The time's they are a'changin.

Google has been the market monarch for as long as I've been in Paid Search, and the mantra for us at ZATO for accounts just starting out is typically something like "let's invest in Google first, where the people are. Then, as profitability is demonstrated, experiment in other channels such as Display, Video, and Bing. "That's been the mantra, but I believe change is on the horizon. Specifically, change for limited budget B2B businesses/startups. Here are 4 reasons you should consider beginning your PPC on Bing Ads if you are running a Startup and first getting into PPC (sure, if you have unlimited budget, do both Google and Bing).

1) Bing Ads tends to be lower competition (that translates to lower CPCs/cost)

This is specific to our ZATO client base, but I have also discussed this with a lot of other advertisers as I have traveled for conferences and to my knowledge this is commonly agreed upon. Because fewer people know about (or care about, sadly) Bing Ads, fewer advertisers and businesses utilize it. This has (so far) kept CPCs down, and that works directly into overall spend and profit.

A quick numbers pull for our ZATO B2B PPC clients has CPCs 24-58% lower on Bing than Google Search (with one outlier where CPCs were identical). That's not a huge dataset since we're a small agency, but that parallels what we've seen in other studies as well. One example: Currently Running AdWords? Here’s Why You Should Also Be Using Bing Ads (notes Automotive industry CPCs are 32.5% lower in Bing, and 59.2% lower in the Insurance Industry in Bing Ads than Google).So, if you have limited budget, it actually makes sense to try a lower competition market out first to keep margins higher.

2) Many commercial users are on Bing by default

It's difficult to find a study on the number of commercial/business users on Windows as opposed to other operating systems (please share so I can link to in my article if you know of one! I'll give you credit ;). I reached out to my Bing contacts for some information and was given this interesting data:"Windows 10 devices come with search built in which can't be switched from Bing AFAIK", - Bing contact through Twitter DM.Take this observation with the fact that Microsoft is now reporting 200M users in enterprise on Windows 10 and this is a powerful statistic.

The reason I think it's good to note this, is because I've found anecdotally from conversations with the industry at large, that Bing often does better than Google and my assumption has always been that is a combination both of (1) lower competition and (2) more commercial minded users of Bing because of the preceding stats.EDIT 11/16/18: Frances from Bing assisted me in tracking down comScore data that demonstrates Bing's commercial user intent. Note that here:

3) Bing Ads targeting by LinkedIn Audiences is 🔥

This is significant and worth repeating. YOU CAN NOW TARGET LINKEDIN AUDIENCES IN BING ADS. The 3 primary audiences you can target currently are:

1. Company (specific companies... like you can target employees of Disney, for instance)
2. Industry (targeting lawyers? There's an audience for that... )
3. Job Function (targeting people in Recruitment? There's an audience for that...)

Why is this such a big deal? Why not simply advertise on LinkedIn?Because now you can layer these high value audiences into your existing targeting metrics to bid higher on people who are actively searching for your solution.If I haven't convinced you yet, go read some blogposts. This is a *really* big deal for B2B.In the words of my early 2000's gaming life, Bing has officially pwned Google in this regard with B2B targeting.

4) Bing Ads new competitive tools give more insight into the auction

This is hot off the press from Search Engine Land, but great news here. Bing has released an update in the UI on competitor analysis that gives us more insight into what is happening in the auction. Why is this so important to SMB B2B accounts? I have found that B2B Startups are often in high CPC markets, with very focused and specific competitors and up-tp-date competitor insights are essential. In this regard, Bing's new offering fits the bill by giving us additional power in making decisions based on how our account is doing in the market. Interested to learn more? Check out Bing's post here:Read >> Bing's Release of the Competition Tab

Based on these 4 reasons, I think it's worth considering starting your next new B2B account on Bing if you have limited budget. Or, at the very least, it's a strong argument for starting Google and Bing in tandem right from the beginning.So what are you waiting for? Import your Google campaigns over, add your LinkedIn targets, and get rolling!Want to spread the good news of this post? Please RT the Tweet below!

After recent updates from @BingAds, I felt compelled to note why smaller B2B businesses should consider beginning their new PPC accounts on Bing if limited budget.