Over the past few weeks one of MSPmentor’s most widely read blog posts involved tips and tricks for mastering Google Adwords and Google paid search. But growing buzz around Microsoft Bing got me wondering: Should managed service providers (MSPs) start testing paid search and advertising on Microsoft Bing? Here are some quick thoughts.
Microsoft has won over quite a few skeptics with Bing. SearchEngineWatch.com says Bing ads are showing strength in key vertical markets. And Mashable, one of my favorite social media sites, says there are at least five reasons why users should switch from Google to Bing. Mashable adds:
“A Nielsen report shows that it currently holds 10.7% of the search market (to Google’s 65%), but its month-over-month growth is 22%, which is astronomical.”
At MSPmentor during August 2009, we noticed Bing sent us twice the traffic that Yahoo sent us. Still, Google sent us 22 times the traffic that Bing sent us. So, Google remains the king of search and Bing is growing.
Eager to accelerate that momentum, Microsoft this month (September 2009) is testing new paid search ad formats using logos and favicons embedded in listings, notes Online Media Daily.
I wonder: Will MSPs give those paid search opportunities a try?
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Very good question and post Joe. My approach to figuring out whether to invest time into Bing is to make sure that you can’t get a better ROE, or return on effort, from spending that time working on a Google AdWords account or any other type of promotion.
If you can get 22 times more traffic by working in AdWords instead of Bing, I think it’s a no-brainer to work in AdWords until you see a large decline in ROE in your AdWords efforts (when the time spent adding keywords/optimizing ads does not bring a noticeable increase in traffic), at that point Bing might be the right place to spend some time.
There is at least one solution that I know of (shameless Kutenda plug) that will allow you to kill both birds with one stone and simultaneously build and maintain an AdWords and Bing accounts in one place. That type of efficiency changes the entire ROE equation, and creates a level of efficiency that will help you maximize your marketing efforts and removes the either/or question when it comes to building paid search accounts.
MSPs need to avoid the trap of thinking just because something is new, improved or popular in the media that it’s going to give them good return on effort. Set aside some well regimented time for experimentation to get the decision-making data you need, but always focus the bulk of your efforts on the most efficient channel you can find. Do that, and you’ve got a good chance of succeeding online, forget that, and you’ll be chasing fads and wondering why nothing is working.
James: Thanks for your feedback. I know Kutenda has plenty of buzz. Can you please refresh readers’ memories: Are you associated with Kutenda?
I must admit: I still need to take a closer look at Bing’s paid ad system. I plan to do so this weekend.
Hey Joe!
Yes, should have been more clear in the post that I’m a Kutenda employee. I am the director of online marketing over here, which means that I have helped with the development of our tool and I work to promote Kutenda online. I’ve gotten to know the marketing challenges faced by the MSP community while I have been at Kutenda and tend to get a bit passionate about MSPs seeing success with online marketing. Hence, my maybe-too-long comment.
Hello to you and your readers, and thanks for letting me post my thoughts!
James: No need to “thank” me for allowing reader comments on MSPmentor. Open dialog will always be our big priority on MSPmentor.
-jp
While ‘traffic’ is a key metric, I wouldn’t look at it in isolation. While we’re seeing a lot more traffic from Google (over Bing), we do get some interesting (read, low) cost per conversions on Bing. This warrants using it – for us, at least.
Our marketing team’s approach to online advertising has been to evaluate most platforms by running the best performing (adwords) adgroups across platforms – and benchmarking results. If you get some surprises, great. If not, and it isn’t worth the effort, focus on your No.1 traffic generator.
Lux
Lakshmanan Narayan
President
Vembu Technologies
http://www.vembu.com