Bing Ads Benchmarks: Insightful Data for 18 Industries

Many advertisers seem to constantly overlook Bing for their marketing plans. Even though it’s basically small, in comparison to Google, Microsoft’s search engines have continued to grow according to ComScore. Bing along with its partners are now making up to 35.6% of the US desktop search market.

Due to its integration in Microsoft products including Skype, Xbox, and Office, Bing has become the preferred search engine for many voice searches. More than half of the US population is choosing Bing each month! Besides reaching out to the billions of searches occurring on Bing, data has shown that if you advertise on Bing more people will take notice of your brand and products on Google!

Many advertisers are looking forward to Bing to expand their reach for their other existing Google campaigns. Bing Ads have a few benefits over Google that SEMs are not taking advantage of. Similarly to Google Ads, the performance varies across different industries on Bing which has become quite advantageous to advertisers.

You might wonder how your Bing Ads performance is holding up against industry standards? We grabbed some great data that you can check out below:

• By Industry, the CTR Average on Bing
• By Industry, the CPC Average on Bing
• By Industry, the CVR Average on Bing
• By Industry, the CPA Average on Bing.

Here are the averages across Bing Ads metrics for 18 industries:

• Consumer Services
• Apparel & Accessories
• Careers & Employment
• Education
• Finance& Insurances
• Auto
• B2B Services
• Home Services
• Home Improvement & Repairs
• Real Estate
• Restaurants & Food
• Legal Services
• Retail
• Travel & Hospitality
• Technology

By Industry, the Average CTR on Bing

On average, Bing’s Click-Through Rate or CTR is approximately 50% higher than what people are experiencing on Google Ads. Every industry noticed a higher average than what they found on Google. Many believe this is due to Bing’s expanded text ads which offer much higher CTR than AdWords.

On Bing, Career and Employment services are showing a very impressive 3.53% average CTR while these same advertisers have a way worse CTR on Facebook at 0.47%. Since Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, both Microsoft and Bing might just be the perfect platforms for many B2B advertisers. They experience a very high CTR of about 3.01%.

Other strong CTRs on Bing are experienced by the Finance & Insurance industry having 3.51%, Apparel & Accessories at 3.33%, and Retail at 3.06%. Other more personal industries such as B2C Services and Real Estate have a modest result with CTRs averaging just over 2%, respectively – 2.12% and 2.20%.

Average CTR on Bing Ads

By industry, the Average CPC on Bing

The average cost per click on Bing in all industries is $1.54. Bing’s average CPC is 33% lower than what you will find on Google. There are few advertisers on Bing taking advantage of the less competitive ad auctions. This can help keep the Cost-Per-Clicks lower in most industries. Unlike Google, Bing is still serving ads in the right part of the SERPs, which enables it to show ads from advertisers with lower bids.

Even in highly competitive and expensive industries like Legal, advertisers can still get a deal on Bing. The Cost-Per-Click is $1.41 even if keywords like “Lawyers” and “Attorney” are the most expensive ones on Bing.

That said, Bing’s traffic is sometimes more expensive than Google’s for retail advertisers. They average a Cost-Per-Click of around $1.24 on Bing but less on Google. This could be due to Google’s attempts to regularly expand its low-cost shopping ads at the expense of its standard search ads.

Average CPC on Bing Ads

By industry, the Average CVR on Bing

The Average CVR on Bing for all industries is 2.94%.

Although Bing’s average CVR is better than what you will find on Google Ads, it can vary from one industry to another. Bing’s audience is different from Google’s and so is the way people search on Bing. For example, searchers on Google are primarily mobile while Bing attracts desktop users.

These differences make Bing a great opportunity for industries with longer sale cycles. Industries like Careers & Employment, Finance & Insurance, and Real Estate fall under this category. Bing’s average conversion rates for these are 6.81%, 5.57%, and 5.13% respectively.

Travel advertisers have a CVR of 1.58% which lower but they also have seen more clicks than other industries. Bing controls an impressive 41% of all travel paid clicks in the US. The extra volume of paid clicks also helps to balance their sort of mediocre conversion rates.

If you need more help, our Conversion Rate Optimization Services might come in handy.

Average CVR on Bing Ads

By industry, the Average CPA on Bing

On Bing, the average CPA, for all industries, is $41.44. This is approximately 30% lower than AdWords. This is mostly thanks to Bing’s cheap CPC. Even if most advertisers enjoy cheaper conversions on Bing, the majority still lean towards Google.

The industry with the highest returns on Bing is the home services ones with an excellent CPA of $21.68. Bing’s main user bases consist of older and more educated people than Google’s. This is highly useful in high-value industries.

But, Bing’s audience is not right for everyone. Being older, the audience is also less tech-savvy, resulting in far higher CPAs in the tech industry.

Average CPA on Bing Ads

In A Nutshell

Bing Ads have quite a few surprises for many advertisers by offering very strong performances. Surely, Bing does not have the extended reach of Google or Facebook, but none of them are perfect. More so, your marketing strategy should include many ad campaigns across different networks. Your customers search for information on countless different sites.

If you’re at the lower end of these bing ad benchmarks, you simply have more room for growth. If you want to learn more and improve your ads on Bing surpassing the benchmarks, feel free to contact us. You can also check out our Google Ads Benchmarks article to learn more on the subject.