Why You Need to Be On Bing

When you think of the term “search engine”, the first thing most likely to come in mind is Google. After all, they vastly dominate all competitors in the industry.

So, then why do you need to be on Bing if Google owns the search engine world?

For a moment, let’s consider the impact on your business if you decided to shut the doors to customers for four months out of the year. That’s huge! Maybe even a little absurd – of course, you wouldn’t shut your doors to customers 4 months out of the year.

But, if you’re not on Bing, that’s exactly the kind of opportunity you are turning down. As of 2018, Bing has steadily increased its market share to about 34%. That means one-third of all search queries are being handled through Bing’s network.

As of 2018, Bing has steadily increased its market share to about 34%- that’s one-third of all search queries.

If you’re not on Bing, you’re missing out. But all is not lost!

Now is the time to seriously reconsider your online presence with Bing. Here’s why.

Bing’s Network Is Only Growing

One of the reasons Google has such a tight grip on market share is their major network of search partners. Well, Bing has recently been investing much more into this same strategy.

AOL, Yahoo!, Amazon, and even Reddit are all now part of the Bing Network. This year, LinkedIn joined the club, too. Bing’s search data even pulls data from popular sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Foursquare, and Twitter.

Why the sudden attention on Bing? Simple. They’ve grown up. They’ve poured an incredible amount of energy into updating their search algorithms. And they’re not just a Google copycat, either. They are bringing some serious heat to the table.

A Unique Audience For A Unique Search Engine

With the new advances in search engine algorithms, and some innovative features (we’ll get to that later in this post), Bing has been germinating a rather unique audience of dedicated users.

Here are some quick stats:

• One-third of Bing users have a household income of $100k or more
• Half of all Bing users are under the age of 45
• Half of all Bing users graduated from college
• Males and females are split more or less 50/50 on Bing
• Almost half of all Bing users are married
• Bing users spend about 135% more money online compared to the average internet searcher

It’s one thing to be able to know who the audience is on a given search engine. But what does that matter?

Why does any of this matter?

Bing’s unique audience represents a sort of untapped market (since most of us rely solely on Google). A unique audience has unique characteristics and personalities. This amounts to new ideas and new opportunities not found anywhere else.

Sixteen percent of all Bing searches are new queries, and 27% all clicks on Bing come from those unique searches. These present keyword and content optimization insights that simply are not present on Google. They are unique to the Bing Network, along with 63 million desktop users that cannot be reached with Google alone.

If You Still Don’t Think Bing is Worth Your Time, Someone Else Will

Still hesitant to jump on the Bingwagon? Maybe this will help. Think about who your competitors are, and what they might try to do to set themselves apart and increase their bottom line.

Now, do a quick search on Bing for your competitors. You might be surprised to see that more and more folks are starting to take Bing seriously. They’re wise to do so, because Bing has introduced some valuable changes that make them more attractive than they’ve ever been.

Microsoft Audience Network & Microsoft Audience Ads

Were you wondering where all those statistics came from earlier in this article? They came from Bing, thanks to their new Microsoft Audience Network. They’ve totally changed they way they are doing things, and now they offer deeper insights into your audience than ever before.

Thanks to AI and the Microsoft Graph, audience data is updated every second with every user’s actions. A massive amount of new insights are available to marketers and business owners, and includes information from search and internet activity, demographics, and even LinkedIn profiles. AI is instrumental for the newly released framework for conversational search algorithms (with the help from that gold-mine known as Reddit).

Deeper Insights Drive Better Conversion Rates

Bing’s ability to make such rich data available certainly comes with its benefits. PPC advertisers on Bing only have to spend about 1/4^th the amount of money (compared to AdWords) to see similar performance. Clickthrough rates are higher, and conversions occur more readily with higher quality leads when compared to Google.

PPC advertisers on Bing only need to spend about one-quarter the amount of money they spend on Google Ads to see comparable performance. 

This is a direct result of Bing’s focus on deeper insights into your audience. Google may have over twice as much volume, but Bing makes up for it with their incredible targeting.

A Final Word

As if all of this wasn’t enough, let’s drive one more thing for you to consider. Bing wants your business. They want you. A long-established marketing strategy revolves around playing into the markets that most want your business, because those are more likely to offer incentives for their potential audience (i.e. you), which generally results in greater bang for your buck. Sometimes you get what you pay for, as the adage goes. But, sometimes you find the birth of something significant.

Bing is the latter.

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