Digital Marketing Questions: Who uses Bing?

James Carr

When you think about digital marketing (particularly online advertising), the word “Google” often springs to mind. However, as the BBC would say, other search engines are available.

While Google holds the largest market share within search marketing, Bing quietly powers 5.27% of online searches. Is there a hardcore group of Bing users who have chosen a side in a “Google or Bing” online battlefield? Is there a secret online movement of people dedicated to introducing “Bing it” as a synonym for searching online?

Probably, but maybe not in the numbers needed for the market share demonstrated. Which brings us back to the question that this entire blog post is based around: Who uses Bing? The answer usually surprises people.

What’s Your Default Browser/Search Engine?

If you’re using Internet Explorer or Edge as your default browser, then your search results are more than likely provided by Bing. This is because Bing is the default search engine for IE and Edge. It’s not just a case of Microsoft using their own search engine within their own products though…

Do you own an Amazon Echo?

If you own an Amazon Echo, you’re also using Bing as your search engine without even knowing it.

Let’s think about that for a second. Amazon has sold over 39 million unique Alexa assistants, and holds 69% of the voice search market. That’s a huge advantage over Google’s 31% share and goes some way to explaining how Bing takes searches from Google.

That’s not all though. Although Bing has a much lower volume of searches that Google, that means that there is typically much less competition for traffic. That’s why marketers like to use Bing for online advertising. Check out the bonus tip at the end of this article to find out more.

Are you using one of Bing’s partner sites?

Even if you don’t own an Amazon Echo, or use Cortana, you could be using Bing without even realising it. You don’t have to go to bing.com to use their service either. All of the following search engines are also partially powered by Bing:

The summary

There you have it. In a shock twist, it turns out that you’re probably using Bing, and you’re not even aware that you’re doing it. Does that mean that Bing could topple Google over the coming years and achieve the goal of becoming a verb? Realistically, probably not.

However, it does mean that it is definitely a service that Google needs to keep an eye on. After all, Google itself came from small beginnings and became the giant that it is today. It certainly didn’t get there by ignoring good ideas that other search engines created.

If you would like to know about about how your business could leverage Bing, or any other digital services, as part of a wider digital marketing strategy, please get in touch with our dedicated team to find out how we could help.

The Bonus Bit: The Power of Bing Advertising Campaigns

Google ads tend to be the top priority in paid search for marketers and businesses alike, but advertising on Bing can have huge advantages. Let’s check the statistics:

Bing also attracts a slightly different demographic to Google (based on US user data):

Within digital marketing, it is often joked that Bing users are less tech savvy. Given the user data above, this is probably flying close to the truth. Does that mean that you should ignore these people though? Given that they’re typically affluent and spend more than Google users, why would you want to?

We’re not suggesting that you should get rid of all of your Google advertising and switch to Bing. However, Bing can be used as a great way of reaching a target audience who may be more likely to spend money within certain industries (e.g. apparel, careers, financial services and retail industries show strong average CTR from Bing).

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