Are You A Florist That Likes Google AdWords? You Might Love Bing Ads

At the recent SAF Profit Blast event in Austin TX there were some interesting discussions about Bing Ads, the Bing version of Google AdWords. This by the way is a great example of why FloristWare is so committed to attending industry events.

By this time most florists are, hopefully, familiar with AdWords. And, ideally, they are running AdWords campaigns to protect their brands online if nothing else. Some stores are of course more aggressive, running larger AdWords campaigns in their local markets.

In Austin one of the most successful florists in Texas (Charles Ingrum of Dr. Delphinium in Dallas) was generous enough to share his experiences with the Bing equivalent to Google AdWords, Bing Ads. Charles reported that clicks from Bing Ads cost roughly half as much as the same clicks from Google AdWords, and convert approximately twice as often. This means double the sales for half the cost!

A lot of florists are missing out. If they are doing any PPC to promote their flower shop they are likely focussed on Google AdWords, and it's easily to overlook Bing, which has traditionally had a much smaller market share.

In terms of total market share, including “powered by” search, Google controlled 63.9 percent of US search query volume, while Bing powered 33.1 percent of organic search on the desktop.

That has changed. When you factor in the Yahoo search results that Bing powers, Bing now accounts for more than 30% of searches. Bing is most definitely relevant, especially when you factor in the lower cost-per-click and better conversion rates.

Because so many online advertisers (including florists) continue to overlook Bing there is less demand for keywords, and that means lower prices.

The demographics are also very interesting and help account for the higher conversion rate.

...the demographics of Bing’s dedicated users tend to be older, college graduates and more affluent.  Unsurprisingly, these individuals also tend to spend more money online.

So Bing users are more likely to purchase (hence the higher conversion rate) but they are also more likely to make larger purchases:

ComScore found that Yahoo Bing Network searchers spend 6.8 percent more money online than Google searcher.

Ryan Freeman of Strider Search Marketing, an SEO expert that specializes in online marketing for florists, also reports great results using Bing Ads. His company is happy to help florists with both their Google AdWords and Bing Ads campaigns. This a great approach for those flower shops that are too busy to tackle it themselves, or want expert guidance, or are new to PPC.

Florists that are already running their own Google AdWords campaigns can use a free tools provided by Microsoft that will help them import their existing AdWords campaigns into Bing Ads. This is a real time saver for anyone that has already invested in crafting an AdWords campaign for their flower shop.

Cheaper clicks, better conversion, greater spending, easy migration... this is one of those opportunities that is too good to pass up. Years from now florists will look back and fondly recall the good ol' days when Bing Ads were relatively cheap and unspoiled. Take advantage of it while you can.