Back in July, we looked at how often Bing users clicked on ads when compared to Google and Yahoo! users. Bing users showed a 50% higher ad click rate than Googlers, so at the time our preliminary conclusion was that Bing’s success was being driven in a big part by Microsoft’s huge, expensive advertising blitz.
Now that December is upon us, and Bing keeps showing its ability to push Google from a technology standpoint, we decided to revisit and see how the numbers were looking. As it turns out, Bing users are still clicking on ads at a prodigious rate – in fact, the CTR of users who come to the Chitika network via Bing is over 75% higher than those who come from Google.
Now, it must be mentioned that Bing is still a distant third place in terms of traffic sent – Google dominates with 84% of search traffic, followed by Yahoo! at 7.40%, and Bing holding at 5.75% (AOL and Ask both have just over 1% of search traffic coming into the Chitika network). However, all things being considered the same, driving one Bing user (or AOL or Ask user) to your site can be more valuable than driving one Google user.
The Raw Numbers:
| Search Engine | Ad Clicks | Impressions | Ad CTR | % of Search | CTR Vs. Google |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AOL | 42,597 | 1,706,858 | 2.50% | 1.27% | 253.56% |
| Ask | 34,437 | 1,958,490 | 1.76% | 1.45% | 178.65% |
| Bing | 134,536 | 7,741,724 | 1.74% | 5.75% | 176.57% |
| 1,115,452 | 113,332,938 | 0.98% | 84.13% | 100% | |
| Yahoo! | 136,506 | 9,972,035 | 1.37% | 7.40% | 139.08% |
Numbers are based on a sample of traffic from the Chitika advertising network.
About Chitika
Chitika, Inc., is a search-based online advertising network, leading the way in intent-based advertising and search engine insights. Chitika provides publishers with an innovative way to monetize search engine traffic, and advertisers a new way of generating leads with clear consumer intent. With over 60,000 sites and 2 billion monthly impressions, the Chitika network is the pulse of the online world. Through research and targeting, Chitika continually evolves its image as “the ad network that knows when not to show ads.” For more information, visit http://chitika.com
Contact:
Daniel Ruby
Research Director, Online Insights
Chitika, Inc.
+866.441.7203 x966
press@chitika.com
These are interesting statistics that tell a story. But what is the story? It might go like this: People who are more web savvy, i.e. more technical, tend to use Google while others (hotmail users perhaps) are less so. They use Bing and they tend to click on ads more. Just hypothesizing…
I think that hypothesis is pretty much it. People getting their first Windows computer, which is of course bundled with IE, which of course has Bing as the default search engine. I suspect after Christmas, Bing will have a surge in traffic, but as the new computer owners become more knowledgeable, they will migrate to Firefox and Google. The cycle will probably repeat again next year as well.
I did similar survey and found similar trends. Bing visitors, visiting 56% more pages compared to Google. Also bounce rate for Google visitors is 52% higher vs Bing. Similar trend occurs for time spent on a website.
You can see full survey results at:
http://www.vicconsult.com/surveys/google-vs-yahoo-versus-bing.html
yeah.. bing traffic resulting great convert, hope will last long :p
The only problem with this stat is all of other search engines combined only makes up 16% of total searches. So what if their conversion is higher, there’s not enough of them to matter.
The stats show that the more popular the search engine the less likely that a user will click on the ad. I don’t see how one can say from these stats that more technical web savvy users use Google and less technical ones do not. I consider myself fairly technical, work in IT, am an electrical engineer (I am currently converting my regular laptop into a touch screen; lots of electronics in doing that), and I actually prefer Bing and Yahoo over Google. I started using Bing in June after years of being a diehard Googler and sometimes Yahooligan. Now Bing is my primary search for all but YouTube stuff. To each his or her own.
I also see that my goal convert higher when it comes to Bing traffic these days.
It’s so funny to see Google so low… and AOL so high! 🙂
I get more click through with Bing and Yahoo. I do not get much traffic from AOL so I really can not compare. A lot of it depends on the page that they arrive at (keywords).
The more technical pages are usually Google. The stories and news items seem to get more traffic from Yahoo.
really an useful insight about ad clicks. Thank you.
My theory is that google has more webmasters searching than bing and aol and most webmasters know the difference between an advertisement and a natural link.
Most webmasters are interested in their rankings and their competition so visits from them on your site doesn’t involve ad clicks or conversions, which explains the high traffic from google and the low conversions or clicks.
I would guess that 50% or more of the searches google gets every day are from webmasters checking their rankings or their links or their competitions rankings and links. There are over a billion websites on the internet and most webmasters check the rankings of their sites at least once a month. I know I do.
Base on their statistics, its really competitive,in each group.As what i know some people used Bing in a past few months. I hope it work so well..
http://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=ruthie29
I think the first two comments pretty much summed it up: Inexperienced users, or new computer owners tend to click on ads, or will use the default browser (IE) that came bundled with their machines.
Interesting insightful information about ad stuff. cool.
I agree with Scott but I think that 50% is a little much for webmasters checking their rankings.
You are right, Sava. Webmasters do not constitute 50% of the internet traffic. They click more then regular users, but seen from the big picture, it is just a drop in the Ocean. That said, Bing is relativley new, It doesn’t give that many results when you do a search, so users perhaps click on ads out of desperation 🙂
Is it not simply because Google may have more advertisers in each auction? More ad density per query – Google may show 8 impressions for a query while Yahoo may show 5. If each received one click for that query, then Google’s ad CTR is 1/8= 12.5% and Yahoo’s is 1/5=20%.
my traffic most from Google，Other search growth, is a good news,After all, there is competition, beneficial development.
That’s very interesting. Makes me want to optimize for BING more than ever. 🙂
I just wish that Chitika would add other world parts to their target market as I know that places like UK, AU and Gulf states have a lot of potential regarding buying consumable electronics, travel and aviation services.
At the end of the day, whether it’s purely coincidental or not, traffics from Bing is all that matters for our ultimate conversions =)
bad for me.. my traffic are all google, will try to rank in bing and aol as well.
No one has brought up the main reason I click on ads. When I visit a site and find the content presented useful I always click on an ad. Obviously if the site is showing ads they are getting paid by their advertisers, probably on a per click basis. So I click to pay the site for the useful info they provided. Effectively transferring money from the advertiser to the site. Yes, the advertiser is getting the short end of the stick, but until there is an efficient and widely used micro-payment system, this will have to do.
I need to work a lot to get the traffic from bing then! Bing takes lot of time to index any website, very bad search engine.
Can i make a recommendation? I think that you have got something decent here. But imagine you added in a few links to a page that backs up exactly what you’re telling? Or perhaps you could give us a little something to take a look at, anything that would be connected what you are stating to one thing real? Just a suggestion.
Have you thought about adding some form of bookmarking buttons or links on blog posts?