According to the recent study, in 2018 Bing ads were responsible for 33.8% market share on desktop computers and over 20% of overall market share. Close to 27% of all those clicks were unique to Bing Network, and the audience could not been reached by any other Search Engine including Google. Despite the impressive statistics, majority of auto dealerships are missing on all amazing opportunities that Bing ads has to offer. That is one of the reasons why our clients are taking full advantage of advertising on Bing Network. As a proud Bing Partner, Aronson Advertising turns best practices and advanced functionality of Bing ads to successful paid search campaigns. Next, we will take a closer look at the benefits of advertising on Bing, some common questions advertisers have, and the results we were able to drive for our clients.
Who is the Bing Audience?
According to Bing data:
- Close to one third of people choosing Bing has an average household income of $100,000 or higher.
- 58% of the audience has higher education.
- Nearly 40% of people who prefer Bing are in the age group of 35-54.
- Bing users spend 36% more money comparing to people choosing other search engines.
Considering these characteristics, Bing users should be a valuable target for advertisers selling luxury goods and expensive products such as cars.
Where do Bing ads appear?
Bing ads opens their advertisers access to not only Bing Search, but also an extensive network of Bing Partners such as Yahoo, AOL, Tumblr, TechCrunch, etc. Most of these resources are not available thought Google Network. Bing significantly expands reach of an advertiser’s digital marketing campaigns.
Are Bing campaigns similar to Google campaigns?
While Bing campaigns are similar to Google campaigns for the most part (in fact, Bing even offers an option to import campaigns from Google instead of building them from scratch), there are some differences when it comes to targeting, available features, functionality, etc. For example, Bing ads support a pretty similar account structure and key elements: account – campaign – ad group – ad – keywords – negative keywords – ad extensions. However, the way negative keywords are used in Bing is slightly different. Also, Bing offers an image ad extension, which is currently not supported by Google. Although Bing has been perceived by most advertisers as a simplified version of Google Ads for years, Bing definitely improved their game. The interface got a major upgrade becoming more intuitive and user friendly. Also, Bing is now offering some advanced Audience targeting options, which can definitely take Bing campaigns to the next level.
How are conversions being tracked in Bing?
Google ads does not require any additional tags to be placed on a website. It is recommended to link Google Ads accounts to Google Analytics though in order to take full advantage of advanced Google Analytics reporting as well as an opportunity to track Google Analytics goals in the Google Ads interface. Bing ads requires a specific tag (UET tag) to be placed on an advertiser’s website. The good news is that the UET tag is now supported by Google Tag Manager, which makes the process of placing it easy. The fact that conversion goals can be created in the Bing interface directly is another difference between Bing and Google. When it comes to Google Ads, conversion goals are created in Google Analytics and then simply imported to Google Ads.
What are the Audience targeting options?
Here are some of the most interesting ways to reach potential customers through Audience Targeting:
- Bing advertisers have access to 170 In-Market Audiences. These are the people who showed purchase intent and are very likely looking to buy products like the ones a business is advertising.
- Just like Google, Bing reaches people previously visited a website through Remarketing Audiences.
- Custom Audiences are now available to a broader group of advertisers on Bing. Email lists can be downloaded to Bing directly and then used to target repeat customers or segmented groups of customers with a more tailored message.
Additionally, select advertisers now can take advantage of a unique opportunity to reach potential customers based on their LinkedIn profiles. That feature is not available on Google! In addition to location, demographics, and other standard targeting methods, there are over 20 predefined B2B audiences advertisers can effectively reach through Bing.
Case study
To illustrate how Bing ads campaigns can benefit our customers, we wanted to share a brief case study. Client: a Chevrolet dealership in Ohio area. Monthly Budget: $1500. Locations: 8 zip codes in a highly populated area around the dealership. Keywords: a combination of branded keywords, purchase intent keywords, make-model specific keywords, and make-body style specific keywords. Results: Impression share: 69.65% (impressive, considering the small budget!). Competition: The next auto dealership bidding on keywords similar to ours is only the #11 position with the impression share of only 7%. Examples of websites entering an auction with our Chevy client are: car.com, Chevrolet.com, autotrader.com, Subaru.com, cars.com, carfax,com, etc. When it comes to Google, 7 out of 10 websites entering an auction are auto dealerships. Average CPC: $2.68 (only $3.75 for purchase intent model specific keywords!) vs. $4.31 on Google. Cost per lead: $34, which is slightly higher compared to Google ($24). Bing campaigns are getting a bigger portion of desktop traffic though, which is why Bing campaigns receive fewer phone calls. You can read more about device targeting in one of our previous blog posts. PTR (Phone Through Rate): 5.47%, which is 6,837% higher compared to 0.08% Google. It is also interesting that while model specific keywords on Google are mostly driving VDP pages, similar keywords are driving phone calls on Bing.
Top 5 reasons to advertise on Bing
To summarize our conversation about Bing, here are the top 7 reasons why auto dealerships should consider adding Bing ads to their marketing strategy.
- Lower CPC compared to Google. Depending on the campaign type and targeting criteria, we noticed that Bing CPC is at least 30% lower.
- Lower competition. Just a few auto dealerships are advertising on Bing so our customers can truly dominate Bing Search results.
- Reaching customers not accessible by Google.
- Reaching potential customers with higher available budget to spend.
- Access to the advanced Bing targeting functionality, including In-Market Audiences.
Are you interested in learning more about Bing campaigns and what they can do for your business? Contact our team of Bing Accredited Professionals today. As a Bing Partner, Aronson Advertising has access to the advanced Bing functionality. We will help you get on Bing with the ads tailored to your specific target audience and with your business needs in mind.
