Bing and Google

Hey all,

Its been on my mind for a while about this whole Google vs Bing debate. I know Bing has a strong international presence, particularly in China but is it really going to compete in the UK. I don’t have the official figures to hand but I know there is still a massive market share gap between the two search engines.

The whole point of a search engine is one point of contact and hub to answer all your questions and queries. So inevitably people are going to choose or show preference towards one of the two. With the growth in search engine marketing and its likely dominance of ad spend in the future this is a serious area we as marketers and strategists need to get a grasp on. Is there any chances everyone will suddenly start to type in Bing rather than Google? I honestly don’t think so.

However my concern is that we are starting to look at search on too broad a platform. I know there is a certain amount of people who will say if in doubt plough your money into Google. Which to be fair is not a bad idea. However when looking to be more and more targeted and the pressures on ROI should we truly just dismiss the niggle that is Bing? I think, maybe not. We need to seriously look further than market share. Who are these people using Bing within the UK? Chinese students and expats? Younger audiences? Older audiences?

Who are these people!?

Could we be missing out on an opportunity to really hone in on a segment of the UK population to tailor messages to? Search is growing and growing as an advertising channel and I think we really need to look strategically at search not just how much money to split across the content and search network but which search engines to utilise. This should not be just resigned to international campaigns but also those within the UK.

That’s it for now!
Cheers, E x