When crafting a digital marketing strategy, utilizing PPC is an essential part of the marketing funnel. Google Search Ads are a great way to create brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and reach your target audience. However, if you aren’t running on Microsoft Ads you could be missing out on low-cost clicks from your target audience.

Did you know that voice search mostly pulls from Bing, not Google? Microsoft allows you to reach a variety of platforms that your target audience is already utilizing.

Advertising on Bing is a common blind spot, but it’s an easy way to boost your visibility in places where you have no current presence.

SEO on Bing: Voice Search Users Are an Untapped Opportunity

There are 111.8 million voice search users in the US with all signs pointing to growth – one billion voice searches happen every month. What’s more, at least 50% of adults with smartphones and smart speakers use voice search every day, and both Alexa and Siri pull their answers to voice searches from Bing.

As voice assistants are becoming a greater part of people’s everyday lives, Microsoft Ads and SEO on Bing are often overlooked by marketers due to the popularity of Google. In doing so, they are missing out on a large section of potential customers for their clients.

Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa pull search results from Bing by default.

Identifying who your audience is and meeting them where they are is an important set in building an effective digital marketing campaign. For some audience groups, Microsoft Ads can be a more effective way to reach customers. For example, local businesses do well as people tend to ask Siri or Alexa questions such as “where is the closest coffee shop?”

Microsoft Ads also has a larger professional audience than you may realize. Those that work on Dell Computers often use Bing as their default search engine.

Microsoft Ads vs. Google Ads: What You Need to Know About How to Advertise on Bing

Microsoft holds less (around 25%) of search queries, but due to recent changes, combining AOL and Yahoo into a singular search engine, that could increase by as much as 15%. Microsoft’s lower traffic rate also means it has 30% less ad competition, so CPC will be lower on Microsoft Ads than it would be on Google Ads.

Microsoft has also added a huge time-saving factor to their platform – existing Google Ads campaigns can be imported into the Microsoft Ads platform, so with little effort your business can be up and running in Microsoft. 

While this can make your setup simple, we would recommend optimizing Google campaigns and Microsoft campaigns as separate entities wherever possible. What works for one search engine might not be what works for another (like optimizing for voice search on Microsoft with long-tail keywords).

Bing Search Features that Google Doesn’t Have

Here are some of the features you get with Bing that you won’t find on Google:

  • A new search feature on Bing allows users to preview the page before clicking on it. Bing has a higher click-through rate than Google and this feature could be one of the reasons for that.
  • You can verify relevant sources and jump to relevant sections on pages with Bing’s Page Insights Lightbulb feature to help you find what you’re looking for faster.
  • Bing allows a more complex and detailed social extension. This allows businesses to show ratings or following within their ad, increasing the legitimacy and perceived popularity of the business. 
  • Bing also allows for more control over keywords, ad groups, and campaigns while Google is removing control from the advertiser and placing more emphasis on their algorithm.

Start Leveraging SEO and Advertising on Bing to Reach a New Audience

While Google remains the superior search engine, Microsoft should not be discounted when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy. Advertising on Bing can help you reach another segment of the market, so don’t discount it as part of your plan.

You can read more insights on De Novo Digital's Blog or explore our paid media services to find out how you can take your digital marketing strategy to the next level.