When running a pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign, most businesses overlook Bing ads as an option. Of course, Google is considered the king of search engines, so having ads served by Google is the obvious way to go. However, what those businesses don’t know is that there are benefits to taking a different path or further diversifying a PPC campaign by using Bing ads. As both a search engine and an advertising platform, Bing has made great strides in recent years to appeal to businesses and marketing companies. In fact, Bing, in many ways, is ahead of Google when it comes to allowing advertisers to tailor ads to their audience.

Benefits of Using Bing Ads

Bing was the first platform to facilitate a function that gave advertisers more control over geo-targeting different locations across the world based on time zones. This function includes options for scheduling, rotation and language, which the advertiser could adjust at an ad group level. For advertisers, that means the ability to change the settings of each group within a campaign without having to create an entirely new campaign for each language, time zone or ad rotation.

More Transparency with Bing Ads

There is more transparency with Bing, as it allows you as the advertiser to see exactly where your traffic is coming from. Reports are available that will show you whether the traffic is coming from Bing, Yahoo or any partner groups. These reports are extremely beneficial for a PPC campaign, search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, and improving digital ad strategy. Targeting is more effective when the advertiser knows from where traffic originates. Better still, you can use the reports to identify and opt out of individual partner sites.

Greater Flexibility with Bing Ads

Bing is effectively attempting to provide advertisers with as much flexibility as possible. Using Bing ads, advertisers can tailor ad groups or campaigns to target a particular demographic, such as small business owners or healthcare providers. This kind of control over audience segmentation is a marketer’s dream. The platform is designed to make ad targeting as effective as possible in reaching your target audience, without blowing the budget.

Bing’s Mobile Advantages

Bing allows you to target your ads by two categories of devices, desktop and tablet, or mobile. However, Bing does add an additional option that you won’t find in Google Adwords – the ability to have bid-modifier settings specifically for tablets, as well as mobile phones.

Less Competition on Bing

Lastly, there is much less competition using Bing ads. Advertisers can get much higher click-through rates for competitive keywords or phrases. What’s more, the cost per click (CPC) on Bing ads is much lower. For small to medium businesses especially, Bing is a great platform for marketing campaigns on a tight budget. Either way, Bing ads are worth a look at the very least.

As you’re developing your digital marketing strategy, don’t overlook Bing. Google may be the giant, but that isn’t always a positive when it comes to online marketing and a PPC campaign. Consider the advantages of placing online text ads on Bing in addition to Google to grow your ROI.