Bing brings in the ad clicks
Microsoft has received a double dose of good news about Bing. Figures suggest that the new search engine is helping the firm get a bigger share of advertising clicks, while the brand itself is achieving an increasingly positive reputation.
While an increase in visitors to a search engine is always welcome, it’s arguable that clicks on adverts on results page are the most important statistic. After all, a site visitor who simply searches and then follows the results has done nothing but suck up the search firm’s bandwidth.
Although Microsoft has on occasions vied with Yahoo for second place in the percentage of Web searches (and appears to be fighting harder since Bing’s launch) it has been, and remains, a clear third when it comes to clicks on adverts with a share below 5 percent.
However, statistics from Efficient Frontier (which provided the pictured graph) show Microsoft’s share of online ad clicks rose consistently across the first two week’s of Bing’s launch, jumping a total of 13 percent (in comparison to its own position on launch day). That suggests there’s something to recent research suggesting Bing’s layout and operation is more likely to lead to clicks.
In a separate study, the Business Insider reports on a YouGov BrandIndex study apparently showing that only 7.9 percent of people questioned on June 8 (five days after the official launch) recognized the Bing brand as a search engine, but that the figure was up to 25 percent this week. That would be seen as vindication of Microsoft’s heavy marketing spend on the brand.
However, the story may have misinterpreted YouGov’s figures (which are not publicly available). Business Insider’s report goes on to say the same study found only around 52 to 57 percent of people are aware of Google. It doesn’t make any mention of this seeming incredibly low.
If the figures come from the usual BrandIndex set-up, they actually relate to public perception (rather than awareness) and are a score rather than a percentage. This involves asking people whether they feel positively or negatively about a brand, or have a neutral opinion. The score is the percentage saying “positive” minus the percentage saying “negative” (so a minus score is possible).
Assuming this is the case, the message is that Bing has a good and improving reputation, but one that is still someway behind Google.
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