The search engine, Bing, is getting a lot of attention from retailers. In the fourth quarter of 2009, retailers spent 47 percent more on search ads on Bing than during the same period in 2008. Bing now accounts for eight percent of all U.S. retailer search spend, compared with only six percent in the first half of Q4 2008, new research shows. Compared with Google and Yahoo, Bing also saw better year over year click volume growth. Average order values on Bing are 21 percent higher than across all search engines, which could account for the spend growth, according to a study by SearchIgnite, a paid search optimization company.
Despite retailers increased allocation of their paid search dollars to Bing, Google still captures the lion’s share of retail pay per click advertising, with 75 percent of all spend in the first half of the fourth quarter, compared with only 16 percent on Yahoo and eight percent on Bing, the study says. The study tracked more than 41 million clicks on Google, Yahoo and Bing during the third and fourth quarters of 2007, 2008 and 2009.