When most businesses think of starting a PPC campaign the first thing that comes to mind is Google AdWords. That’s because with owning 67% of the market share for PPC campaigns, Google Adwords is the leading choice for most businesses. It also boasts significantly higher impressions and click through rates than other search engines.
And while it makes perfect sense for any business who wants to get involved with paid search advertising to use AdWords it also makes better sense to consider other PPC networks like the Yahoo! Bing Network (YBN) (also called Bingads) in addition to using Adwords.
Using Bingads as well as Google AdWords could give you just the competitive advantage you need to leave your competitors in the dust.
Get the Facts
With about 2/3 of the market share of PPC, Google isn’t going anywhere when it comes to paid search advertising. Google isn’t just in a strong holding position in regard to PPC at Number 1, but is also growing its segment each year. In fact, it grew about 38% in paid search impressions over the last year. When you think of Google Adwords you should understand that there are two distinct networks in play. Here are the two types and the differences between them:
Google Search Network – displays ads on all of its search related sites such as Google Search, Google Shopping and Google Maps. The ads displayed have a direct relationship with the search action performed.
Google Search Partners – displays ads on its websites including Gmail, Blogger, YouTube and Google Finance but doesn’t have a strong correlation with a performed search.
Bingads
It’s no big news that the Bingads PPC program is no big threat to Google Adwords in regards to share and reach, but it does offer some good value to smaller marketing budgets and because of that, it’s starting to grab more of the PPC market share.
Just like Google, Bing has two different areas to advertise:
Bing Search Network – displays ads on all of Bing and Yahoo!’s direct sites.
Bing Content Network– displays ads on Bing and Yahoo! owned and operated sites as well as selected partner sites that have a relevant focus to the ad topic.
Why Yahoo! Bing Network?
Two words – Price and Competition. Bingads cost anywhere from 50 – 70% less than using Google AdWords and the cost of impressions ranges anywhere from 76-90% less than Google Adwords.
Competition is much less stiff than it is on Google Adwords, averaging about 45% less competition on Bingads, some much higher and some lower. On Bingads you can expect to pay about 70% less CPC than on Adwords.
If you are a small company with a small marketing budget, using Bingads to try and get on a first page SERP can be a very cost effective option.
Look at the Cost Per Click comparison between Adwords and Bing for 9 industry categories from data collected Q1 of last year by AdGooroo:
Which Should You Use?
With Bingads you can reach another 150 million users. Of that 150 million, 45 million ONLY use Yahoo!Bing. They are not Google users. Bingads is a smart choice for smaller businesses without the big bucks to spend on marketing. But if your budget allows, try using both. When you use both Google Adwords and Bingads for PPC, you’ll have increased your reach by almost half and have extended your ads to an additional 150+ million users. Sounds like a pretty good plan!