Reports: Bing Gains Among Retailers, At Local Level Too

In this post I’m combining two search trends reports: early Q4 search spending data from SearchIgnite and excerpts from a terrific Q3 local search spending report from WebVisible. Both show gains by Bing. The WebVisible report also shows significant improvements by Yahoo.

Based on “41 million clicks on Google, Yahoo! and Bing during Q3-Q4 of 2008 and 2009,” SearchIgnite found that Bing is doing well with retailers (and e-commerce consumers):

Retailers have spent 47% more on search ads on Bing in Q4 this year than during this same time period in 2008, with Bing now accounting for 8% of all US retailer search spend, compared with only 6% in the first half of Q4 2008. Average order values on Bing are 21% higher than across all engines, which could account for the spend growth.

Compared with Google and Yahoo!, Bing also saw better YoY performance for impressions and clicks.

Source: SearchIgnite, November 2009

Local search marketing firm and platform provider WebVisible showed improvement by Bing and Yahoo vs. Google among small business advertisers. Here are the top-line trends the firm identified in Q3:

• In Q3 2009, Google accounted for 60.4% of search advertising spending. Yahoo! accounted for 26.2%, Bing 10.5% and Ask 2.4%. Google lost 5 points year-over-year (YoY) as spend shifted among the other engines.
• CTR on Bing improved by 76% YoY, while Google CTR increased by 52% in that period. Yahoo! showed the most dramatic improvement in CTR, with a YoY increase of 123%
• Average CPCs are on the rise, with Google up 14% over a year ago. Google’s average CPC was approximately 30% higher than Yahoo! or Bing in Q3 2009.

WebVisible speculates that higher CPCs on Google are contributing to “diversification” of more search ad spending across engines:

Share of Small Business Search Advertising Spend by Search Engine

Source: WebVisible, November 2009

That’s undoubtedly true because WebVisible works with a range of local media companies that manage search campaigns for small business advertisers. Those companies are always seeking to decrease their costs and protect margins.

The company said that “32% of search clicks resulted in a conversion action on an advertiser’s Web site.” Here is the range of actions taken by those clicking-through:

Percent of Converting Clicks Resulting in Action, Q3 2009

Source: WebVisible, November 2009