Paid Search | Google & Bing Ads

Paid Search

Paid search is a form of search engine marketing (SEM) where advertisers pay a fee to a search engine to have their ads shown near or at the top of the search engine result page (SERP).

Paid search is also commonly referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) where the customers pay a fee every time the advertisement gets a click. This is a cost effective way to ensure you get what you you pay for and the return on investment is clear. By paying search engines to be advertised for certain keywords is a good to get your brand in front of the right audience because specific keywords are flashing signs of the users intent. Take for example you own a car insurance company and someone searching keywords along the lines of "buy car insurance now" then its probably a good idea to get your brand on their screen. Thats why insurance companies and many brands alike take advantage of PPC and you see pages like this:

Google Ads vs. Bing Ads

When people talk about digital advertising or paid search they often think of Google Ads (previously called Google AdWords) which makes sense because they are leading the industry. According to Search Engine Watch "Of every dollar spent on digital advertising in the US 42 cents goes to Google, and the search giant brought in 96% of its revenues in 2016 from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising." But what about the other search engines? Bing Ads is the strongest competitor to Google Ads with the Bing network consisting of Bing, Yahoo and AOL. So how do they compare?

• Cost: One of the biggest differences between the two is the cost. According to WordStream, the average CPC for Google is around $2. and the average for Bing Ads is $1.54. Although Google Ads is more expensive there are more factors that should be considered such as that Google usually has better conversion rates so even though you are spending more you are more likely to get a higher chance of a conversion.
• Reach:As far as network reach goes, Google is the winner with a 91.89% market share as compared to Bing and Yahoo's combined 4.66% market share. This means much less people can be reached on Bing Ads but it also means there much less competition so you have a better chance of getting your paid ad to the top.
• Traffic and Audience: The quality of traffic you get from each search engine should be a big factor in this decision. Both Google and Bing claim to have anti-fraud systems set up to avoid clicks from bots, competitors or other people out to get you but it isn't determined which one works best. The average audience on Bing is older than the average audience on Google which is also something to consider especially if that happens to be your target market it could be useful, but there are targeting options on both. It also should be noted that the average person who visits Bing spends 35% more online when shopping from their desktops than the average internet users. But this research was from Bing so take it as you wish.

I think Google Ads the winner between the two in a competition because its necessary in most digital marketing processes but I think Bing should also be utilized because it offers its own number of benefits and will extended your reach. A diversified set of ads on both search engines is also good way to see what works and what doesn't.

PPC for a Hypothetical (WWU) MBA Program

For an example lets take a look at how my school could increase the awareness and applications of our MBA program using PPC.

Starting with keywords it would be smart to use a variety of match types for the keywords to make sure the ad is being shown to specifically to valuable search terms that they are targeting. By using primarily phrase and exact match keyword types it limited the opportunities to attract other search terms that could possibly work. On the other hand, using only broad or single key words might generate a lot of traffic that isn't completely relevant. Another thing that would be helpful would be to check and see if they are using the correct negative keywords. This is a good way to control which keywords don't trigger their ads and could be really useful. Western's CBE should consider things that they don't want to be related to such as "online MBA degrees" because that is something they don't offer so ruling out online terms is a good example of what to look for in negative keywords.

Another thing I would suggest is that Western should use a good landing page that is designed to target the people who click on the ad. Showing off what makes Western's MBA program desirable such as that it is "AACSB Accredited" should be the first thing the user is sent to. The information should be directly related to the paid search that way you can be more sure that people who click will continue down the funnel.