We recently reported Bing and Yahoo’s increased hold of the available market share for organic listings, as well as overall search volume growth. This month, industry data confirms Bing is also on the rise for paid ad impressions and ad clicks, confirming an increase in public interest for the recently re-vamped search engine.
Since the summer 2009 launch of Microsoft’s Bing, the engine’s ad impressions have increased by 56% while PPC spend is up by 24%. This data is a sign of significant growth, especially since both Google and Yahoo have either remained fairly flat or declined in those areas since Q2 of 2009. Additionally, information comparing Q1 and Q2 for 2010 continues to confirm Bing’s progress: in that time period, overall PPC spend increased by 10%, mostly led by the retail industry.
Bing is also currently benefiting from pre-Search Alliance testing. According to Yahoo, the two engines began a testing program this month involving up to 25% of organic Yahoo traffic and 3.5% of paid Yahoo search results being powered by Bing. This may account for a small percentage of Bing’s paid spend increase, but the majority of Bing’s recent growth is largely due to their aggressive advertising campaign and heightened interest due to the upcoming merger with Yahoo.
SEO agencies should be prepping their organic and paid clients now for the planned Search Alliance, forcasted to launch in Oct 2010. According to Titan Growth®’s Kris Eszlinger, “We want our clients to be well-prepared for the Yahoo-Bing merger; the most prepared companies will probably fare the best when all is said and done.”
That being said, SEO companies should be adjusting their SEO strategies, revising keyword lists, and planning for PPC budget changes ahead of time. Businesses need to be as prepared and flexible as they can to ensure for a smooth transition before the holiday season.
Contributed by Amanda Finch, VP Operations