It’s a shame that many advertisers overlook Bing. Although it started off small, Microsoft’s search engine has continued to grow in Google’s shadow and now, according to ComScore, Bing and its partners make up a combined 35.6% of the US desktop search market!
Thanks to its native integration in Microsoft products like Office, Skype and Xbox, as well as Bing being the preferred search engine of many voice search agents, nearly half of the US population uses Bing every month. In addition to reaching all these billions of searches happening on Bing, data shows that simply by advertising on Bing, you’ll notice more people searching for your brand and products on Google as well!
Although many advertisers may look to Bing simply to expand the reach of their existing Google campaigns, Bing Ads has a few unique advantages to Google AdWords that dedicated SEMs can take advantage of. Additionally, just like on AdWords, performance can differ across different industries on Bing – making it extra lucrative for certain advertisers.
How does your Bing Ads performance stack against the industry benchmarks? We dug into our data to find out! Check out the Bing Ad performance benchmarks our clients are seeing, including:
- Average Click-Through Rate (CTR) on Bing by industry
- Average Cost per Click (CPC) on Bing by industry
- Average Conversion Rate (CVR) on Bing by industry
- Average Cost per Action (CPA) on Bing by industry
You’ll find averages across these Bing Ads metrics for eighteen industries: Apparel & Accessories, Auto, B2B Services, Consumer Services, Careers & Employment, Consumer Electronics, Education, Finance & Insurance, Health & Wellness, Home & Garden, Home Improvement & Repair, Home Services, Legal, Real Estate, Restaurants & Food, Retail, Technology, and Travel & Hospitality.
Average Click-Through Rate on Bing by Industry
The average click through rate on Bing across all industries is 2.83%.
Bing’s average CTR is about 50% higher than what we see on AdWords, and every industry had a higher average CTR than what we saw on Google. This may be in part since Bing’s expanded text ads boast a much higher CTR than those on AdWords.
Bing may be the best network for those offering Employment or Career services, boasting an impressive 3.53% average CTR. These advertisers have the worst average CTR on Facebook (0.47%). Bing (and Microsoft’s recently acquired LinkedIn) may prove to be the ideal market for many B2B advertisers, boasting very high CTRs within that industry as well (3.01%). Other ads with strong CTRs on the Bing SERP are in the Finance & Insurance (3.51%), Apparel & Accessories (3.33%), and Retail (3.06%) verticals.
More personal industries like B2C Services and Real Estate yield more modest results from Bing, with CTRs averaging just above 2% (2.12% and 2.20%, respectively).
| Industry | Average CTR |
|---|---|
| Apparel & Accessories | 3.33% |
| Automotive | 2.34% |
| B2B Services | 3.01% |
| B2C Services | 2.12% |
| Careers & Employment | 3.53% |
| Consumer Electronics | 2.88% |
| Education | 2.37% |
| Finance & Insurance | 3.51% |
| Health & Wellness | 2.90% |
| Home & Garden | 2.70% |
| Home Improvement | 2.92% |
| Home Services | 2.55% |
| Legal Services | 2.84% |
| Real Estate | 2.20% |
| Restaurants & Food | 2.60% |
| Retail | 3.06% |
| Technology | 2.40% |
| Travel & Hospitality | 2.83% |
Average Cost Per Click on Bing by Industry
The average cost per click on Bing across all industries is $1.54.
Bing’s average CPC is 33% lower than what we see on AdWords. The few advertisers that are on Bing take advantage of a much less competitive ad auction, which helps keep CPCs low in most industries. Bing also still serves ads in the right hand rail of the SERP, unlike Google, which gives it more room to show ads from advertisers with lower bids.
Even in expensive and typically highly competitive industries like Legal, advertisers still get a bargain on Bing with a low $1.42 CPC, despite the fact that keywords like “Lawyer” and “Attorney” find themselves as the most expensive keywords on Bing.
Interestingly, Bing’s traffic is oftentimes more expensive for retail advertisers than that on Google. Retail advertisers’ average cost per click is $1.24 on Bing but less than a dollar on Google. This may be in large part to Google continuing to expand its low-cost shopping ads at the expense of its traditional search ads.
| Industry | Average CPC (USD) |
|---|---|
| Apparel & Accessories | $0.91 |
| Automotive | $2.52 |
| B2B Services | $1.16 |
| B2C Services | $1.78 |
| Careers & Employment | $0.75 |
| Consumer Electronics | $1.22 |
| Education | $2.79 |
| Finance & Insurance | $1.82 |
| Health & Wellness | $1.70 |
| Home & Garden | $1.01 |
| Home Improvement | $2.54 |
| Home Services | $1.50 |
| Legal Services | $1.42 |
| Real Estate | $2.88 |
| Restaurants & Food | $1.69 |
| Retail | $1.24 |
| Technology | $1.95 |
| Travel & Hospitality | $1.17 |
Average Conversion Rates on Bing by Industry
The average conversion rate on Bing across all industries is 2.94%.
Bing’s average CVR is slightly better than what we see on AdWords, but that varies a lot from industry to industry. Bing’s audience is different than that of Google’s, and how people search on Bing is different as well. For example, whereas the majority of searches occurring on Google are mobile, Bing still attracts many more desktop searches.
These differences make Bing a big opportunity for many industries with longer sales cycles, such as Careers & Employment, Finance & Insurances, and Real Estate, all of which boast Bing’s highest average conversion rates (at 6.81%, 5.57%, and 5.13%, respectively).
Although Travel advertisers may notice a relatively low CVR on Bing (1.58%), they also may receive more clicks than other industries since Bing commands an impressive 41% of all travel paid clicks in the US. The extra volume of paid clicks helps to offset their relatively mediocre conversion rates.
| Industry | Average Conversion Rate |
|---|---|
| Apparel & Accessories | 2.88% |
| Automotive | 1.62% |
| B2B Services | 2.64% |
| B2C Services | 4.80% |
| Careers & Employment | 6.81% |
| Consumer Electronics | 3.01% |
| Education | 3.55% |
| Finance & Insurance | 5.57% |
| Health & Wellness | 2.55% |
| Home & Garden | 2.54% |
| Home Improvement | 2.78% |
| Home Services | 3.36% |
| Legal Services | 3.58% |
| Real Estate | 5.13% |
| Restaurants & Food | 4.42% |
| Retail | 2.65% |
| Technology | 2.04% |
| Travel & Hospitality | 1.58% |
Average Cost Per Action on Bing by Industry
The average CPA on Facebook across all industries is $41.44.
Bing’s average CPA is about 30% lower than what AdWords customers average. This is in large part due to Bing’s relatively cheap CPC. Whereas most advertisers enjoy cheaper conversions on Bing, most still get far more from Google.
Clients advertising popular home services see the greatest return on Bing, with an average CPA of $21.68. Bing’s audience is typically older, more educated, and more affluent than Google’s, which of course helps many high-value industries convert searchers on Bing.
However, Bing’s audience isn’t perfect for everyone. Bing’s older audience is oftentimes less tech-savvy, and advertisers in the Tech space often yield the higher CPAs on Bing Ads.
| Industry | Average CPA (USD) |
|---|---|
| Apparel & Accessories | $25.16 |
| Automotive | $34.40 |
| B2B Services | $54.13 |
| B2C Services | $47.18 |
| Careers & Employment | $23.71 |
| Consumer Electronics | $39.85 |
| Education | $45.90 |
| Finance & Insurance | $37.30 |
| Health & Wellness | $42.47 |
| Home & Garden | $33.57 |
| Home Improvement | $84.85 |
| Home Services | $21.68 |
| Legal Services | $56.99 |
| Real Estate | $29.40 |
| Restaurants & Food | $26.14 |
| Retail | $30.25 |
| Technology | $102.94 |
| Travel & Hospitality | $73.15 |
What Does It All Mean?
Bing Ads often surprises many advertisers with very strong performance. Certainly, Bing doesn’t offer the same reach as Google and Facebook, but no ad platform is perfect. In fact, a complete marketing strategy should include multiple ad campaigns across different networks, since your prospective customers search for information on many different sites.
If you find yourself on the lower end of these numbers, that just means there’s plenty of room for improvement! To learn how to improve your ads on Bing, visit PPC University or call us to speak with a Bing expert today. WordStream customers can learn how to easily expand their AdWords accounts to Bing here.
Check out the full infographic below:
Data Sources:
This report is based on a sample of 1,242 US-based WordStream client accounts in all verticals (representing $6 million in aggregate Bing Ads spend) who were advertising on Bing Ads between July and September 2017. Average figures are median figures to account for outliers. All currency values are posted in USD.
About the author:
Mark is a Senior Data Scientist at WordStream, focused on research and training for the everchanging world of PPC. He was named the 5th Most Influential PPC Expert of 2017 by PPC Hero. You can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +.