Acceptance of Circumstances, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, Bing Ads, Google Ads, online advertising, paid search, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

Why Run Microsoft Bing Ads?

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March 2025 Update To Previously Published Blog Post:

You can find some information at the bottom of this post about the cost-per-click and click-thru rate we experienced related to running Microsoft Bing Ads for our own company, and we’ve been running Bing Ads now for a number of months for one our clients, and they also achieved an impressive cost-per-click related to their SEM (Search Engine Marketing) ads on Bing. While we continue to run one campaign for the client in-question on Bing, we paused a number of their campaigns recently. Why? Because while the cost-per-click was far cheaper than it was for Google Search Ads, the ads did not “convert” well, i.e., Bing ad clickers who visited the client’s website did not take desired actions such as e-mailing, calling, or submitting an inquiry form nearly as much as Google Ads clickers did. This ultimately meant that the cost-per-conversion was far higher for Bing Ads than it was for Google Ads, even though the cost-per-click was far lower. We can’t say or predict if this would be the case for another client or advertiser.

Why Microsoft Bing Search Ads Might Have A Higher Cost-Per-Conversion Than Google Search Ads

Our theory for why the Microsoft Bing Ads achieved a much higher cost-per-conversion than Google Ads is this. We believe that, because far fewer people use Microsoft Bing’s search-engine tool to complete a relevant search in relevant geographies, Bing takes greater liberties related to the search terms for which it will serve up an advertiser’s ads. While, as with all search engine marketing/paid search ads, you provide Microsoft Bing with keywords — both positive ones (ones you want ads served up for) and negative ones (ones you don’t want ads served up for) — and you can also use “phrase match” keywords to add further limitations to which search terms Bing can serve up your ads, we still found Bing taking far too many liberties. Therefore, ads were being served up to people who weren’t the right fit, and some of those “wrong fits” were clicking on the ads. But, of course, because they weren’t the right fit for our client’s products and services, they weren’t taking any kind of inquiry type action on the site.

Original Post:

Recently, we’ve been hearing more about organizations running paid search ads on Bing. And, more clients are interested in employing them to see how effective they are in creating awareness, generating leads, and causing sales of products or engagements for services. Here’s some of the reasons why Microsoft Bing Search Advertising is suddenly becoming hot:

  • if available data is accurate, there’s been a recent uptick as of the time of this blog post (June 2024) in the % of search-engine users who are using Bing vs. other search engines like Google
  • searchers using Bing’s search engine skew older, and therefore, may have higher incomes — ultimately, making them more likely to make a purchase
  • Bing searchers tend to be more mission-driven and are using Bing’s search-engine to really hone in on information that will answer their question(s) or allow them to complete a desire action — ultimately, leading to a strong ad click-thru rate. And, since they tend to spend a longer amount of time on the websites they visit as a result of conducting a search, they tend to “convert” better
  • since to-date, far fewer advertisers advertise on Bing vs. Google, there’s less competition to have ads shown to searchers on relevant search terms who meet other targeting criteria, such as geography
  • cost-per-click paid for search ads on Bing vs. Google tends to be significantly lower (we’re talking 50% or more), which means an advertiser’s budget goes much further
  • as with Google Search ads, whose ads appear on Partner sites, such as YouTube, Bing ads can appear on Yahoo and LinkedIn

Our Boston SEO Company Now Offers Microsoft Bing Advertising

As part of our overall, and paid SEO services, effective June 2024, our Boston digital marketing agency and SEO Company is offering Microsoft Bing search advertising services to existing and new clients. As a component of the SEM (Search Engine Marketing/paid search) portion of an overall SEO strategy, these ads can either complement current and planned Google Ads, or be used as the primary/only form of paid search advertising.

With over 15 years of experience related to Google Search advertising, we’ve got lots of very relevant experience related to search marketing, and we can help you import existing Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Bing’s advertising tool.

This image has a pale green background to reflect the color that Microsoft Advertising uses in their branding in keeping with the following image message "Our Boston SEO Company & Digital Marketing Agency Is Pleased To Announce That We Are Now Offering Microsoft Bing Ads Advertising Services (In Addition To The Google Ads Services We've Offered For 10+ Years." The image also contains the logo of our Boston SEO Company and Digital Marketing Agency, Results Communications and Research

Reach Out Today To Get Your Microsoft Bing Ad Campaign Going!

As we pointed out above, it’s easy to import an existing Google Ads campaign into Bing, so you don’t have to recreate the wheel if you decide you want to run identical search campaigns on both Google and Bing simultaneously. Reach out today and our team of SEO experts will be glad to get you started on reaping the benefits of advertising on Microsoft Bing!

Bing Ads Deliver Strong Results

July 9 2024 Update: To test the waters and get to know the Bing Ads manager tool better, we ran Bing Ads for our own business. We were very pleased with the following Bing Ads KPIs (key performance indicators):

  • Very strong click-thru rate (CTR): during our 8-day pilot, our ads generated a very strong CTR of 24.68%. We checked the search terms report which shows the actual terms that someone entered in Bing for which ads were served up, and we were pleased with the search terms we were seeing.
  • Extremely reasonable cost-per-click: just 22 cents! Far lower than what we experienced when we ran Google Ads for our business and extremely favorable for B2B (business-to-business) services advertising.

While to-date, we haven’t generated any leads — inquiries or sales — from the ads (unfortunately, we believe a lot of competitors search on relevant terms to see what their competition is doing, and then, click on our ads), we like to practice what we preach about landing pages, so the ads caused us to revisit our SEO services ads landing page to make sure it was more effective!

Acceptance of Circumstances, Being Found on Google, Google Ads, Google Nonprofit Ad Grant, keywords, paid search, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM, SEO, Setting Marketing Budget, target audiences, Target Marketing, website

Will Google Search Ads Work For My Organization? You Won’t Know Unless You Try.

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As I write this blog post, my favorite sports team, the Boston Celtics, will soon face game 3 of the NBA World Championships, which ties in nicely with this post’s subject, and one of my favorite quotes, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” The author is unknown because this quote has been attributed to a variety of sports players, but it’s a very thought-provoking one and one that applies far beyond a playing field or arena.

Knowing that it’s one of my specialties, prospective or existing clients regularly ask me if they should run Google Ads, how much they should spend, and how much will they will pay per ad click. We addressed in a previous post the topic of Google Ads budget-setting and the challenges with being able to identify up front what your particular organization’s cost-per-click will look like — so we don’t plan to revisit them here. This blog post, therefore, is going to focus on the remaining and more high-level question, i.e., “should I run Google search advertising?”

Since we’ve already written numerous blog posts on the topic of when and why to run Google Ads, we’re going to focus on the concept we shared at the beginning of this blog post. If you’re in a hurry to rank well in Google search results in the geographies you serve for relevant, desirable search terms (known as keywords) used by your target audiences and/or key competitors are all running Google Ads, plus keyword research has shown that your target audiences are actively searching to identify an organization that offers the products, services, and solutions you offer, then we say, “go for it!” when it comes to Google search ads.

Because as the title of this blog post points out, you won’t know if you don’t try, and you can’t win at a game you never even tried to play. Neither I nor any other digital marketing agency owner or marketing consultant have a crystal ball. We can’t say with 100% certainty that Google Ads will be effective in generating the level of awareness, leads, or sales for your organization that you hope it will. But, we can say if the circumstances outlined in the paragraph above this one apply, it’s likely the ads will contribute to your organization’s success, particularly if you have a strong website landing page for ad clickers to land on!

Image has a green background in keeping with it being NBA playoff season and our favorite team, the Boston Celtics whose key color is green playing in them. The image says "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" and indicates author unknown. It has the image at dusk with a beautiful sunset in the background throwing up a basketball into a net. We don't know if the ball went into the net or not but it is close to being in the basket. This image is shared by our boston digital marketing agency related to testing and trying Google Ads to see if they work for you.

Need A Google Ads Coach?

You’ve come to the right place. Our Principal has been involved with Google Ads campaigns for a very diverse set of for-profit and non-profit organizations (including ones who have obtained a Google Nonprofit Ad Grant) for at least 15 years. We know what questions to ask you, and the inputs required, for us to set-up, monitor, analyze, and report on Google Ads for your organization. While this blog post focused on Google Search advertising, since the majority of the Google Ads campaigns we run are related to ranking well in Google Search results because of our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expertise, we also have sizeable experience in executing and optimizing Google Display campaigns.

Reach out today to our Boston SEO company to schedule a complimentary discussion about employing Google Ads as part of your marketing mix!

walking

Getting To Know A Neighboring State: Our 2024 Quest To Experience & Enjoy The Less-Touristy Parts Of Rhode Island

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Regular readers of our blog know we regularly include — among our series of blog posts about marketing — a blog post about walking, and since every day trip we, or most people take, involves quite a bit of walking (particularly if you like to check out parks and trails wherever you go, like we do), we thought it made great sense — and would make for some good fun — to document and share our adventures related to getting to know Rhode Island, which definitely included miles of walking!

My husband and I have often found day trips to be as fun, exciting, adventurous, and informative as a week or more away someplace. And, of course, it’s cheaper because you don’t have lodging expenses. Plus, if you have a pet, you don’t have to arrange for many days of care while you’re away, take steps to have your mail stopped, pack clothing and other necessities for a week, etc. You get the picture!

Sure, we may do an overnight trip at some point this summer or fall, but right now, we’re just enjoying chipping away at achieving our goal of getting to know the fellow New England state of Rhode Island better since we have quick, easy access to it from our home state of Massachusetts. We’ve already completed two day trips to areas either officially considered on the “Farm Coast” of RI or that allow you to enjoy the beauty of the country and water simultaneously. Hey, what’s not to love about the dual joys of experiencing being by the water at the same time as being in the country, right? There may not be as many places to shop or eat as there is on Martha’s Vineyard (a favorite place of ours for a day or an overnight trip), but being on Rhode Island’s Farm Coast gave me the same joyous feeling! For years, we’ve also always loved a day trip to the Town Farm in Westport Massachusetts, which some include when they reference “Farm Coast New England.”

Keep coming back to learn about our visits, as I’ll be documenting each one here. For now, I’m starting with the two that are already under our belts — Tiverton/Little Compton and North Kingstown/Jamestown areas, including Wickford Village.

Tiverton/Little Compton

A New England “Chronicle” segment on the above area ignited a desire to check this area out, particularly since they mentioned that in this area of Rhode Island, a mecca could be found for Francophiles in the properties owned by Groundswell in the “Four Corners” area of Tiverton. And, I consider myself one, having lived in France my senior year in college, plus graduating with a B.A. in French from UCONN. The cafe, home & garden, and table & provisions properties did not disappoint! We also enjoyed visiting the long-standing cheese store diagonally up the street a bit (there may have been some tasting of Triple Creme cheese and raspberry-lemon home-made cupcakes!) and checking out some of the other quaint shops in the area.

As with every usual day trip, eating and shopping was combined with visits to local bodies of water, wooded walking trails, parks, farms, museums, historic houses, and/or nature conservatories. We were in our glory spending time walking along the beach at Fogland Beach, as well as just admiring the beach and water’s beauty while plopped at a picnic table at the beach. We also checked out and admired other breath-taking nature along the way. And, then, ended our day with yummy seafood at a restaurant on the edge of Tiverton — officially in Portsmouth — with very friendly wait staff.

North Kingstown/Jamestown

My husband and I enjoyed another fabulous day trip from our home in Braintree (on Boston’s South Shore) to the beautiful Rhode Island locations listed in the header above.

In North Kingstown, we visited the very fun and festive area of Wickford Village. A fun fact — it’s a mecca for kayakers because of it’s Kayak Centre which provides a variety of kayaking equipment and gear, but also opportunities to take group kayaking classes and tours. In addition to the fabulous Kayak Centre, it makes sense Wickford Village would be a mecca for kayakers since, per the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “Wickford Harbor is located in the Wickford section of North Kingstown in western Narragansett Bay, about two miles southwest of Quonset Point and 17 miles south of Providence. Wickford Harbor consists of an outer harbor and three small coves — Wickford Cove, Fishing Cove, and Mill Cove.”

We had fun watching kayakers enjoy their time on the water while we ate our delicious lunch on the back patio at Wickford On The Water. As eaters who enjoy fresh produce, we were thrilled this restaurant had so many healthy options to choose from for lunch/brunch. I highly recommend the Vegan bowl!

After our yummy brunch, we strolled Wickford Village’s main streets to check out old sea captains’ homes — they were just gorgeous, and this was one of my favorite parts of the visit because I love anything “old” or that has to do with history.

We left Wickford Village vowing to return for dinner (which we did, and had a delicious seafood meal at Tavern By The Sea) because in keeping with my above statement about my husband and I being history buffs, we are members of Historic New England and wanted to attend a special event at Watson Farm in Jamestown. We love a good property that offers the benefits of both being in the country/a farm, plus on the water. It was so nice just walking the fields/pastures at this property, seeing the cows, and most importantly watching kids fly kites — what’s not to love about kids laughing, smiling, and having fun in the great outdoors, right?

And, as an added, unplanned bonus to the day, we spent some time before returning to Wickford Village (after visiting Watson Farm) at the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum in Jamestown. Such gorgeous views in all directions (just don’t stand too close to the edge of the cliffs!), and I smiled at the fact that the porta-potties on the property looked like small individual cottages!

I definitely expect that we will return to Wickford Village, Beavertail Lighthouse Museum, and Watson Farm in 2025, if not before!

Pawtucket, Warwick, and Cranston

Check out the second in our series of blog posts related to our RI day trips to learn about our visit to the above three areas, plus other parts of the Ocean State!