Bing paid search: Microsoft – put the champagne on ice

Photo credit: by Kris Kros

Since its launch around 3 weeks ago there has been a lot of industry buzz and discussion about Bing’s pros and cons, whether the results are any good, and generally if it is actually any better than MSN’s previous incarnations. Read Jonny’s to Bing or not to Bing post for a more general overview. The consensus seems to be it is better, not just in appearance but also usability and effectiveness.

From a paid search perspective however we are really not that bothered by all this – we simply want to know if it gives ROI!

With this in mind I’ve taken conversion and click data from the past 3 weeks and compared it to the previous three weeks on MSN/Bing – and some trends have shown up already.

As impressions and spend will vary according to budget allocation and other factors, I’m more interested in the cost-per-click, cost-per-order and sale/lead conversion rate.

Retail Clients

Looking at iCrossing’s retail clients first the results, of course, vary depending on the account. One client has seen the CPC more than double whilst another’s has fallen by 33%.

Overall the CPC has increased by 55% which has, in turn, led to a 40% increase in CPO overall – bad news for Bing so far.

The good news is that conversion is up by 11% with one client experiencing a 62% increase in the conversion rate.

Travel & Leisure

Our travel and leisure clients have not seen such pronounced changes overall. The biggest increase in CPC was only 14% with one client experiencing a 66% drop in CPC.

It evened out across all clients with CPC working out under 1% different. The same is true for CPO and conversion rate with both almost unchanged.

Other verticals such as B2B have seen CPC up by 12% but conversion up by 31% and CPO down by 14% – better for Bing without doubt. So it seems, in its first 3 weeks at least, Bing has had more effect on retail than other verticals with traffic and conversions. costing more.

Across all accounts the CPC is up by 17% – not good until we consider that the conversion rate is up by 18% and CPO has fallen by 1%.

To conclude, it seems Bing is a good improvement on Live Search and its predecessors in many ways. It seems a better option for PPC too; you’ll probably pay more but will get more for your money.

It remains to be seen if Bing can overcome MSN’s previous shortcomings, principally its unpredictability from one month to the next, and low traffic of course. but overall it seems they’re off to a good start.

Don’t open the champagne yet though. Microsoft – put it on ice for 6 months, we’ll give you a pat on the back for the timebeing

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