Are you dismissing Bing PPC because that “guy” in the online forums said it’s not worth it to use as a real estate investor or agent? Is your Google Adwords campaign killing your marketing budget?
What if I told you Bing PPC may help you attract some extra leads at a lower cost (if you do it right)?
“For me, Bing Ads is too expensive. The conversion rates just suck…” via Reddit
“Bing Ads are s*** compared to Google AdWords in my experience”. via Reddit
We see these kinds of comments about Bing PPC for real estate online all of the time. You probably do as well.
We’re often asked “Is bing ppc worth it as an additional source for real estate investor advertising?”
So, we wanted to find out… and we started testing, which we dive into below. Also, we’ll show some of the advantages Bing can have over AdWords.
Don’t Assume That Google Adwords Is The Only Game In Town For PPC Marketing
According to our comparison study, Bing Ads is actually a serious contender.
A Quick Note: For these numbers below we analyzed an InvestorCarrot members PPC campaigns for 1 month… from January 28-February 28, 2016.
Most small and medium-sized businesses see Bing PPC as an afterthought, but they should really consider it.
Bing uses a similar auction dynamic as the AdWords auction, so the advertisers on Bing have numerous benefits from a lack of competition (for now), better ad positions and cheaper costs per click (CPC).
Our real estate investor test on both Google and Bing, showed that there was a lower cost per click on Bing by 47%.
Not only were these clicks cheaper on Bing, but their ads very often were in better positions than their Google counterparts.
This post will also familiarize you with the handful of Bing PPC features, that AdWords currently doesn’t have.
Even veteran AdWords managers might not be familiar with these Bing PPC benefits. In fact, it’s usually common for managers just to simply import AdWords campaigns into Bing, set it up, and leave it as is. They fail to properly configure Bing, due to the lack of knowledge.
We may do another post someday on how to properly setup a Bing PPC campaign vs. just importing your Adwords campaigns in without making changes. Would you like to see that? Let me know in the comments section below!
Is Bing PPC Worth It For Real Estate Investors? Here’s What We Found…
Google AdWords Campaign January 28 – February 28, 2016
This Google Adwords campaign was ran for an InvestorCarrot client in a city in Tennessee. He’s closing multiple deals per month with PPC in his market… go Google Adwords is working great. His cost per lead numbers are higher than normal because of a test on some broad match keywords this month.
With that success with Adwords we wanted to see if we could “stack” on more leads by adding Bing PPC to the picture. As you can see he invested $1,910 in ad costs during that 30 day period in Google Adwords and collected 10 confirmed online opt in leads… and many other phone call leads. When you count the phone call leads it brings his cost per lead down under $100 per lead.
Bing PPC Campaign January 28 – February 28, 2016
Here are the stats for the Bing campaign during that same time period.
Now let’s compare them both apples to apples across the board.
Clicks:
AdWords 377
Bing 338
Adwords had 11.5% more clicks by volume
Impressions:
AdWords 41335
Bing 24660
Adwords had 68% more impressions by volume
Click Through Rate:
AdWords: .91%
Bing PPC 1.37%
Bing had a 50% greater click through rate by percentage
Cost Per Click:
AdWords: $5.07
Bing PPC $3.32
Adwords cost per clicks was 53% higher than Bing
Conversions:
AdWords 10
Bing PPC 6
Adwords only had 4 more online leads in total (doesn’t count phone call leads).
Total Invested:
AdWords $1910.34
Bing PPC $1123.65
Adwords overall spend was 70% higher than Bing and yielded 40% more leads.
Just one thing to remember from this test… the cost per lead in this campaign is higher than our usual cost per lead on PPC. The client wanted us to test a set of 6,000 broad match keywords that he received from a mentor… vs. our more targeted approach to PPC management.
The cost per lead on that broad match keyword group is 5x higher than on our targeted group… for the same number of leads. But the client is ok with that higher cost per lead because his margins on deals are so high that it ensures he’s not missing any leads.
Bing delivers lower search volume but a more attractive cost per lead.
You’ll of course get more volume of impressions and clicks on Google Adwords, but you’ll usually pay more per click for those visitors.
It’s not that one is better than the other… this post is mainly to lay out the argument that Bing is a very valid PPC marketing platform that in this month long test pulled leads in that cost us less than we pay for leads on Google.
7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Bing PPC For Real Estate Leads…
1. Bing PPC offers cheaper CPCs (costs per click) and ensures higher ROI
This is primarily due to the fact that a lesser number of searchers use Bing as the go-to search engine instead of Google.
However this fact alone cannot be used to undermine the advertising potential that Bing provides. Bing like Google uses the auction dynamic for keywords, therefore the lack of competition on Bing adds to your benefit, as lesser competition stands for lower costs per click and higher ad positions for the same or even lesser amount of money.
Higher ad positions ensure better ad visibility and CTRs which in turn enhance the ROI, provided that the searchers who click your ads convert as well! In the case of retail ads, over # searches take place on the Bing network took place during this monthly, and with the CPC being % lower and the conversion rate being higher on the Bing network as compared to the other advertising counterparts, it is clear that Bing beats the rest when it comes to advertising, especially in the retail sector.
Additionally Bing displays more ads at the top of its search page than Google, which further affects your ad position and increases the chances of conversion.
As of February 2016, AdWords now features four ads at the top of the search engine results page, three ads on the bottom and the right side ads eliminated. Learn more about the change in this InvestorCarrot AdWords Webinar.
2. Bing PPC offers greater control over demographic and search partner targeting
Just like the Google Adwords network comprises Google search network and Google display partners, Bing PPC comprises two search domains, namely Bing search network and Bing content network, which now includes AOL.
Google allows the user to choose only one network where (s)he wants the ad to be displayed, i.e., between Google search and Google display partners.
Bing on the other hand allows you to choose either one of the Bing search network and the Bing content network or both. Additionally it also allows you to track the traffic that a particular search partner directs to your ad based on which you can opt out of advertising on a particular site by using a “website exclusion” feature.
Bing Allows You To Display Ads On Both Search And Content Network For The Same Campaign
3. Bing Ads offer new ad features!
Bing Ads allows you to limit the viewership of your ad by filtering who sees your ads on the basis of gender or age
group. This reduces your effective cost and ensures that relevant searchers find your advertisement which in turn boosts the chances of conversion.
Bing Ads offer new enhanced and helpful features like Tablet bid modifiers, local or toll free phone numbers in call extensions, and advanced annotations to help make your ad stand out.
Action Link Extensions – Help Your Ads Stand Out On Bing
What are they?
Action Link extensions give advertisers the opportunity to append a call-to-action button alongside their ad that deep-links to a landing page. Bing provides a pre-approved list of actions for the button (such as reserve, buy now, sign up, contact us), but also allows users to submit unique CTAs for review.
Since it is currently in pilot-mode, advertisers must apply for access through their Bing Ads representative.
4. Bing PPC has social extensions
Bing began testing automated social extensions in late 2014 by showing the number of Twitter followers an advertiser has next to their ad:
Notice The Social Cues In That Ad Below? Pretty Powerful For Social Proof And Credibility
Meanwhile, Google dropped the social extensions in December 2015. The social information that appears next to ads that showed how many Google+ followers your website had, were remove. The purpose of the Google+ counts was to lead to higher click through rates, which was a great idea, but Google+ isn’t as popular as the other social media marketing sources.
5. Bing PPC offers more campaign and ad group flexibility!
Google Adwords allows you to choose the network, language and other specifics at the campaign level, and the ad group settings are by default restricted to the campaign level settings, which makes it impossible for you to choose a unique set of specifics for a specific ad group.
Bing Ads however allows you to have a unique set of specifics for different ad groups. You can thus choose a different set of specifics for a particular ad group, without creating a different ad campaign. Bing Ads also allows you to import your AdWords campaign which makes advertising easier for someone who is already using Google Adwords.
6. Bing Ads have better device targeting options.
In AdWords, you can only make bid adjustments for mobile phones not to tablets.
It would be a nice feature to include in the next AdWords update, the ability to adjust tablet bids. Bing PPC, on the other hand, allows you to set bid adjustments for tablets between -20% to +300%. While it would be nice to be able to set a -100% bid where appropriate this is still a big improvement. Even thought Bing removed some of their targeting options, even with just Tablet and Smartphone bids, it still more attractive over AdWords.
Customize Your Bidding Based On Device To Better Control Your Costs
7. Bing Ads platform is ideal for companies with a small budget!
Bing has an extremely helpful customer services department that is willing to help companies with a small budget.
Google has a helpful customer service department as well but only if you are willing to spend through the nose! Also, as Bing is expanding it is acquiring and partnering with a greater number of search platforms, such as AOL, which will have a positive impact on your conversion rates, for more or less the same amount of money.
Is Bing PPC Right For Your Real Estate Investing Business?
It sure can help you tap into new leads you’d never otherwise reach on Google. That’s a for sure.
If just may be… especially if you need to start on a smaller budget to test the waters.
If your advertising campaign is limited to a small geographic area, Google AdWords might be the platform where you’ll gain significant search volume, depending on your keywords and match types. Higher search volume means more potential customers for your business.
Yes, Google AdWords is still the “empire” when it comes to paid search, with most of the market share. For that reason, Bing Ads is often an afterthought that doesn’t get much attention. But Bing has some unique capabilities that most folks are not taking advantage of. If you optimize for these Bing Ads only features, you’re sure to significantly increase performance.
There isn’t a right or wrong answer to advertising on AdWords vs. Bing Ads.
They’re both great platforms with their own advantages and disadvantages. But the analyst inside of all great advertisers should prefer to test both. See if you can stack on additional leads for motivated house sellers, cash buyers, tenants… you name it… by adding Bing to the mix.
You’ll see, in time, which performs better for your market and budget.
Read this post if you want more great tips on effective PPC marketing.
The post Is Bing PPC A Waste Of Time? Absolutely Not. Here’s Why… appeared first on InvestorCarrot.