Bing doesn’t show ads for queries around Super Bowl commercials, while Google does

While Google is again this year showing ads in their results for queries related to Super Bowl ads, Bing has apparently decided not to show any paid results for those types of queries.

The Bing decision to not show search ads for queries like “super bowl ads” and “super bowl commercials” is consistent with what Microsoft’s head of search evangelism Christi Olson told the audience at SMX West last week, saying that the company doesn’t aim to look exactly like Google. The primary goal, she said, is not to drive revenue, and, therefore, Bing will often choose not to monetize search results — unlike Google, she implied.

By the way, the engines took the same approach last year, when Google had ads but Bing did not for these types of queries.

Google’s search results, with ads. Here are screenshots that our very own Ginny Marvin posted on Twitter, showing Google’s search results with ads for queries related to Super Bowl ads.

Bing’s search results, without ads. Compare that to Bing’s search results that show no ads:

Why it matters. Those advertisers looking to drive searchers to the online components of their Super Bowl campaigns, or just reach people interested in watching advertising, were out of luck again this year on Bing. But of course, Google let advertisers target such keywords on their search results pages, likely because many of the Super Bowl commercials have a second life on Google-owned YouTube.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.