Google Ads vs. Bing Ads: Which is better for your small business?

Figuring out how to best advertise your small business online can be a big challenge, especially when you’re working with a limited advertising budget.

While you will often hear digital advertising experts advocating for organic methods such as SEO, local SEO, and organic social media marketing, these techniques typically aren’t the best for yielding timely results. Search engine optimization and organic social media strategies can take a considerable amount of time and refinement to reach their full potential.

But many small business owners are in a position that calls for a quick return on their advertising investment. This is where paid search enters the conversation.

What is paid search?

Paid search is a digital marketing strategy that allows online advertisers to bid on specific keywords in an auction. The highest bidders have their advertisements appear higher in the search results—designated as ads or sponsored listings—when someone searches for that specific keyword.

Paid search marketing—also known as pay-per-click advertising—is popular on platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads (now called Microsoft Advertising). However, trying to decide between the two can be a challenge.

In this article we’ll look at how each of these platforms work, how they complement certain small businesses and their target audiences, and how to leverage each to create the ultimate one-two punch that will elevate your online advertising performance to new heights.

Google Ads Management for Small Businesses

Google Ads Management for small businesses is typically where most small business owners and search engine marketing agencies lean first. And this is no surprise since Google is the gold standard when it comes to online search.

The Google Ads platform can accommodate almost any need when promoting your products and services online. Whether you are focused on lead generation or branding initiatives, the Google Ads platform has a solution designed for your search engine marketing objectives.

Let’s talk about a few of the primary Google Ads formats to help you become familiarized with your options.

Google Search Ads

Most small businesses will begin with Google Search Ads Management services. Here you can create an account, set up your advertising campaign, perform keyword research, and dial in your paid search strategy to focus on your prospective customers geographically (and even focus your targeting down to the zip code).

Here you will also create or write ads to inform your target audience about your products and services, the value and benefits of your company, any promotions or special offers you have available, and other types of calls to action (CTAs).

The best part of Google Search Ads is that—unlike traditional methods of advertising—you only pay when someone decides to click on your ads, which is why Google Ads is also known as a form of pay-per-click Advertising (PPC). As a result, Google Ads is perfect for lead generation, and—if set up and optimized correctly—it can become one of the most profitable digital marketing strategies for your small business.

Google Display Ads

For small businesses that are looking to add a branding element to their paid search strategy, Google Display Ads are an excellent choice. Here you can build creative content through static or animated images and even short video clips to promote your products and services.

However, your ads will appear in the Google Display Network instead of in Google’s search results. Website owners who are a part of the Google Display Network allow Google and Google’s advertisers to publish their advertising content on the participating websites.

Advertisers are able to reach their audiences based on unique targeting capabilities. This includes targeting based on demographics and psychographic features and can be especially useful if you know who your customers are based on their age, gender, marital status, interests, and a variety of other behaviors. This can also help you reach people who are not actively searching for your products or services but who could be potential customers soon.

Google Remarketing

Google Remarketing allows small businesses to capitalize on every time someone visits their website from either a Google Search or Display Ad. Here’s a fact that you should know when it comes to paid search advertising: customers are 70% more likely to make a purchase from a retargeting ad. [1] This allows you to continue to feature your ad content to people who had previously visited your website or landing page from your Google Ads or Display Campaign.

What makes this feature so powerful is that you can continue to serve individuals who had previously engaged with your ad content. This creates opportunities to get visitors to call you, fill out a contact form, or complete a purchase on your website.

You can also incorporate other Google Ads services into your strategy based on your business model. This can include features like Google Shopping Ads or—one of the latest additions to their repertoire of offerings—Local Services Ads.

Local Service Ads, or LSAs, are Google’s version of pay-per-lead advertising, which have been dominated for the last decade by websites like Home Advisor, Angi, and others. With these capabilities and many targeting features, Google Ads is a Goliath when it comes to online advertising.

Microsoft Bing Advertising for Small Businesses

Bing Ads, or Microsoft Advertising, is often hailed as the cheaper alternative to Google when it comes to paid search or pay-per-click advertising. And for a small business that might be on a shoestring budget, Microsoft’s advertising platform can help you stretch your advertising dollar a little further than Google.

Incorporating Microsoft Advertising into your paid search strategy can help drive cheaper clicks that will inevitably result in more affordable leads for your small business. And with recent advancements in the Microsoft Advertising platform, setting up is easier than ever before.

For small business owners who have existing Google Ads Accounts, Microsoft Advertising even offers an import tool that allows you to move your entire Google Search Ads setup directly into their platform. This can help you reduce the time it takes to build and launch a campaign so that you can begin running your Microsoft Advertising campaign quickly and with minimal effort.

Like Google, Microsoft Advertising also offers many advertising services beyond simple search engine ads. This includes features like Microsoft Advertising Display Ads and Remarketing Ads with Microsoft Advertising. Running campaigns through Microsoft Advertising also comes with many of the same targeting capabilities found on Google.

Microsoft Ads also provides more device targeting controls, which allow you to target specific audiences based on their device type and operating system, or even set your ads to only appear on mobile devices if you choose not to target desktop users.

Finally, Microsoft Advertising also offers greater transparency with their platform, specifically when it comes to disclosing their search partners. This allows advertisers to see exactly where their traffic is coming from across Microsoft’s search network. It even breaks down performance metrics from each source to enable you to decide where to focus your advertising.

The Pros and Cons of Bing Ads vs Google Ads

Now that we have looked at both platforms, it’s time to examine the pros and cons of Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising) vs Google Ads. 

When stacking these two platforms against each other, Google undoubtedly has more to offer to small business owners. Especially SMBs who have diverse audiences, need greater reach, and want to focus on driving results at scale.

However, for small business owners who cater to older demographics with higher incomes, who need cheaper clicks to help stay within a limited budget, and who want greater control over how their ads are deployed and optimized, then Bing Ads—aka Microsoft Advertising—is the better choice for you.