I know of businesses that consider Microsoft’s Bing search engine to be a “cover-your-bases” alternative to Google. But Bing continues to grow as a strong advertising platform on its own terms. As The Verge reported recently, Bing is contributing to surging growth at Microsoft:
Microsoft’s search advertising revenue from Bing has been growing steadily over the course of the financial year. Each quarter it has consistently grown by around 15 percent, and Q4 is no exception. Search revenue is up 17 percent, thanks to higher revenue per search and an increase in search volume. While many are quick to dismiss Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Microsoft might have a unique opportunity to capitalize on its search engine after the EU ruled to force Google to unbundle its search app from Android. Phone makers will certainly be looking for opportunities to bundle rival search engines and browsers in the coming months.
Here are two reasons to invest in Bing as an advertising platform based on its own merits:
1 Bing Is Valuable
At True Interactive, we have seen larger average order values on Bing compared to Google. In other words, the typical consumer on Bing spends more per purchase. Why? The average Bing searcher probably has a higher income level than the average Google user.
2 Bing Innovates
Bing has been a forward-thinking innovator from the start. For instance, Bing’s visually stunning layout, emphasizing crisp graphics, has always been light years ahead of Google, making Bing literally a more attractive-looking platform in the Instagram age.
Bing continues to raise the bar with visual content. The recently launched Bing visual search extends a strong visual search capability across both Android and iOS devices, whereas visual search on Google remains limited to the Android world.
Bing innovates in many other ways, too. Recently Bing announced Spotlight, which relies on artificial intelligence and an extensive knowledge graph to provide a more well-rounded perspective on news that evolves over time. As Bing explained on its blog, “Spotlight shows users the latest headlines, a rundown of how the story has developed over time, and relevant social media posts from people around the web. Spotlight also shows diverse perspectives on a given topic so users can quickly get a well-rounded view on the topic before deciding what they want to go deeper on and read by clicking on any of the articles.” Here’s an image from the post:
Microsoft’s ownership of LinkedIn gives Bing more fertile ground to innovate. Bing recently made it possible to allow advertisers to target LinkedIn audiences. By contrast, Google Ads lack this option.
Google remains the top dog in search because of its market share alone. But Google is not the only option. Bing provides advertisers a tool to tap into a wellspring of innovation especially as consumer behavior continues to evolve with visual search.
For more insight into how to integrate Bing into your own digital marketing, contact True Interactive.
