Let Me Bing That For You

Bing is an afterthought for many advertisers, but it definitely has its place. And yes, Bing Ads rebranded to Microsoft Advertising, but I’ll probably think of it as Bing for years.

Bing will look suspiciously familiar to anyone that’s used ye olden AdWords interface. This is no coincidence. Microsoft made it as easy as possible to use Bing. This may sound like a joke, but it’s not: you can actually log in to Bing with your Google account and import your campaigns directly from Google Ads, without the messy spreadsheet export/import dance!

Bing has a few things going for it. Its user base is disproportionately older and wealthier. While some Google-avoiders almost certainly use Bing, I believe that its main audience is Microsoft devotees and people that don’t know how to change their browser’s default search engine. If you’re looking to advertise a considered purchase with a longer buying cycle, the Bing audience might be a better bet than the Google audience.

But, Bing has its fair share of downsides. While Microsoft makes it as easy as possible to replicate your AdWords success, Bing is still a different system, and its logistical hoops take some time to jump through. Google Analytics doesn’t do the goal-import handshake with Bing, so you’ll have to place the Bing pixel and recreate your conversion actions. And for those of us that are addicted to our engagement metrics, not having average session durations and pages per session and such readily available within the ad engine is a disappointment. There is far less search volume than on Google Ads, so the amount of opportunity available often isn’t enough to tempt advertisers away from Google.

Regardless, I do recommend Bing for advertisers that are challenged by diminishing returns in Google Ads.