Boost Your Paid Search ROI with Bing and Yahoo! Search

Evidenced by double-digit growth of the market last year, search has become an indispensable tool for connecting people to their sought after resources. Mirroring consumers’ increased reliance on search as a means of acquiring product and service information, advertisers have shifted their attention –and budgets– to digital channels as well.  For the first time last year, internet ad spend surpassed that of cable television, and paid search was the leading digital advertising format, accounting for nearly half of the U.S.’s record breaking $31 billion of ad spend.

So we know that paid search works. It’s an effective way to build brand awareness and drive sales. But data also shows that all search engines are not created equal. Though Google remains the market leader with a more than 2:1 advantage, Bing’s positive growth trajectory in 2011 landed the Microsoft-powered search engine in the #2 position for the first time in its history. While Google’s search query volume grew 10% last year, Bing’s search volume rose 40%, propelled by sizable gains in both unique searchers and searches per searcher, and Bing’s market share is expected to continue growing throughout 2012. Bing’s rising popularity is due in part to the feature rich platform of this “decision engine,” which learns from the user over time and customizes results for each person browsing the web.

Not only does a third of the U.S. search market prefer Yahoo! Search and Bing, but a recent report found that Bing and Yahoo! Search clicks are 14% more valuable than Google, producing a 9% higher ROI than Google campaigns. This means about 159 million searchers, who generate less expensive clicks and conversions, can only be accessed through Bing and Yahoo! Search. If you’re an AdWords only advertiser, let this be a strong reminder that the opportunity to better allocate your paid search resources and drive a higher ROI exists through advertising on Bing and Yahoo! Search. Not only that, but as Bing continues to gain ground in search, Microsoft continues to release advertiser-friendly features and enhancements, such as Microsoft Advertiser Intelligence 8.0 – a keyword research and optimization tool that provides keyword expansion, research, pricing and KPI data designed to help you to maximize your search ROI.

In today’s environment where dollars are tight, every dollar spent on advertising matters more than ever. If you’ve been putting off expanding your paid search efforts, now is great time to take advantage of all that Bing and Yahoo! Search have to offer. If you are advertising through adCenter, auditing your PPC accounts is a great way to get a sense of how you can run your campaigns more effectively  and improve your ROI.

If you’re interested in generating greater returns from your online marketing spend, register for this week’s webinar where we’ve teamed up with the experts at Microsoft to discuss adCenter tools, insights, and best practices that will help you optimize your Bing and Yahoo! Search campaign and improve your paid search ROI.

Register today and join us for this free webinar at 12:15 PM EST on Wednesday, May 2nd.