How does a business decide to run ads on Microsoft versus Google? A few key factors can help you make the best decision on where to put your advertising dollars--based on your industry, goals, and audience.

Advertising on Bing vs. Google - What’s the Difference?

With 91% of the global search market share, Google tends to be top of mind for most advertisers when considering advertising platforms.

Microsoft Bing is a much smaller player, but still takes the spot as the second largest leader in search. Bing Ads, recently rebranded as Microsoft Advertising, serves its search ads on Bing, AOL, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and search partners like MSN.com.

Google and Microsoft differ in the following advertising metrics:

• User-profiles and targeting options

• Cost-per-click (CPC)

• Competition

• Search volume

Therefore, the search engine and display network you choose to run ads on may vary depending on what you are selling, the demographics of your company’s top purchasers, and targeting options that will determine future success.

What Makes Google Ads Distinct?

Audience

The typical audience profile of a Google user is younger, college-educated, and tech-savvy.

Google has such a large audience that they are a good advertising platform for most businesses. A few specific areas of business we’ve seen find success on Google Ads are insurance, education, travel and e-commerce sites.

Search Volume

One of the biggest advantages of Google is the volume of searches--Google receives 3.5 billion searches a day.

That is a massive audience to introduce your product or service to and potentially gain a new customer in the process.

Google Display Network

On Google display, ads are shown through their Google Display Network, or GDN. GDN includes sites such as:

• YouTube

• Gmail

• Google Finance

• Blogger

• Related Mobile Sites and Apps

Once a customer has visited your site they can be remarketed to, which is often done through these display ads.

Google also owns YouTube, allowing advertisers to run and manage video ads through the same platform that search and display ads are managed on.

Video advertising through Google Ads on YouTube is a big advantage over Microsoft, which also offers video ads through their display network. Still, the reach is nowhere near that of YouTube ads.

YouTube has over 2 billion users a month, and over 1 billion hours of video are watched every day. Reaching these users through the GDN is an engaging way to retarget site visitors and remind them of who you are and what you sell.

 

What Makes Microsoft Advertising Distinct?

Audience and Targeting

A Microsoft user is often older, has a higher average household income, and is more likely to be a business professional.

Based on this demographic, Microsoft Advertising tends to be best for B2B businesses. 

Microsoft ads also have in-depth ad targeting through their partnership with LinkedIn, helping businesses reach specific industries and professions.

This targeting allows advertisers to target users based on:

• Company

• Job function

• Industry

These additional targeting options are great for B2B advertisers who want to serve ads to job-specific decision makers in their industry.

Competition and Cost

Competition and cost are two areas that set Microsoft apart from Google--the platform has far less competition, which drives down CPCs.

While it’s less expensive to advertise, the downside is the lower search volume and reach. Because competition is lower, however,  it may be easier to reach a high impression share or share of voice at a lower cost than on Google.

Which Platform is Best for your Business?

After learning about the distinctions between advertising on Bing vs. Google, you may be wondering which platform is right for your business. The answer could be Google, Microsoft, or a combination of both.

In fact, there is a lot of overlap in advertising features between the platforms. Google is typically the first to introduce new ad types or technology, but Microsoft trails close behind in adding those features to their own platform.

These similarities in features make it easier to run ads on both platforms simultaneously. Plus, it’s even easier when you import your Google campaigns into your Microsoft account.

Both platforms have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Google is great because they have a large and diverse market share, high daily search volume, and simple yet sophisticated campaign management.

And while Microsoft has less traffic, it also has decreased competition and lower CPCs, making it less expensive of a platform to advertise on.

We encourage you to look at your business’s industry, audience, and goals when determining the best advertising platform and SEM strategy. Plus, partnering with an agency to manage your campaigns can drive conversion rates while decreasing costs.

About the author: Rachel is a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate hailing from the great state of Nebraska. She\'s a world traveler who\'s been to 25 (!) countries, but would live in Sweden if she had to choose. If she wasn\'t at Perfect Search, Rachel would be an architect on some small island in Greece, living out her Mamma Mia fantasy.