Bing's Market Share Rise
Is Bing on the rise?
If you’ve been paying attention to search engine market shares, then yes, Bing is on the rise. According the latest data from comScore, Bing has broken the 20 percent barrier after gaining steadily in the previous year. And of course, this means Bing has usurped Yahoo for the No. 2 spot in the U.S. market share. In fact, Yahoo has fallen so much that the two search engines have nearly traded places.
Bing Rises In U.S. (Desktop) Search Engine Market Shares
Let’s look at the data.
In a report released in April, comScore shows that Google leads the U.S. desktop market share with 64.6 percent, pretty on-par with previous numbers. Google dominates the market share in both the desktop and mobile brackets in the United States, as well as globally.
For much of 2014, Bing was an oft-used underdog, struggling to surpass Yahoo despite both search engines being powered by Microsoft. But between March and April 2015, Bing finally pulled through.
Bing launched in June 2009, and at the time, Yahoo had 20 percent of the U.S. desktop search engine market share (with Google leading, of course). And although Bing has always been behind Yahoo, it has finally found its niche to improve enough to become the second most-used search engine on desktops in the United States. That’s a pretty big deal, and here’s why.
Bing can only make it to second place at the expense of another search engine. In Microsoft’s perfect world, the company probably wanted Bing to take a bite out of Google’s market share. Instead, Yahoo was the one to fall, tumbling to nearly 12 percent.
However, Yahoo and Bing are in an alliance, making up the Yahoo Bing Network. So while they may be in direct competition, they can also combine their market share which equals approximately 33 percent. That looks a lot better when compared to Google’s nearly 67 percent.
Bing & Yahoo Aren’t Down-And-Out
While Google may still be in the lead, the rise of Bing has some implications that could be the tip of the iceberg in changing the way we market, advertise and optimize with search engines.
Bing continues to improve its search engine algorithms, although the company does so much more quietly than Google. Take for example Bing’s newest push for mobile-friendly sites. They released the update quietly while Google took an unexpected approach and announced its algorithm change.
It’s possible that more users have recognized the subtle changes to Bing’s search results, leading users to switch from Yahoo. It’s also possible that users are seeing high click-through rates (CTR) with Yahoo Bing. While Google AdWords holds a lead in click-through rates, Yahoo Bing click-through rates are improving at a faster rate than Google AdWords. Consider this: in 2014, Google’s click-through rate was 126 percent higher than Yahoo Bing. In 2012, Google’s average click-through rates were 265 percent higher than those of Yahoo Bing. There’s still a major gap, but in just two years, Yahoo Bing has closed the gap considerably.
According to Search Engine Watch, 1 in 5 retailers had a better CTR with Yahoo Bing, including some of the biggest retailers like Sears and Best Buy.
There are other advantages to advertising and optimizing for the “little guy.” While AdWords is seen as a big advantage over Yahoo Bing, it is much cheaper to advertise with Yahoo Bing. In addition, advertisers are up against less competition.
Switching To Bing?
The bottom line that everyone wants to know is this: Should I switch to Bing?
At Online Potential in Gainesville, we don’t see optimization and advertising in such a black-and-white scenario. It all depends on your target audience and how they search for you. But to cover all the bases, and get a definitive measurement of success over time, then you may want to consider advertising on the Yahoo Bing Network as well as optimizing for Bing.
Yahoo Bing and Google AdWords are different, so you need to be aware that the strategy you use for AdWords probably won’t give you the same results on Yahoo Bing. But, if you can recognize the differences, then you can take advantage of that and get the best of CTR on both search engines.
As for the future of Bing, we’re optimistic. Although Bing is in a very distant second place, it is taking big strides to push usability, mobility and connectivity for users. With the improvements that Bing has made in just the 5 short years of its existence, you can be sure that there are more innovations to come. And maybe, the next time Bing takes a bite out of the search engine market share, it will be from Google’s piece of the pie.
