Bing: The Art of Buying Share

Home
Rkgblog
Bing: The Art of Buying Share

Bing: The Art of Buying Share

Title:	Bing: The Art of Buying Share
URL:	http://www.rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog/2009/06/30/bing-market-share/
Printed:	February 9, 2010
Source:	The Rimm-Kaufman Group Blog, info@rimmkaufman.com

George Michie
June 30, 2009
4 comments

We hope Bing grows its base and becomes a major contender in the PPC Landscape. Competition is good; domination is bad. From the get go, we’ve been doubtful that an advertising blitz, even on the scale MSN is contemplating, will make users switch engines.

Looking at the initial launch, and the hoopla surrounding it, it would be easy to suggest that there has been some movement.

Looking at the week before and the four weeks subsequent to its launch, one could conclude that Bing did gain a share of impressions initially, and that led to a greater share of click more recently — signs of hope!

However, when one steps away from the microscope and looks at the longer term trends, the last four weeks “trends” appear to be more like random statistical noise.

The media blitz has just begun, I know, but until these numbers change meaningfully, I hope everyone will pardon us for turning our attention back to the other 95% of the game.

If you like this post, consider subscribing to our RSS feed. You can also have new posts sent to you via email.

Bing Click Share Update Is Bing gaining share?...
Bing: Bang or Bust? Some PPC Data Bing hasn't stolen much traffic yet, but the traffic it has taken seems to be high quality and the source may surprise people....
Bing: A Closer Look at the Numbers A more careful study yields a different perspective....
Online Retail Sales Stats: Consumers Buying But Spending Less As November begins, the situation has become bleaker....

Comments

Marc Adelman, June 30, 2009:

George,

Thanks for sharing this data. From an online buzz perspective, Bing is making a big splash. Everyone is talking about it. Will it grow to rival Google - uh, I would be shocked? Google ain’t broke - and insane marketing spend alone won’t take users away from what they have overwhelmingly chosen as their search engine of choice.

On the online marketing front though - Bing is still the same red headed step child as Live Search….MSN…whatever the name might be today. Yes, they have changed more than just the name - but they still represent 5% or so of the search market and therefore 5% of the total potential revenue for any company involved in search engine marketing.
Guy P, July 8, 2009:

I predict Bing will continue to gain direct market share from Google.

Googlge being Google has again decided to run their spam filter test during the summer and wiped out a lot of good websites thus angering many webmasters. Not to mention, depending on whay you search for, Google results are pure trash right now and Bing results are much better.

In the past, Google could do that because what alternative did searchers have, then even Google worst results were better than the competitors best results.

This time, that is not the case and people have noticed in a big way. The very people who by word of mouth made Google what it is and now that Google has turned a blind eye to the webmasters, Bing is going to get a lot more attention.

I’ve been a Google supporter since they started and I’ve switched and don’t miss Google at all and in fact find Bing a much more pleasant search experience.
George Michie, July 9, 2009:

Thanks for your comments, gentlemen.

I always believed that Google was vulnerable to the extent that it’s just an algorithm. If someone figured out a better mechanism for determining what people want when they type “X” into a search window users would migrate quickly.

I haven’t spent enough time on Bing to determine whether it provides a better experience for me. To Marc’s point, I haven’t had any problem finding what I want from Google, so I haven’t needed to look for something better. That may be the barrier Bing faces. If Google is “fine” and people are used to it, those habits can be hard to break.