Google AdWords wasn’t the first search engine to come out with the PPC model, but they certainly are the biggest and most well known today. Does that mean you should ignore other engines like Bing?

No! In fact, there are many marketers who are making a full-time living on search engines like Bing without spending any money on Google at all.

What are the differences between AdWords and Bing and why might you choose one over the other? Here are the differences.

Conversion Rates

Out of AdWords, Yahoo and Bing, Bing traffic tends to convert the best. That means that out of 1,000 visitors, you’ll tend to get more sales from Bing than AdWords or Yahoo traffic.

There are many theories about why that is. One common theory is that people using Google tend to be more computer savvy users and more discerning about where they spend their money.

Bing users on the other hand tend to be people who just left their browsers on their default search engines. They’re less discerning with their money and their internet habits.

Volume

This is where Google AdWords wins hands down. For any given keyword, you can expect to get 10% or less with Bing than what you’d get if you bid on the same keyword in AdWords.

Does that mean you can’t make significant money on Bing? No, it just means your strategy needs to be different.

Bidding Strategy

Generally, with AdWords you don’t want to go for high-profile, high-competition keywords with high volume. The bid prices are just too high.

With Bing however, it’s different. Bing’s PPC bids tend to be a little bit cheaper than AdWords. There also tends to be less competition.

That means that on AdWords a keyword like “Lose lower belly fat” may be far too competitive and expensive. On the other hand, on Bing there will be competition but you may have a good shot at making money with the keyword.

Basically, on Bing you’ll need to take advantage of the lower competition to bid on broader keywords. This will help you offset the lower search volume: You increase your total traffic by bidding on higher traffic keywords.

AdWords versus Bing

There are many similarities in strategies between AdWords and Bing. The principles of writing great ads and split testing carefully apply to both systems equally. Choosing the right keywords is as important in one as it is the other.

On the flip side, these two systems require very different strategies to master. AdWords often requires drilling down to very precise keywords in order to create profitable campaigns.

On Bing, your main challenge is often getting enough volume rather than getting your traffic to convert.

Each search engine is different and need different approaches. There’s a lot of money to be made in both.