5 Reasons to Choose Bing for PPC Advertising
By Mark 
It’s an eternal question for anyone who uses the Internet: which search engine do you use?
For many years, Google competed closely with options like Yahoo, AltaVista, and even Ask.com.
But in today’s search engine landscape, Google has mostly completed its domination of the market, with 63% of US Internet users choosing Google as their preferred search engine in 2018.
When it comes to PPC advertising, though, the choice isn’t quite so clear. Here’s why.
The rise of LegitScript
Confronted with controversy over shady practices by unethical treatment providers, Google made a decision in 2018 to mostly ban addiction treatment advertising from its popular Google Ads programs.
Instead, it asked reputable treatment centers to register through its LegitScript process, essentially proving to Google that the companies were running legitimate, client-focused businesses, not scams or cut-rate operations.
Since LegitScript is so new, there are still lots of questions within the treatment industry about how it works and when (and why) applications are approved. But we’ll save that for another article.
What Google’s decision means for most treatment centers—even those applying for LegitScript certification—is that in the meantime, there’s one primary Pay-Per-Click advertising provider that reaches a big enough audience to justify spending: Microsoft’s Bing.
What is Bing?
Bing accounts for roughly 25% of the market share for US search engine users, so it’s no trivial service. Touted by Microsoft as an alternative to Google, Bing is the default browser on Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer 11 browsers. And, since more people worldwide use Windows and PCs than Macs, many people worldwide will use Bing simply because it’s easily available.
There are a few other details that set Bing apart:
- 78% of Bing users use the search engine every day.
- More males use Bing than females.
- The majority of people using Bing are over the age of 45.
- Fewer people use Bing on smartphones than Google.
How does advertising on Bing compare to Google?
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
Because the audience on Bing is smaller, the cost per call on Bing tends to be significantly higher than Google. You’ll also likely see fewer clicks and fewer impressions overall.
But never fear, there are still situations where Bing is a good choice for your PPC ads. Here are a few criteria where Bing is a solid choice:
- You are awaiting your LegitScript certification but need to keep generating PPC leads.
- You already have a budget in Google Ads but have extra funds to spend on PPC advertising somewhere else.
- You run an all-male facility, so it makes sense to allocate 10-20% of your PPC budget to Bing, where a higher number of men are searching.
- You are looking for referrals from family members, so Bing is a good fit because it skews older, the demographic that typically refers younger clients.
- You are looking to increase your admissions rate—while Bing costs more upfront, the end-stage admissions rate for Bing leads is slightly higher.
While Bing isn’t the perfect platform for PPC ads, it’s a good option if you’re awaiting certification from Google or can make it work for the unique aspects of your business or clientele.
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