There are seemingly countless ways that e-commerce brands can drive traffic to their site and increase sales numbers. From social media marketing to Google search campaigns, e-commerce entrepreneurs must choose carefully to find options that fit their budget and deliver a sound return on investment.
In the midst of all these choices, however, it seems that far too many marketers are overlooking Bing Shopping Ads. Though Bing may only capture about 25 percent of online searches in the United States, it still serves as a potentially valuable resource that can deliver big results for your e-commerce shop — here’s why:
1) Easy Setup
One of the best reasons to use Bing?
Though you can create your own custom catalogue for audience targeting, Bing’s remarkably user-friendly setup process makes it easy to coordinate campaigns across Bing and Google.
Melissa Orellana of KlientBoost says, “You’re able to upload your Google Shopping feed straight into your Bing Merchant Center. Doing this saves some valuable time and effort because you’re managing one feed file for both Google and Bing instead of two separate files.
“You are also able to sync your Google Merchant Center product offers with your Bing Merchant Center to keep your feed up to date. This can be done manually or set up to update at scheduled times.”
This setup process allows you to run your Google Ads campaigns on Bing with little effort.
2) Low CPC
Because there tends to be less competition on Bing than you’d find with Google Ads, campaign costs tend to be much lower — particularly with the cost per click (CPC).
This trend has been supported across multiple case studies. For certain industries, average CPCs were over 59 percent less expensive on Bing than Google. These lower costs also make it easier to win the bidding war and get your ads in one of the top positions in search results.
Essentially, you can get more for less as you snag better ad placements for lower prices, helping you save big on your campaigns.
3) Higher-Income Audiences
As you might expect, Bing’s user demographics don’t exactly line up with Google’s.
Bing’s demographics skew older and wealthier, with close to 40 percent of users being between age 35 and 54, and over 33 percent having a household income greater than $100,000.
As a result of these demographic trends, Bing reports that its desktop users spend “32 percent more online when shopping” when compared to average internet users. The overall audience size may be smaller on Bing, but the likelihood of finding someone willing to pay for your product or service is notably greater.
4) Device Targeting
Though Google is often lauded for its advanced targeting metrics, one area where Bing has established the upper hand is in device targeting. Bing Ads allow you to adjust campaign targeting for desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets so you can reach consumers on the devices where they are most likely to take desired actions.
This allows you to primarily focus on one type of device, or to eliminate certain devices from your campaigns altogether. Further customization allows you to fine-tune these settings based on time, location, and demographic factors.
By continually adjusting your bidding with device targeting, you can save money by ensuring that your ad spend is going to the devices that deliver the best return on investment.
5) Additional Targeting Options
Device targeting isn’t the only area where Bing Ads allow for greater campaign customization. As Stephanie Mialki explains, “Bing offers more granular targeting at the ad group level.
“While Google allows advertisers to set their network, location, language, ad scheduling, and ad rotation settings at the campaign level, the ad groups remain limited to their campaign-level settings.
“Bing Ads, on the other hand, allows for adjustments to be made at the ad group level as well. Bing also enables advertisers to assign different ad campaigns to different time zones — a function that AdWords doesn’t offer.”
This even extends to specific bid adjustments based on a user’s gender, age, or location. With greater control over ad group delivery, you can ensure that your marketing dollars won’t go to waste.
6) Wider Reach Than You’d Think
Running a Bing Shopping campaign won’t just get your ads to show up on Bing searches. Microsoft has also engaged in partnerships with AOL and Yahoo, in which search results on these platforms are now powered by Bing.
This partnership also applies to advertising content.
In other words, your Bing ads have the potential to reach consumers on three different platforms for the price of one. This can significantly expand your reach, as Yahoo and AOL also rank in the top five of the most popular global search engine platforms.
Building Something Bigger With Bing
Should Bing Shopping become the be-all end-all of your e-commerce marketing campaigns?
Probably not, but you shouldn’t be ignoring it, either.
As you incorporate Bing Shopping Ads into a multifaceted marketing strategy, you’ll be able to reach more of your target audience than ever before, increasing total sales and ensuring better results for your online store.
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