Google Ads vs Bing Ads: Selecting the Right Advertising Channel

With companies spending more than $220 billion on digital marketing every year, Google Ads vs Bing Ads debate is continuing, as businesses try to choose between these two big-name advertising platforms. While planning your ad budget for each year you may have to consider a lot of factors, which is why we have compiled this blog on bing vs google ads

In this blog, you will learn about the differences, features, performance, and benefits of Microsoft ads vs Google ads. Google ads were previously known as Google Adwords and Bing ads are also known as Microsoft Advertising. Let’s take a look at the variances and dynamics between these two advertising platforms.

Difference between Google Ads and Bing Ads

Both platforms work on a pay-per-click (PPC) system. Ultimately, the goal of each platform is the same – to help businesses expand their reach, website traffic, and revenue in the USA. However, the platforms differ in terms of reach, targeting options, cost, and more. Here is a detailed overview of Bing Advertising vs Google Adwords.

Bing Ads/Microsoft Advertising

Bing, owned by Microsoft allows your ads to show on search results on three search engines:
1 Bing
2 Yahoo
3 AOL Networks
44% of business and finance-related paid search ad clicks are from Bing.

Google Ads

Google Ads is Google’s online advertising platform. It consists of two ad networks:
 Search Network: Ads appear in search engine results when people search for particular keywords on Google.
Google Network: Ads appear to users as they browse more than 2 million sites across the Google Network.
 Other major differences between Google ads vs Bing are based upon the following
factors:-
1. Reach
2. Demographics
3. Targeting
4. Budget
5. Cost per click
6. Click-through rate
7. Conversion rate
8. Display URL                                                                                                                                                                       9. Average position

Now let’s have a look at all these factors in detail.

Reach – Reach is a critical component of online marketing. It lets you reach your audience. It is an important aspect of your business otherwise people won’t be able to find you. Which means they won’t buy your products or services. This can impact the company’s overall profitability. When it comes to reaching particularly in the USA, Google Ads takes the lead. This platform’s Display and Search Network both offer access to a broad audience. With the display network, you can reach 90% of online users.
 Meanwhile, the search network gets a boost because of the search engine claimed by Google – it owns 76%, while Bing captures only 5%. However, with Bing, you can reach 53 million desktop searches in comparison to Google. Your audience may influence your ad budget expenditure. Overall, in comparison between Bing ads vs Google ads, if you want the best reach, Google Ads is the place to go.

Demographics: The features of your audience also matter when advertising online. Here are some important facts to note about the Bing user demographics:
 a) 85% of people who use Bing are in the US.
b) More than 70% of users are of the 35+ age group.
 c) 46% of users are married.
d) Earning a higher income, generally above $100,000 (33%). Meanwhile, Google users are usually younger than Bing users. Google encompasses a massive audience that spends nearly 12 minutes every day. 80% of companies focus on Google Ads for their PPC strategy.  In case your audience is married, earns an income greater than $100,000, and is between 35-54 years of age, then Bing is an excellent choice for your campaign. Companies with audiences outside those demographics may want to use Google Ads.

Targeting: Similar to demographics, ad targeting can help your business reach your target customers with success. In Google Ads, you can use audience and content targeting. The audience target includes Demographics, Affinity, In-market, Custom intent, Similar audiences, and Remarketing. Whereas content targeting offers options like the topic, placement, keywords, and display expansion for search. In the comparison of Google Ads vs Bing, the latter provides features like In-market, LinkedIn profile, custom audiences, keywords, location, day of the week, time of the day, gender, age, device, and remarketing. Despite more targeting options in Google Ads, Bing does offer an advantage. For example, you can use the platform’s LinkedIn profile targeting option, which is very useful in practicing account-based marketing. Again, though, when it comes to Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads, Google Ads tend to win.

Budget: Budget is another crucial factor in the Bing vs Google Ads debate. What Bing lacks in volume, certainly makes up in performance. Although the budget fluctuates by industry and every single advertiser. As per research, Bing Ads’ cost per click has very less competition for advertisers bidding. So clicks are cheaper, and advertisers get more for their dollar. According to many reports, CPC averages $7.99 on Bing Ads and $20.08 on Google AdWords. The average cost-per-click on Bing Ads can be up to 70% lower compared to Google AdWords, but that does not mean your ad campaigns will generate the same results. While your company may spend less, you may also earn less and vice-versa. If unqualified leads click on your ads, that doesn’t help your business reach its goals of acquiring a new client and generating a few more online sales. You want to consider cost when debating Google Ads vs Bing Ads, but don’t make price the deciding factor. Look at the performance and return of your ad campaigns to find out which platform offers the best results. Fortunately, since competition is lower on Bing, it is easier to get the traffic at a low cost, resulting in a better Return on investment.

Cost per click: While searching for ad rates, you also want to search for the average cost per click (CPC) in our debate of Bing Ads vs Google Ads. In online marketing, CPC is the amount of money you pay when someone clicks on your ad versus when they see your ad or act on your ad.

You might wonder what the average CPC is for Bing Ads and Google Ads. The average CPC for Bing ads is $1.54 and Google Ads is $1 to $2. Bing Ads promotes a lower cost, which may seem exciting for a small budget but the traffic quality is also lower, so advertisers end up paying more for conversion than they do on Google AdWords. In the end, you aren’t saving any money, you are wasting it. That’s why your business must consider the performance of your ads and experiment with different ad platforms, like Google and Bing.
Click-through rate (CTR): As you look at the performance of your ads, you’re going to look click-through rate (CTR). Your CTR (formatted as a percentage) describes how many users click on your ad compared to how many users see your ad.