When it comes to online advertising, the go-to platform of most businesses is Google. What some people may not realize is that there are actually other major portals that you can utilize for paid online ads. One of these is Bing Ads.
So, what exactly is Bing Ads, and why should you use it alongside your other online marketing outlets? Is Bing advertising worth your time, efforts, and money?
Bing advertising is actually the counterpart of Google Ads on the Bing search engine. In short, it is similar to Google Ads but not exactly the same. Bing Ads, or Microsoft Advertising, as some people call it, is one of the many digital advertising platforms designed to help businesses and brands (such as Ads-supply.com, Outbrain, Taboola, etc.). While it is less utilized than its more popular counterpart, you should not write it off just yet.
So, what are the pros and cons of Microsoft (Bing) Advertising? Is it smart to use such a platform even if it is placed on a lesser-used browser? What benefits do you get from using such a platform for your marketing and advertising needs? To answer that, in this article, we’ll explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Bing Ads for your business:
PROS
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- You have less competition – Yes, you read that right. The upside to having fewer people using this online advertising platform is you have very few people in the same niche to compete with. This means you have better chances to dominate your niche with this platform.
- Your ads will be displayed on three search engines – Since Microsoft owns AOL and Yahoo along with Bing, it is only natural that advertisements made on Microsoft Advertising will be displayed on all three. This means that you have access to millions of users that search for the products and services they need on all three browsers.
- You don’t pay as much with each click – The cost per click on Bing Ads is lower when compared to the CPC of similar ads on Google AdWords. This is primarily because of the lower number of people competing with you for those keyword phrases. It has been noted that what you spend on Bing Ads is roughly only a quarter of what you would spend on average on Google Ads.
CONS
- Less traffic – Since Bing is the lesser-used search engine, it stands to reason that you get fewer people on it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t benefit from using it, but you shouldn’t expect as many clicks as you would get on Google AdWords.
- Negative keywords have to be tweaked – One thing that most users and marketers find off-putting with Bing Ads is that the negative keywords option here has to be precise. In short, it follows an exact match principle and not a broad match one. This means that if you want to exclude specific keywords for your ads, you need to add each variation individually.
- Bing Ads don’t have as many extensions as Google Ads – While Bing Ads still allows the addition of extensions, it doesn’t have as many options for it compared to Google Ads. The only extensions you can use with Bing Ads are location, site-links, and call extensions. This somewhat limits what you can do with Bing Ads.
Whatever the case may be, using Microsoft Advertising as part of your overall advertising strategy should definitely be considered. As always, you should take the time to create effective ad campaigns on either platform to ensure the success of each one.