind of audience Bing/Microsoft Ads serves to.

Who Does Microsoft Ads/Bing Serve Their Ads To vs Google Ads?

We cannot be sure exactly who their ads serve to versus who Google shows their ads to, because we are sure that ads serve to both depending on which search engine the visitor uses at the time. Some people are more comfortable with using Google’s search engine, while others are more comfortable using Microsoft/Bing, Yahoo, AOL or other search engines. It just depends on what they are used to, or what happens to be available at the time that they are wanting to do a search for something of interest to them. To go along with that, we do know that Microsoft/Bing have a great partnership with computer companies which helps with their search engine being the default search engine when someone buys a brand new computer. So how this works for them is, when someone buys a new computer under one of the partners that Microsoft/Bing have acquired, when the user loads up the setup disk to set up the new computer for the very first time the Bing search engine is preloaded or defaulted as the search engine to do all of your searches with.

Therefore, people who may have never heard of Bing or any other search engine besides Google, may very well just see a Search Box or Search Field to do a search and instinctively type a search in, not knowing which search engine they are actually using. And because the search engines between Bing, Yahoo, and Google are so similar in how they generate or display the search results, the user will likely find what they are looking for in that first search. We do have to give Microsoft / Bing kudos for thinking of the idea of partnering with new computer companies, it was well thought out and I’m sure does very well for them.

There are also people who find that Bing/Microsoft search engine generates better search results and more information than Google. We can see how they could think that because of the millions of search results that happen each and every day. I can even say personally that I have utilized Bing and Yahoo vs the king of the internet known as Google. So if you intermix those searchers that have a personal preference to use Bing over Google, and the fact that some new computer owners use the default search engine on their computer, you can see that there is plenty of traffic out there to be had and to go after other than Google users.

Google does own the lion’s share of the search volume by also owning YouTube, but when it comes down to it why would you want to miss any opportunity with advertising on other search engines such as Bing/Microsoft when the audience is primed and ready for your advertisement. This is why when clients or even potential clients come to me and ask whether “Running Ads In Google And In Bing Is A Good Idea?”, my answer to them is always yes! And a little secret that a lot of us have figured out while running Microsoft/Bing Ads alongside of running Google Ads is that the Microsoft Ads for the most part Convert at a higher rate than Google Ads. That does not mean that it will Generate more conversions than the Google side (although it could), but as far as conversion rates go we have seen time and time again the Microsoft/Bing Ads produce at a much better rate than the king of the search engine knows as Google.

So hopefully this write up was informative enough for you and may even have convinced you that Bing/Microsoft Ads may not be as much of a risk as you may have thought. Go out there, create a new account, and happy advertising.