Bing vs. Google – To Stay or To Leave the SERP
Bing, like it or not, is making big advancements in the search engine world. Not only are numbers showing that its ads are more effective than competitors in generating clicks and impressions, but their philosophy as to what the role of a search engine is continues to shake cages industry-wide.
Take, for example, the type and amount of information they provide to their users. While Google’s model has historically driven users off-site as fast and accurately as possible, Bing is trending in a different direction. Their intent has been made clear:
“Microsoft calls Bing a decision engine. Why? ‘That’s our goal of not just providing links but helping you solve the key task that you’re trying to do,’ says Program Manager Nathan Buggia. ‘That’s the whole point behind the categorized search, the instant answers, and a lot of other features.’
Instant answers is a feature that aims to resolve your question without needing to leave Bing. Type ‘London weather’, for example and you get a summary of weather in London now and for the next five days.”
Their goal is to be a provider of information rather than a conduit through which you pass on your way to the information. This makes sense from a business model standpoint. The more time Web browsers spend on their page, the more they are exposed to Bing’s ads. Given this, it is no wonder Bing’s click-through-rate is so high. For example, take a look at the “widgets” Bing has built in for searching for airline tickets. As you can see in the below screenshot, when “buy airline tickets” is queried a form is inserted at the top of the SERP giving you the ability to search for flights directly through Bing.
Bing SERP - Airline Ticket Results
Google, on the other hand, until recently had quite an opposite approach, only beginning to display true end-content onsite in the past year or two. The Google search page had the implicit goal of presenting the optimal site for the user’s query, and getting them to it with as few steps as possible. In the process users were presented with AdWords advertisements. This strategy has recently undergone some very marked changes with the inclusion of their own widgets on the SERP.
The two stratagems—keeping user on the SERP, and driving them away from it—both have sound reasoning from an efficiency-of-search point of view. Google assumed that external sources would satisfy the user more quickly, while Bing makes a practice of assuming that the average user simply wants end-information as fast as possible. As it turns out Bing’s model has proven more advantageous in paid search efficiency.
What does all this mean for Paid Search? Despite Bing’s heightened click-through-rate and effective ad views, Google’s market-share is an undeniably compelling reason to continue to spend heavily on AdWords. Ending Q4 2009 with a 74% share of total online ad spend and clicks, Google proved that despite the down economy and increased competition from Bing, they are able to maintain their dominance on the market.
We can take away that this trend of integrating content into search provider’s sites is reason to now, more than ever, avoid putting all of our advertising “eggs” into the Google basket. A well planned campaign will include many advertising programs treated as a portfolio, each satisfying a different marketing goal (coverage/impressions, clicks, branding, etc.).
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Really interesting and not at all a bad idea for Binghoo. Monetizing traffic is the name of the game and Binghoo has a respectable amount of traffic. So people may be saying sour grapes ... They're competing with me, so I'll take my ad spend somewhere else.
Don't think Binghoo is overly worried about that. Done correctly they can make wayyyyy more money plugging themselves into the different supply chains, than they could ever make from advertisers. Can see how this will upset SEM folks ( myself included in that group.) Though bottomline, we're paying to access the SE's traffic ourselves. So if they can figure out ways to maximize the monetization of their web traffic directly ... Guess all's fair in love, war and business.
I'm sure it's been going on for a long time regardless. Whether it's admitted to openly or not. I'm certain many direct and preferential deals have been struck and operating on major search engines forever and a day. When you have the position in the online market the major players have. They've got the influence to have their cake and eat it too.
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