Now Trending: Consumers Browse Bing for B2B Services
Historically, Bing has always been the primary contender when it comes to search engine share in the US. However, this Q3 we saw a significant benchmark for Bing where it had overtaken Google in impression share. In the B2B services vertical, Bing edged past Google, capturing 52% to Google’s 48% in the US.
Bing’s impression share for the B2B services vertical has always hovered closer to parity than other verticals, with 44% of all impressions last quarter, but this is the first quarter we’ve seen it overtake Google.
What does this mean for advertisers?
While it could be a fluke, it also signals a change in consumer behavior. The target audience of B2B advertisers has begun searching slightly more on Bing than Google, at least in Q3. This could be due to a few different factors:
- 1. The demographic of people searching for B2B services skews more towards Bing, which has always had an older audience, and are perhaps further along in their careers than the average Google user.
- 2. The amount of research needed before a purchase decision is made is high for the B2B services industry. It makes sense that the consumer would weigh his or her options and do their homework before any decisions are made. All this adds up to a lot of impressions, and particularly, Bing impressions.
What we don’t see is a corresponding percentage of spend and clicks on Bing. Advertisers have yet to adjust for this slow shift away from Google towards Bing and there is an opportunity for a B2B marketer to capture cheap clicks by shifting some share of ad budget away from Google towards Bing.
Do you have any additional thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment below to continue the conversation.
