Could Bing take over as the preferred “search engine” of choice? And what does that mean for businesses marketing on search engines?
I recently came across the article, “Bing As A Platform Will Allow Microsoft To Compete With Google For Developer Cred“, which further sparked my interest into users preferences between Google and Bing.
For many, Google, the giant beast of search engines, has infiltrated every part of peoples – including my own – daily lives and routines. But with Bing’s commercials–which I find very entertaining–, apple recently aligning itself with Microsoft instead of Google for Siri and with Bing advertisers integrated in Windows 8.1 Smart Search, I find myself wondering which search engine will have the biggest impact on businesses in the next few years.
As the digital landscape continues to grow and rapidly change, more businesses are adapting their focus towards the online market. In order to meet the needs of the consumer – who search for products and seek information out on the web from search engines alike – companies are marketing on search engines. They are using PPC, SEO and other approaches to reach consumers on Google, Bing and Yahoo. And it’s no secret that advertising on a search engine can be extremely costly; especially for businesses looking to target consumers on Google.
For Google’s competitors, drumming up interest in getting a consumers to use their engine is a top priority. Bing continues to market their search engine heavily and even driving the term “Bing it” similar to Google’s “Google it” in order to catch on with users. Coupled with their advertising presence and partnerships, Bing might just become more than a fierce contender against Google. Right?
Don’t get me wrong, Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and is a well-respected brand, but that does not mean it can’t or won’t face competition. In May, comScore released its findings on the top search engines market share, which pointed out Bing’s growth. Although Google continues to be the dominant search engine, it is businesses who are marketing, advertising, creating content and so forth that need to ask themselves the question: “How can I effectively advertise my content and website without breaking the bank and reaching as many consumers as possible on multiple search engines?”. I’m sure many businesses are already asking themselves this in direct relation to Google, but this question is asking businesses to think about marketing on search engines as a whole.
For most companies, they cannot afford to strictly just do PPC or SEO or Social. They must find balance, which is something we talk about in an upcoming webcast on July 25th, based off a new white paper we created on “5 Steps to Maximize Your Search ROI”.
And although I cannot predict the future or how these two search engines will develop, I can say that as Bing continues to draw attention to itself and increase market share, businesses planning their digital strategies need to arm themselves with the right data and insights to succeed. At the end of the day, it’s how your consumers are finding you. And we as a search and social analytics provider, understand the importance of properly marketing on various search engines – it’s the reason we provide real-time data for 268 search engines/country combinations. They may use Google one minute or Bing the next, and for a company looking to target consumers on all, they must prepare themselves with a solution that can collectively combine all aspects of search engine marketing.
What do you think about marketing on search engines? Should businesses be strategically creating and monitoring SEO/PPC and/or search marketing campaigns around just one, both or multiple search engines?
……and do you “Bing it” or “Google it”?