With Bing occupying second place (albeit a distant one) in the UK’s search engine market, you could have underestimated Microsoft’s ability to help you with getting the word out about your brand.
For this reason, Microsoft’s announcement of its new Multimedia Ads format could have also passed you by. However, this could be at your brand’s own peril, as Multimedia Ads allow marketers to post immersive, interactive online ads with surprisingly little fuss.
Have you been unjustly overlooking Bing?
On British shores, Google is the undisputed champ of the search engines, with its market share over here having reached 86.31%. This is a figure from September 2021 – when, according to Statista, the Microsoft-owned Bing held a 9.61% share of the market.
However, this share remains significantly higher than the 5.56% Bing has outside of the UK. Furthermore, across the world, Bing regularly garners between 850 million and one billion unique visitors on a monthly basis.
So, omitting Bing-based ads from your brand’s PPC (pay per click) strategy might not be the wisest move – especially as a relative lack of competition for advertising spots on Bing could actually make it a wonderfully cost-effective place for you to promote your wares.
Why else could Multimedia Ads warrant your attention?
How do Multimedia Ads work? When someone makes a search query on Bing, a collage of imagery and video content will appear at the top of the SERP (search engine results page).
Any of the ads shown via these means can be expanded into Bing’s right rail of search results, where the user will be able to see “infographic-inspired” promotional content for them to potentially interact with, such as by opting to play an embedded video.
As a marketer, you would even be spared a lot of legwork in the ad creation process, as Microsoft machine learning is used to automatically combine images, headlines and other text in a fun and eye-catching way.
Nonetheless, the advertising brand is still permitted an appreciable degree of direct creative control over their Multimedia Ads. The company can use Microsoft-provided Creator tools to select images for inclusion in the ads as well as speedily colour, crop and add filters to these pictures.
Surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating?
Indeed it is. Microsoft says that it has tested Multimedia Ads with a number of clients and found encouraging results. For example, the security firm ADT saw a drop in its cost per click (CPC), while telecoms company VodafoneZiggo gained an 85% rise in conversions.
Theoretically, utilising Multimedia Ads on Bing could enable you to expand your advertising reach at relatively little cost. However, Bing’s small market share in comparison to Google’s also needs to be balanced against the fact that only one Multimedia Ad will be displayed per SERP.
So, competition for Multimedia Ads spots could turn out to be tough and consequently add to advertisers’ costs. Whether you do take advantage of Multimedia Ads or stick to Google-based ads, we have PPC advertising experts who can help.
