Bing Ads for Pest Control: Why You Should Spend 10% of Your Google Budget Here

Running Bing ads for pest control companies is one of the smartest moves most operators overlook. Microsoft Ads for pest control businesses consistently deliver cheaper clicks and less competition than Google. If you’re already running paid search for pest control, Bing should be part of your strategy. Most pest control companies don’t even think about Bing Ads.

But if 5-10% of people use Bing, why wouldn’t you want to show up in front of them? Especially when clicks are 20-30% cheaper than Google. I run Pest Control SEO, and I’ve set up Bing Ads for dozens of pest control companies. Let me show you the key differences and why this should be part of your marketing stack.

What Are the Key Differences Between Bing Ads and Google Ads?

They are fairly similar, but I will jump into the differences here.

Google Is Much Bigger

Number one, obviously Google is much bigger. They take about 93%, maybe 90% now of the search market.

Whereas Bing, technically, only takes about 6%, but it also powers the results on other search engines like Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and AOL. That gives it some more search engine market share.

Bing Has an Older Crowd

Something else to consider there is that Bing typically has an older crowd. So it will be typically people over 35 years old. And they will also typically be on desktop. So Google is more mobile and also, something with Google is that they’re directly integrated with every single Apple iPhone.

A lot of people in the US have iPhones. When you just get a new iPhone or whatever, you go on Safari, it is automatically connected to Google. And that’s because they’ve made a deal with Google. Versus Bing, they are mostly on desktop.

Again, anyone, any of the older crowd, like my dad who searches on AOL, that is going to be, that’s actually part of Bing technically, because Bing powers the search results on AOL, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and these other different search engines.

The Big Three Characteristics

So that’s probably the big three characteristics:

1. Bing is much smaller
2. It’s an older crowd
3. Bing is mostly desktop

Should Pest Control Companies Prioritize Bing?

I don’t think it should be prioritized, but I definitely think it should be part of the marketing stack.

I think a good rule here is whatever we’re doing on Google Ads, which every pest control company should be running Google Ads, I think it is smart and realistic to spend about 10% of our ad spend on Google and put that towards Bing Ads.

That is just kind of how the math works out that Google is about 10 times bigger. And why not collect all these customers from Bing?

Bing Is Usually Cheaper

And actually something I forgot to mention, I’m glad that this came to mind, is that Bing is also usually cheaper. There’s usually a lower cost per click because a lot of people aren’t using them. I went to a conference years ago and I heard someone talking about Bing Ads and they were saying, “It’s a big opportunity or whatever.”

And I was like, “No way, dude. Who uses Bing?”

But regardless, even if 5-10% of people use Bing, why wouldn’t you want to show up in front of them?

And especially for pest control, you want to be targeting homeowners. Those homeowners are in that demographic of usually using desktop and being over 35 years old.

How Does Cost Per Click Compare?

From what I know, Bing usually has about 20 to 30% of a lower cost per click than Google. So it is noticeably lower. And again, like I said, it’s because everyone’s using Google.

If you’re thinking about search advertising, you’re thinking about running Google Ads. That might be also local service ads.

Very few people, and especially pest control companies, because pest control is niche, you’ll see software companies doing it, and ecom, and these other industries, and maybe even massive pest control companies. But for the most part, a lot of people aren’t taking advantage of Bing.

And it’s a supply and demand type of thing. If not many people are using Bing, then it’s going to be cheaper.

Which Pest Control Services Perform Best on Bing?

That’s an it depends one. I don’t think there’s necessarily one that performs best. And overall, they are still pretty similar to Google Ads in how they perform. Usually, we’re going to want to target our higher ticket services so we can get a better cost per lead.

Whereas you might be advertising for ant control services, and you’re literally actually losing money on that first service or so.

So that might be something to consider is that we want to target those higher ticket services that we do that high ticket service, so it might be like a termite control job, and then we get them on a recurring service.

How to Measure the Success of Your Bing Ads

There’s many different things we can look at. We kind of talked about this already with Google Ads, which is we need to be looking at the calls coming in.

Just like we should have a different phone number for each of the different campaigns within Google, we should also have a different phone number for each of the campaigns within Bing.

Which I know seems like a big deal. It seems crazy, but really it’s not going to be too much money and it’s going to be totally worth it to see where your leads are coming from.

And just to be completely frank and looking at them, wow, this one campaign generated 20 leads last month and this other one that we’re spending the same money on generated zero.

We need to be looking at that end result, not just necessarily the cost per click or how many people are clicking, how many impressions, but how many leads are we getting?

And let’s put more money towards the ones that are working that still aren’t spending too much money.

The Easy Way to Set Up Bing Ads

Overall with advertising with these, I have two things I want to mention. One is that Bing Ads are actually much easier than people think to set up because you can go into Bing Ads and if you already have Google Ads set up, then you can, this is crazy, I actually found out about this not too long ago.

You can just import all of your campaigns from Google. So if you have, this, that’s step one, set up some really great campaigns for your Google Ads, and then you just go in. And Bing has a really old, not very good looking dashboard, but it still works.

You go in and you import from Google, and you can import all of your same campaigns, but then you can change some things, like I said, of making it about 10% of the budget that you originally had.

Critical: Target the Right Landing Page

Something else I’ll just mention briefly here is that we want to make sure that we’re targeting the right pest control landing pages as well.

I’ve seen this as a big problem of people might just send all of their ads to their homepage.

We want to make sure regardless of if it’s Google Ads or Bing Ads, that they’re being sent to the most relevant page.

And ideally, like we’ve also been talking about, you have a completely built out website that has all of these niche pages.

So it really should be a very targeted page, not just the copy itself, but when people land on the page, then that goes into the conversion aspect.

The Bottom Line on Bing Ads for Pest Control

This isn’t a huge thing that you need to worry about, but if you’re already running Google Ads, literally just import your campaigns into Bing, use about 10% of the budget.

Again, the same principles apply. Check it once a week, or at the very least once a month, the same as Google Ads.

So whatever you do to your Google Ads, you’ll probably do most of the same to Bing Ads.

But otherwise that’s it. There’s not too much there.

Spend 10% of your Google Ads budget on Bing. That’s the simple rule. You get 20-30% cheaper clicks targeting an older, desktop-using demographic of homeowners over 35.

Import your Google campaigns directly into Bing. Change the budget to 10% of what you spend on Google. Track calls with different phone numbers for each campaign, just like Google. Target higher ticket services like termite control, not ant control where you lose money on the first service.

Send ads to targeted landing pages, not your homepage. Bing powers search results on Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and AOL, so you’re reaching more than just Bing users. If you want to dive deeper into strategies like this, join our free facebook group. We’ve got over 5,000 active members sharing what’s working in their businesses right now.

And if you want the complete blueprint for dominating your local market, grab a copy of Zip Code Kings. It covers everything from marketing to branding to operations.

Import your Google campaigns. Set the budget to 10%. Start capturing cheaper leads.

Related Resources

From Pest Control Millionaires:

• Google Ads campaigns for pest control
• Google Ads targeting for pest control
• Google Local Services Ads for pest control

External references:

• Microsoft Advertising — Microsoft Advertising official site
• Microsoft Advertising Help Center — Microsoft Advertising help & setup guides

Read the Ultimate Guide: Google Ads for pest control

Frequently Asked Questions

Should pest control companies advertise on Bing?

Yes, as part of the marketing stack, but not as a priority. Only about 5 to 10% of people use Bing, but its clicks usually cost 20 to 30% less than Google’s, and its older, mostly desktop crowd (usually over 35) lines up with the homeowners you want.

How do I set up Bing Ads for my pest control company?

Get your Google Ads campaigns working first, then import them into Bing, which can bring over all of your Google campaigns. Set the budget to about 10% of your Google spend, give each campaign its own tracking phone number, and send each ad to its most relevant landing page, not your homepage.

What results can pest control companies expect from Bing Ads?

Think of it as a smaller Google. Google is about 10 times bigger, so expect far less volume, with clicks that usually cost 20 to 30% less. Judge it by leads, not clicks or impressions, with a separate phone number for each campaign so you can see which ones work.

How much does Bing Ads cost compared to Google for pest control?

Clicks usually cost about 20 to 30% less than on Google, because so few advertisers, especially pest control companies, use Bing. A good rule is to spend about 10% of your Google Ads budget there, since Google is about 10 times bigger.

Should small pest control companies use Bing Ads if budget is tight?

Only after your Google Ads are set up and working, since every pest control company should run Google Ads first and Bing shouldn’t be the priority. Then import your campaigns at about 10% of your Google budget and point that money at higher ticket services like termite control, not ant control, where you can lose money on the first service.