Two thirds of respondents to a June 2009 Practical eCommerce survey said they were either using or would use Microsoft’s Bing search engine for pay-per-click advertising, and an additional 25.3 percent said they would consider Bing.
Altogether, some 92 percent of survey respondents said they were either already using Bing, planned to try Bing, or would consider Bing for their PPC campaigns. Even some ecommerce businesses that are not currently using PPC advertising said they would consider PPC with Bing.
The colorful Bing search engine has been attracting a lot of PPC attention of late. Microsoft has supported Bing with an extensive advertising campaign, PPC professionals have reported better conversion rates with Bing, and a leading trend tracking firm, comScore, reported that Bing had boosted Microsoft’s search share.
Bing is Healthy Competition for Google
A majority of those surveyed also believed that it was good that Google, the clear leader in search engine PPC advertising, had some competition. All told, 86.7 percent of respondents believed that Google needed a stronger competitor, and 22.7 percent of those responding went as far as to say that Google was becoming a monopoly.
Those who did not believe that Google needed a competitor said that Google simply provided better results or better return on investment.
Microsoft Promotion Could Be Having An Effect
According to “Advertising Age,” Microsoft plans to invest $80 million in Bing advertising this year, potentially driving herds of web searchers to the attractive search engine. This massive promotional campaign may be one of the reasons that Microsoft’s share of the Internet search results pages grew 2 percent in just the search engine’s first full week in operation.
“These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft’s position in the search market,” said Mike Hurt, comScore senior vice president, in June 2009. “So far, it appears that the lifts in searcher penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period. The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users. It appears it is off to a good start.”
PPC Important for Ecommerce Marketing
The Practical eCommerce survey also asked respondents about their PPC advertising usage. Some 77.3 percent of those surveyed actively used PPC advertising as part of their ecommerce marketing campaigns.
More than one third of those that responded to the survey spent less than $100 per month on PPC advertising.