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When talking about PPC, most business owners will instantaneously think of Google, the king supreme search engine. Others might even mention social paid campaigns. However, ask a marketer and chances are, they will also mention Bing as a platform with great campaign potential.
Bing Ads vs. Google Ads — how do they compare? What’s the difference between these two search engines when it comes to paid campaigns? We asked our expert marketing partners to help us answer this question as precisely as possible.
Table of Contents
Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: Why Bother?
When marketers and business owners talk about search ads, in most instances, they are referring to Google Ads. It’s no wonder — as of February 2024, Google was the de facto leader in search engines, with a global desktop search market share of 91.62%. Bing was the second in line, with only 3.31%.
So, why would marketers even bother with Bing? Well, both platforms offer pay-per-click advertising features, helping businesses drive more website traffic, increase their reach, and drive more revenue. However, they differ in targeting options, reach, cost, and more. Let’s take a closer look.
Google Ads
Google Ads has two distinct ad networks:
- Display Network: Your ads appear on more than 2 million websites to users as they browse across the massive display network.
- Search Network: Ads are shown in search engine results when users use targeted phrases or keywords on Google.
Bing Ads
Bing is owned by Microsoft and has three search engines in total:
Using Bing Ads enables you to display your ads in all three search engines and all of Microsoft’s partner sites.
Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: Key Differences
Ask any marketing expert and they will tell you that a well-rounded advertising campaign should focus on covering as much ground as possible. This means that most of them will recommend using both Google and Bing, along with social channels, to get the most out of your campaigns.
However, the two search engines require you to understand the small nuances between them that will enable you to craft effective strategies on both channels.
- Reach
- Targeting
- Demographics
- Keywords
- Ad Copy
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Clickthrough and conversion rates
Reach
Reach refers to the potential number of people who may see your ads. It’s a critical element in advertising online, as the higher the number of people who see your ads, the better the chance that they will visit your website and convert to customers.
In terms of reach, Google advertising takes the lead as both Search and Display Networks offer access to a huge audience. For instance, Google claims that the Display Network can reach up to 90% of online users. Pair that with the more than 80% of the global search engine market share for search ads, and you can see why Google takes the upper hand.
However, this doesn’t mean that Bing should be dismissed. As a matter of fact, with Bing, you can reach an additional 53 million searchers that you can’t via Google.
Targeting
Reaching a broad audience doesn’t necessarily mean that your ads will also convert. Targeting is one crucial element of reaching the right people. Google Ads allows you to target users in two distinct ways:
Audience Targeting
Audience targeting refers to a targeting method that looks at who your target audience is, what their interests are, what they are searching for online, and whether they have interacted with your ads previously.
More precisely, you have the following options:
- Affinity
- Demographics
- In-market
- Custom intent
- Remarketing
- Similar audiences
Content Targeting
Content targeting focuses less on who will be looking at your ads, rather, it concentrates on where they will be displayed. More precisely, this targeting method enables you to choose where you want or don’t want your ads to show. Here are the most prominent options:
- Topic: Target your ad to show on multiple pages about a specific topic
- Placement: Targets those sites on the Display Networks that your customers visit
- Keywords: Choose from brand-, product-, or industry-relevant phrases or keywords to target users who are using those same terms for their searches
Bing, on the other hand, offers the following targeting options:
- In-market: Ads are shown to people who have shown intent to shop for products or services relevant to your brand
- Custom audiences: Targeting based on your first-party customer data and insights
- LinkedIn profile: Target people based on their LinkedIn profile information
- Day of the week or time of day: Target people on days when they are most likely to interact with your ads
- Location: Target people based on location
- Remarketing: Display ads to those leads who have already seen or interacted with them
- Keywords: Target the phrases and words users use to conduct searches
- Gender: Targeting based on gender
- Age: Age-based targeting
- Device: Target users who use laptops, desktop devices, smartphones, and so on
Both search engines offer excellent targeting options, but experts agree that Bing’s features can often enable them to run more sophisticated campaigns.
James Byrne, Owner of After Dark GrafX, says that you often gain valuable insight just by comparing the two engines consoles:
"Using the console to discover what users are searching for is invaluable. When comparing the Google search console to keyword searches on Bing, it is very interesting to see the differences."
However, he also has one remark about Bing’s LinkedIn profile targeting, as it requires a workaround to get a realistic picture of ad performance:
"LinkedIn's pixel needs some work. It has trouble tracking the conversion to the sale so you have to enlist Google Tag Manager and other conversion methods and tracking to understand the benefits of LinkedIn — especially if you'd like to connect it to Bing Ads or utilize their own ads platform."
Brian Ericson, Founder of Milwaukee Web Design, also points out that Bing’s targeting options offer more sophistication. This is especially true for LinkedIn profile targeting, which can be invaluable for targeting older, more professionally inclined audiences.
Demographics
Demographics are a precursor for targeting. If you want to bring out most of the targeting options Google Ads and Bing Ads offer, you must understand the demographics of the search engines’ user bases.
Bing users have specific demographics, representing a slightly older, married audience, with a higher income, as 33% generally earn above $100,000.
As Ericson explains:
"Bing and Google users have distinct demographic profiles. Bing users tend to be older, with a significant portion aged 35 and above. They often have higher income levels and higher educational attainment compared to Google users. In contrast, Google users are generally younger and have a broad range of income and education levels."
"Comparing the two, Bing attracts users who are more likely to be established professionals or retirees, while Google’s user base includes a younger, more diverse audience in terms of age, income, and education. These demographic differences require advertisers to adjust their strategies accordingly."
Even though Google users are typically younger, the sheer number of them means that you will be able to reach niche audiences if you target your campaigns right.
"Although Google is the Search Engine King, you still have to spread out your ad spend to other PPC markets to gain full exposure. When placing all your eggs in one basket, you are leaving valuable data and potential profits on the table," concludes Byrne.
Keywords
Regardless of which side you choose on the Google Ads vs. Bing Ads debate, you will likely launch campaigns that target specific keywords. As such, it’s essential to understand the different match types of these platforms.
Google Ads offer the following match types:
- Exact match: The phrase used by searchers exactly matches the keyword you are targeting
- Phrase match: This match category enables you to target phrases that are similar to your targeted search phrase, often related to your product or services (tennis shoes and shoes for tennis)
- Board match: This matching method will also target similar or semantic phrases that sometimes don’t even contain the keyword or phrase you entered (low=carb diet and carb-free foods)
- Negative keywords: Search terms you don’t want to target.
Bing enables you to use pretty much the same keyword targeting options. As such, in terms of keyword-targeted advertising, the two platforms are a tie, especially if we don’t consider Google’s massive market share.
Ad Copy
Writing ad copy is also a crucial element in running effective ad campaigns. However, there are different formatting guidelines for textual ads on Google and Bing. Mostly, these rules pertain to headline character counts, descriptions, and display URLs for landing pages.
For Google Ads, consider the following:
- Text ads can consist of up to three headlines, not longer than 30 characters
- There should be no more than one or two product or service descriptions, up to 90 characters
- One display URL, not longer than 15 characters
For Bing, you will need to adhere to the following guidelines:
- One to two headlines up to 30 characters
- One description of up to 80 characters
- One display URL, not longer than 15 characters
Typically, Google offers more flexibility and freedom. However, Byrne says that even exact ad copies will produce different results:
"We were able to create exact copy and creative on both Bing and Google for a fitness company. For certain ad headlines, Bing performed better than Google and vice versa. It was interesting to see the differences with the audiences being close to the same."
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click refers to the amount of money you pay when someone clicks on your ad versus when they see it or act on it.
Typically, CPC on Bing, across all industries, is around $1.54, which is around 33% lower than Google’s. This is mostly because Bing has a less competitive advertising environment. Cost per acquisition (CPA) is also around 30% lower than Google Ads’, standing at $41.44, making Bing an attractive platform if you seek efficient conversions.
This doesn’t mean that you should focus on Bing and drop Google completely. The latter is still the king of search engines, and a well-rounded digital marketing strategy that leverages both SEO and paid advertising can still turn your marketing efforts on Google into a cost-effective endeavor.
According to Byrne, if brand messaging, copy, and creatives are all in line to maintain cohesiveness, campaigns on both platforms can be highly effective.
Clickthrough and Conversion Rates
Clickthrough rates compare how many people clicked on your ad with the number of people who only saw your ad. On Bing, the average CTR is around 2.83%, while Google’s Search Network and Display Network stand at 1.91% and 0,35% respectively.
Conversion rates can’t be ignored. They describe the percentage of ad viewers who have completed the action you wanted them to perform with your ads (like purchasing a product or signing up for your newsletter) compared to those users who clicked on the ad but didn’t do anything else.
The average conversion rate for Bing hovers at 2.94%, while Google delivers slightly better with an average rate of 3.75%. When you consider the massive user base of Google, a conversion rate of almost 4% becomes very impressive and promising for those who use the network.
However, according to Bryne, this doesn’t mean that Bing should be ultimately written off.
"Niche markets often see significant benefits from using Bing Ads. The audience demographics on Bing, typically older and more affluent, can more effectively match a company's target customers, enhancing ad relevance and engagement. Additionally, Bing's advanced targeting options allow for precise audience segmentation, resulting in lower CPC and improved campaign efficiency."
"Bing Ads have shown superior performance in B2B campaigns. Reasons for Bing Ads' effectiveness in the B2B sector include the platform's professional user base, often comprising decision-makers in companies. Lead quality can be higher, with a 25% increase in qualified leads and a 30% reduction in acquisition costs, making Bing Ads a cost-effective choice for B2B marketers," he adds.
Lastly, he also points out that Bing can be a great option for more localized campaigns.
"Examining regional audience behavior on Bing versus Google shows that Bing users were more likely to engage with local business ads, leading to a higher click-through rate (CTR) and better overall campaign performance."
Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: Which One’s Better?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. Experienced marketers agree that both platforms can be highly beneficial and can complement each other in an overarching paid advertising strategy. For optimal success, you can use Bing to target a more specific demographic, who may be more professionally inclined. At the same time, the massive reach on Google can ensure that you cover the most ground with your campaigns.
Bing Ads vs. Google Ads FAQs
1. Is Google Ads better than Bing Ads?
You can reach more people with Google advertising campaigns, but Bing enables you to reach a more specific demographic, which means that you might be able to run better niche-oriented, professional campaigns.
2. Does the more expensive cost of Google campaigns mean you should use Bing?
Bing may be able to provide you with more value for less, however, given the large market share on Google and how it dictates search engine optimization trends, you should also prioritize combining SEO with your Google campaigns to reach more people cost-effectively.
3. Can you run Bing and Google advertising campaigns by yourself?
Yes, you can. However, optimizing your campaigns, monitoring them, and tweaking them on the fly takes time, effort, knowledge, and experience. Because of this, it's often better to leave it to professionals to maximize the effectiveness of your advertising strategies.
