Microsoft is launching a pilot this month testing new PPC ad formats on Bing using logos and favicons embedded in the listings (reported by Mediapost yesterday). Microsoft are hoping that these new formats will make the PPC ad more “visually appealing” to the consumer and will encourage digital agencies like ourselves to spend more of our precious campaign budgets with Bing.
How does this differ to Google’s own testing of new ppc ad formats? It doesn’t appear to be that different, but these are only tests, so time will tell.
Conversations in the Online Planning, Insight & Media team at Swamp about Bing and how much budget we will give them have all revolved around their ability to give us volume – their low market share of searches has always gone against them (see previous blog post what’s Bing going on at Microsoft).
As you can see from the current share of searches (according to Hitwise), Google still have a 90.61% share in the UK:
We are starting to see news that Bing is seeing a rise in query share, which will be helped by the proposed Yahoo deal, but our eyes are still on them to see what effect it will actually have.
One thing is certain, the search war between Google and Bing isn’t about to end just yet and could benefit digital agencies and advertisers with quick advances in innovative search results, payment models and overall service. Let’s hope so!
You might want to read these similar blog posts from swamp:
