Bing Ads Vs Google Ads. Which is Better For Advertisers?

Throughout my years in the world of online marketing, I have used both Bing Ads & Google Ads (used to be Adwords) to make money (six figures) through the internet.

In this post, not only will I give you proof of this six figure claim, but I will also explain which place is better for you to use (if not both) to make money online and that’s because I have had both good and VERY bad experiences with each network that I want you to avoid.

One thing I want to point out is that if you’re using PPC for your online marketing, it is ideal to use both networks, but because one is usually far more strict to work with (Adwords), you may find that Bing Ads is better in some cases, but the profit potential will always be higher with the former.

Before I show you the pros and cons of each network to help you decide which is better to use, let me show some of the proof I have with each network:

Let the competition begin:

The pros of using Google Ads (GA) > Bing Ads:

1) Google Ads offers up to 2 or more times more in potential traffic.

Since nearly 70% of all search traffic centers around Google (and YouTube now, which is part of Google), proportionally, it means using Google Ads would get you more traffic. See official Google Ads site.

2) Google Ads is easier to use for PPC marketers of all levels.

While they certainly have their issues, the tour they give with tips is better for beginners to use.

3) Generally, Google Ads has easier set up instructions.

While I like Bing Ads, I gotta give the learning curve being easier to Google Ads. Sometimes even I get lost with using Bing Ads.

4) It has much better analytical tools.

 Their conversion tracking will help you spot which exact keyword/s make you sale/s. The other network for me personally was a lot more difficult to set up conversion tracking with and even when I did, it still wasn’t precise.

5) There’s a MUCH better ad ranking system.

Your ad could be in higher positions against competitors and pay less. GA cares more about the quality of the site/ad than about how much you’re paying. This offers incentive to provide good sites for visitors.

Cons (Where Google Ads loses points):

1) Google Ads can be very unforgiving to work with (I personally know).

They can slap your site/ad and even suspend your account and you won’t be able to contact them or argue your case (see bridge page shutdowns).

I’ve had this happen twice to me and during the two times it happened, I couldn’t do anything to reinstate my account, until a few years later, I finally got the account back.

Note: If your Ads account was suspended, please share your story below! And know there are alternatives to using Google Ads (besides Bing Ads).

2) Google Ads generally doesn’t like sites with affiliate links.

They say they don’t mind it, but my experience has shown otherwise. They tend to give you a lower quality score for sites with affiliate links. See the above bridge page link because this is what they associate many affiliates sites with.

And the main reason both my accounts were originally shut down was indeed because I tried doing affiliate marketing on their network.

3) It can be a mine field to use for beginners.

Unless you possess good PPC training, odds are Google Ads will end up giving your site/s a low quality score and make you pay more. If you don’t have good experience with this business. Get free training here.

The pros of using Bing Ads > Google Ads:

1) There’s a lot more flexibility with what you can advertise, including affiliate offers.

I’ve personally advertised sites through Bing Ads that would be never be able to work on Google Ads because they would be categorized as low quality and successfully made money through them. One particular ad brought me more than 6 figures in profits a year. This was done on a 1 page site I advertised on Bing Ads.

And in 2020 I can still safely practice affiliate marketing on this network (And I do).

2) Customer service is always there for you and are very courteous.

You can literally contact them. Google doesn’t offer as much of this. At one point they didn’t at all, but now it’s there, yet, I’ll get way more answers and leniency out of Bing Ads any day over Google Ads support.

3) It’s not just Bing you advertise on when you use it’s ad network.

It’s also Duck Duck Go, Yahoo and other search partners and that equates to about 20% of the search market of people who use search engines. That amount of millions of potential customers. 

4) Some places in the world prefer using Bing > Google.

You’d certainly have to research this first, but certain places prefer one search engine over another and if you’re advertising a product to an area which prefers using Bing, use Bing Ads for maximum profit potential!

5) Do not neglect that 20-30% of traffic Bing Ads can drive to your site.

It makes a big difference, especially in competitive niche markets and overtime, it can truly add up to huge earnings. See this additional case study.

6) I have made about $300,000 from Bing Ads alone.

There are 2 major promotions I used with Bing Ads to make me this amount:

First, I made about $200,000 with one diet campaign. Here is the case study (it’s a one page site).

And second, I still promote a program called Wealthy Affiliate on Bing Ads, and it has reached over $300,000 in profits. And it just so happens this Wealthy Affiliate is what originally taught me about using Bing Ads through their Bootcamp program.

Then there are also other promotions that had short term profit results.

The fact with these promotions is that I was able to make this money through Bing Ads alone and I would not have had that opportunity because these same campaigns would like be shut down with Google Ads.

The cons of using Bing Ads in general:

1) Their support, although available most of the time don’t know what they’re doing.

If you call them up because you’re having trouble with your ad/s, they will give you some sort of general advice which won’t help you out. I always recommend speaking to a supervisor. They know a little bit more than the average BA support staffer.

2) This network seems to have a lot of bureaucracy mixed with inexperience.

I’ve had SO many cases where Bing didn’t know why my ads weren’t showing and couldn’t offer me any help except basic troubleshooting issues. In the end, their system’s flaws were the issue, not me and to get to that conclusion, I had to wait while the support team kept escalating my issue to one team after another.

I have gotten to a point where I actually fear calling up BA in fear that they may accidentally do something wrong with my account again causing me to lose money (again).

3) Resolving ad issues may take months (I’m not kidding, I was a victim of this nonsense).

This reason will explain why I fear calling them. In short, they can be worse than the government when it comes to handling inquires! Let me share a true horror story with you:

My ad which I mentioned above made me 6 figures in a year also encountered some SERIOUS issues when it first went up. It stopped running after being up for 2 months. I didn’t know why. 

My CC was working, I was paying all my fees, my quality score was 9/10. I escalated this issue and waited WEEKS to hear their response but whenever I did get a call (They will always follow up with you), their explanation was “we’re still looking into this”. 

After waiting more than a month and missing out on 5 figure profits in that time (no joke, it’s related to that 1 page website case study), I decide to open up a NEW account through a friend and run my ad there. The result? SUCCESS! The ad was running and I continued my project there.

Then 6 months after this incident took place, I received a call from Bing saying they FINALLY figured out the problem. What was it? Apparently, my ad’s budget was too high and as a result, their system shut it down. But who knew this? Not the support staff, not the supervisors, NOT EVEN the people who designed this algorithm! I escalated this issue everywhere I could and NO one knew the issue. 

Moral of the story?

If you encounter a problem with BA and they can’t do anything about it within a week, make a new account through a friend and continue it there. Had I waited for them to figure things out, I would have missed out on 6 MONTHS of profits! How freaking insane is that!? Don’t ever wait for these guys! Use my suggestions and you’ll be happy!

If you’ve had a similar experience with Bing ads, please share your story below!

4) Their conversion tracking is pretty bad.

Google Ads again has them beat here, no questions and this is an understatement. Let me give you another example: I have 10 clicks for 1 ad show up for 1 day. The conversion tracking will tell me I have 80 conversions during that day. How is that possible? It isn’t. Their conversion tracking is decades behind Google Ads.

One very important commonality between these 2 networks:

The same rules on CTR, Impressions & Quality score apply to both Google and Bing Ads. The higher your quality score, the less you’ll pay and the better your CTR will be.

It’s very important to know this and properly utilize it and understand how to improve the quality score of your ads in order to pay less and potentially learn more from your ads.

Verdict: Google Ads has more potential, but is tougher to work with than Bing Ads.

Yet do not underestimate Bing, I don’t and I’m glad for it because over the years (and I said it adds up), I’ve earned well over $300,000 in profits. I document some of these earnings in this report on Clickbank. The 1 page website that earned me money promoted a Clickbank product and that page will explain the details.

Although Google Ads is way better in many of it’s cases, Bing did and still does offer me a ton of opportunities to experiment and provides a hell of a lot more leniency with ads. I’ve had many successful PPC campaigns through Bing which would never have seen the light of day through Adwords. 

 

Had I only depended on Adwords, I would be missing out on tons of profits and vise versa. The point is that you absolutely have to utilize both places for the best results. Though they are different, 95% of all the same successful methods I personally use work for both organizations meaning you can run the same successful ad via both places and earn a good CTR and profit.

Again if you’re new to PPC, I highly recommend getting training from the same Wealthy Affiliate program that I learned from how to use these 2 networks.