Posts tagged Bing
Is paid search improving?
Jul 11th
Advertisers spent 20% more on paid search campaigns in Q2 2011 compared to a year-ago, while click through rates rose 12%, according to new research. But is spend really driving the popularity of the medium, or is it something else?
The Paid Search Quarterly Benchmarking Report from Marin Software also reveals an increase in efficiencies from search campaigns.
However, Google advertisers saw a dramatic decline in impressions with the average marketer experiencing a 15% drop, while click volumes rose by 8%. This suggests either search marketers took steps to improve efficiency or Google modified its algorithm for matching ads to queries, according to Marin Software.
So are advertisers getting better at paid search, or are search engines simply becoming smarter?
Gains in efficiency during the past year have been a result – in part – of advertiser efforts to refine match types. The share of paid clicks from exact- and phrase-match keywords rose 10% during the past year at the expense of broad-match clicks.
Exact and phrase keywords have higher click-through rates and lower costs than broad match terms, which not only explains the gains in efficiencies advertisers found during the quarter, but also improvements in quality scores.
In the past year, search marketers have increased their use of exact- and phrase-match keywords, growing click-share of these terms by 7% and 3%, respectively.
Aside from exact- and phrase-match keywords, spend on Yahoo! and Bing rose 52%, compared with the year-ago quarter as advertisers built out their campaigns on the combined platform.
Advertisers also experienced a boost in effectiveness on the Yahoo!-Bing platform, reflected by a 6% rise in CTRs.
Bing is finally starting to pose a serious challenge to Google
Jun 8th
Google and Yahoo! both lost market share in terms of searches in May 2011 as Bing, Ask and other search engines made significant gains.
According to the latest Experian Hitwise figures, Google Sites were still responsible for over 90% of UK internet searches in May, accounting for 0.32% fewer searches than in April.
Year-on-year, Google Sites were also down by 1.40%, with a lower share of the search market than in May 2010.
Yahoo! Sites also lost search market share last month, dropping from 3.15% of all UK Internet searches in April to 3.08% in May.
The dip in performance for both Google and Yahoo! Sites can be attributed to Microsoft Bing’s growth in popularity.
Microsoft Sites, led by Bing, increased their market share of all UK Internet searches by 0.18% last month, taking the company to 4.26% of UK searches.
Microsoft also improved on its performance in the search market year-on-year with a 1.26% increase in searches. Although not as prominent as Bing, Ask Sites saw growth in May improving their market share of searches by 0.10% and the niche search engines included in the Other category also saw growth of 0.10% between April and May 2011.
Robin Goad, research director of Experian Hitwise, said: “Google is still very much in the driving seat when it comes to search, and May’s minor loss in market share does little to dent the 90% share Google has in this field.
“However, the more interesting trends are to look at year-on-year changes in the search market, where Microsoft is taking market share away from Google. The key will be if Microsoft can continue this trend and mount a stronger challenge on Google.”
Playing the search engine field with Bing and Google
Apr 7th
For those that are still playing the search engine field, Croatian Domagoj Pavlesic has come with a new search engine that will search both Bing and Google at the same time.
And you can see the two results side by side and make your ‘decision’ on who does it best when it comes to search.
Pavlesic’s www.bing-vs-google.com compares Bing and Google results in a split screen.
The best thing about this for marketers? It allows you to easily see how your sites rank and the description and title for each page, meaning you can see where to keep putting your money.
But will it last? It seems a risky endeavour to use both trademarks in a single domain name, especially because Microsoft is known to vigorously defend its marks.
However, there is no monetization of this simply site, so perhaps that sorts out the legals.
Back to the issue at hand though…
Clearly users are quiet happy to use both engines to get the result they are looking for. We do it all the time, especially in the marketing industry. We want to know where are search dollars are going. So which engine really is best and can anyone ever knock Google’s crown?
Social – the game changer for search in 2011
Feb 25th
It’s now been 18 months since Bing first launched in the UK. But with a market share of just 1.66%, we’re expecting to see some innovative plans soon to ensure its survival.
To give Bing credit, it has spent a large portion of its time in the UK in Beta testing. So now that it is openly in the market, and preparing to come out of Beta in Australia, the Microsoft-owned search engine is picking up its game.
Today, Microsoft has announced that the feature that highlights Facebook activity around some of Bing’s search results has been “extended” to include any and all URLs.
The tech giant said in a blog post that the expansion of its Facebook partnership – which was announced last October – was “part of a longer journey,” and that it played a complimentary role to the company’s efforts in adding a social layer to is results, as it did with Twitter.
The blog said: “This is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on those traces.
“As people spend more time online and integrate their offline and online worlds, they will want their friends’ social activity and their social data to help them in making better decisions. Integrating with Twitter data 16 months ago was one step, and exploring Facebook’s rich streams is another.
“If your friends have publicly liked or shared any of the algorithmic search results shown on Bing, we will now surface them right below the result.”
The Bing feature analyzes links that show up in its search results to see if Facebook friends have “liked” that particular URL.
Last week, Google unveiled a similar feature in the US, which takes advantage of data from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to display links that have been shared by other users.
According to many search experts, social is where search is headed in 2011 and there’s no doubt that Bing’s partnership with Facebook has potential to be a real game changer. Now it’s just down to raising some brand awareness.
Why everyone wants a piece of group buying
Feb 23rd
Virgin is exploring the launch of a “daily deals” service to rival Groupon, LivingSocial and Google, are group buying sites the latest bandwagon?
Since the launch of social networking and the phenomenal success of Facebook and then Twitter, we’ve been looking hard and long for that ‘next big thing’.
Well guess what? It has arrived – group buying.
While these sites have actually been around for a little over a year, it’s only recently that the rest of the world – outside the US where they first took off – have started to notice.
Why?
Reason number one: Search is becoming more social and more local.
Reason number two: The recession may be ver, but people are still struggling to spend up. Just take a look at the retail sector at the moment, it’s plain to see that consumers are only spending if there is a sale on. We’ve become more cautious with our money.
Reason number three: For all those advertisers that couldn’t quite work out how to use Facebook to their advantage, group buying sites have provided an entirely new angle. Deals…for everyone.
Competitive market or crowded?
Group buying sites have reinvented social sharing as well as email marketing. And how do we know its going to work? Some of the biggest players in digital are getting on board.
Today, Virgin announced its bid to enter the group buying market place. Back in January Google attempted to buy Groupon’s and after being rejected is planning to launch Google Offers.
Amazon invested heavily in LivingSocial and even Yahoo! was rumoured to have offered over $3bn to also acquire Groupon. Facebook is also said to be launching its own offering, Buy With Friends.
Then there is MySteal.co.uk and Groupola.co.uk as well as LivingSocial, which is set to launch in the UK soon.
In Australia, Microsoft has entered the group buying market with the launch of Cudo.com.au as part of a joint venture with two of the country’s largest print and digital media companies, NineMSN and PBL Media.
Warning
As good as discounts of up to 90% sound, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has already banned some of ads on group buying sites for being misleading.
Some consumers have also reported problems redeeming their vouchers, or bad customer service from the retailers.
But as this next big thing in digital continues to grow, perhaps we can put it down to teething problems. there’s no denying that group buying is definitely where retail marketing is headed for the future.
Going Places? You’ll need a map…
Sep 27th
The introduction of Facebook Places to the UK adds a new dimension to mobile marketing, with users of the world’s largest social network being able to post recommendations – and criticisms – of suppliers and destinations. Bruce Townsend, of ecommerce software specialist, Actinic, compares who’s who of mapping in the online world.
Mobile search has been growing for some time. With GPS now widely available on phones, more and more are location-related – currently around a third, according to Google. On our family holiday this year, when a mobile phone charger broke, we used mobile search to locate a supplier and find a replacement. Searches for restaurants and homes for sale are popular.
So, I thought it would be useful to cover the main sites where a business needs to be listed in order to appear in mobile and social search results.
This is the big one. Almost 90% of UK searches go through Google. Google Maps entries also feature in the main Google results for geographical searches, eg ‘pizza delivery birmingham’.
Nokia phones are the most popular in the world, and their Ovi Maps application now offers free satnav for life. Nokia lags behind in Europe and North America, but it’s new Symbian 3 operating system promises to breathe new life into the old dog.
Microsoft’s search engine lags behind Google in percentage terms, but its alliance with Yahoo! will more than double its market share. In desktop search and on Windows mobile devices, it’s still a force to consider.
Foursquare is the leader in geosocial networking, with numerous shops, restaurants and tourist destinations listed. It pioneered concepts such as the ‘Swarm’, where many users log in together at one place. It’s here that marketers are learning how to use this medium commercially.
Facebook added Places in response to Foursquare’s success. Although new and undeveloped, it promises a similar facility for Facebooks’s massive 400 million user base.
All of these sites are free and easy to sign up for. If footfall matters to you, you’d be crazy not to.
Google makes its first acquisition in the UK
Apr 12th
Google has made its first acquisition in the UK, and it’s not the kind of heavy -hitter you might expect the giant to snap up.
Visual search company, Plink, is just a two-man start-up, based out of Oxford. It’s founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin are now both joining Google to work on Google Goggles.
Publically launched just four months ago, the site shot past 50,000 users in just four short weeks.
The company’s first product, PlinkArt, enables users to identify paintings and artworks with just a snap from their phone’s camera. Once recognised, users can read information on the artwork and artist, share their favourite pieces with friends, or even order a print to hang on their wall.
“We started Plink to bring the power of visual search to everyone, and we’re delighted to be taking a big step towards that goal today,” said Cummins and Philbin in a posting on Plink’s company blog.
“Google has already shown that it’s serious about investing in this space with Google Goggles, and for the Plink team the opportunity to take our algorithms to Google-scale was just too exciting to pass up.” Read the rest of this entry »
Will this ad make you switch to Bing?
Mar 11th
This new ad for Microsoft’s Bing search engine is excellent. It goes right to the heart of the problem that many internet searches often have – finding what they really want, the first time.
As I’ve said before, Microsoft underwent extensive studies into how people used search engines, and what would make them switch before it even started to design Bing. It’s answer: the decision engine.
This ad, which is brilliant, funny and really speaks to consumers about what the offering is as well as its unique sell, will get me to try out Bing for sure.
I’ve loved Google, and I loved its Parisian Love ad, but I too, am sick of the information overload.
Bing is rising in the ranks but will it convince marketers?
Mar 8th
Earlier this month, Microsoft was launching an attack on Google saying its rival is anti-competitive. Today, Bing is launching an advertising assault on Google, but will all this child’s play convince marketers to come on board to this new, super-dooper decision engine?
Microsoft’s search engine may trail Google in searches, but when it comes to Fans on Facebook, the tech giant ranks number one!
To cement its position, Microsoft is set to launch a major advertising campaign that will encourage UK users to start using its Bing search engine.
The campaign will run across major TV stations – something Google only started doing last year after 10 years in the game – and will urge internet users to ‘Bing and decide’.
Microsoft wants to help searchers make more informed decisions. Of course, actually persuading people to move away from a search engine that, for many, has become synonymous with the internet is going to be a tough ask.
Bing is new, fresh and not another ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ project, according to Microsoft. Its attack on Google has been described as “trench warfare” and it won’t be over in days and months but years, warns the giant.
However, a study by Catalyst Group shows that although users like the new search engine, they are unlikely to switch.
A usability focus group, after using both engines, said they preferred Google, with only one third saying they liked Bing. That being despite the fact that 82% preferred Bing’s design, 64% preferred Bing’s organisation of features and another 64% preferred Bing’s refinement and filtering options.
With regards to relevance of results, the majority of users thought both engines preformed equally well. This goes to show how entrenched Google has become in our thinking when it comes to search.
When it came to paid ads it seems that again Bing came out top with users spending 150% more time looking at the ad space at the top of the page, possibly due to the refinement options available at the top of the page.
What makes Bing unique is its organization of results. Microsoft conducted extensive studies into how people used search engines, and what would make them switch before it even started to design Bing.
The challenge now for Microsoft is – as its own research revealed – that when choosing which search engine to use, the decision is subconscious. So even though studies show people might prefer Bing, most would stay with what they’re used to – Google.
Is that going to be the same chain of thought for advertisers and marketers?
The good news for Bing is its growing faster than Google did.
The bad news? It puts ads at bottom of the search page. Users of Bing don’t scroll through the search results as much as they would on Google because they don’t have to – by the very nature of Bing, the most relevant results are at the top. That’s the decision part…
This has consequences for ad placement. As users are less likely to scroll down, ads that are in the bottom half of the page will be seen less often hence placing a higher premium on getting a top PPC listing. This will encourage bidding wars, so it is likely that PPC rates in Bing will be higher than in Google.
But Bing is pushing hard to extend its advertising affiliate network. If advertisers are bidding more for Bing ads than Google ads, it will make Bing a more attractive proposition for affiliates than Google because an affiliate will earn more from Bing’s higher-priced ads.
In the long term, this could lead to Bing having a more extensive affiliate network than Google.
As anyone who is familiar with Microsoft knows, the company doesn’t release mature products. It instead launches to the marketplace as soon as possible and then relies on user feedback to fine-tune performance. So expect Bing to evolve, and quickly. Before you know it, we’ll be saying: “I Binged it”.
Microsoft vs Google in a case of the pot calling the kettle black
Mar 1st
Microsoft would obviously be among the first to say that leading firms should not be punished for their success, according to vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft Dave Heiner. So why is Microsoft verbally bashing Google out there in the media over antitrust and competition concerns?
It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black – and I will now share a Simpson episode to tell you why.
In season nine of the Simpsons (screened in 1998), an episode called ‘Das Bas’ saw Homer attracts the attention of Bill Gates when he starts his own internet company – Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net.
Here is some of the script that should illustrate Microsoft’s blatantly childish jealousy issues and the way the company is currently doing business:
GATES: Your internet ad was brought to my attention, but I can’t figure out what, if anything, CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet does, so rather than risk competing with you, I’ve decided simply to buy you out.
HOMER: I reluctantly accept your proposal!
GATES: Well everyone always does. Buy ‘em out, boys!
(Bill Gates companions begin to trash the “office”.)
HOMER: Hey, what the hell’s going on!
GATES: Oh, I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks!
Gates isn’t buying Homer’s company, he’s ‘trashing’ it – much the way, one could argue, that he is verbally trashing Google currently in the press.
Government competition agencies are increasingly focused on Google’s growing power in search and online advertising, according to Microsoft.
But don’t forget, government competition agencies have spent the past seven months investigating a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft that is thought to be ‘antitrust’ and ‘anticompetitive’ too.
Google is dominant in certain markets, including search advertising. Last year the DOJ told a federal court that Google’s book search plan is anticompetitive in several respects. (One big problem is that Google would help itself to essentially exclusive rights to tens of millions of books—effectively locking out everyone else.)
Last week, the European Commission said it was investigating various aspects of Google’s conduct, including claims of retaliation, exclusivity and manipulation of search results to disadvantage rivals. Google was reported by Ciao, a subsidiary of Microsoft.
On Microsoft’s blog today, it said, “Google’s public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere—at Microsoft.”
It says that Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors.
It’s worth asking whether Google’s response really addresses the concerns that have been raised. I’ve asked Google and I waiting to hear back…but will the search giant even dignify such allegations and join this childish fight?
When the Yahoo and Microsoft partnership was approved last month, many were singing the praises of the pair. Others, myself included, said that while it is good for competition, the pair have quite the task ahead of them if they are going to get consumers and advertisers to migrate away from Google (a brand they have stuck by for over ten years). How will they do it? I pondered.
Bashing, it seems. But Microsoft maintains that it is not alone in trying this business tactic:
Heiner says: “Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors. (I’ve seen plenty of competitor complaints. Novell, when current Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at the helm, was never hesitant about complaining to regulators about Microsoft. Google hasn’t been shy about raising antitrust concerns about Microsoft in the last few years, either.)
“This is the way that competition law agencies function: They look to competitors in the first instance to understand how particular markets operate, the practices of dominant firms and the competitive significance of those practices.
“Of course, as we have always said, it is vitally important that competition law authorities also listen to and assess the views of customers, business partners and everyone else affected by a dominant player’s business practices. Ultimately what’s important is not who is complaining, but whether or not the challenged practices are anticompetitive.”
Is Google anticompetitive? Or just too big to touch?
Publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies and others want to see real competition in search and online advertising, says Microsoft.
But if that is provided, what guarantees that people will switch?
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