I recently explained to a client that Google dominates the search field, accounting for roughly 70 percent of all online searches, while other search engines, such as Bing, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask round up the remaining 30 percent. The client then said, “Oh, so I guess we want to go for that 70 percent.” To which I responded, “No. You want to go for 100 percent.” This made me realize that I might not be explaining the importance of other search engines when discussing online advertising.

Bing sure has been getting a lot of attention lately. Maybe you’ve seen their advertisements on TV or have heard the buzz about the Yahoo/MSN merger on the news. So how do you know if you are ready to leap into advertising with Bing or another second tier search engine? The first thing to ask yourself is, “How is my Google AdWords campaign doing?” That’s right, before you even think about starting a campaign with Bing, you must have a Google campaign up and running. It is the big dog on the block and when it comes to search engine marketing, you always have to start with Google, (going back to that whole 70 percent/30 percent thing). Analyze your daily budget on Google to make sure you are getting every possible click you can. Is your daily budget running out too soon? Are you seeing signs that your campaign is limited by the budget you have set? Do your ads stop showing due to maxed-out budget settings? If this is the case, then you are not quite ready to start a Bing campaign. You must have Google completely covered before moving any more of your budget to another search engine. Consider using Bing only when your Google AdWords budget is sufficient to show your ad throughout the entire day.

Let’s say your Google AdWords campaign is performing well and the budget is significant enough to see your ad throughout the entire day. Now is when you should start thinking about showing up on Bing searches. The 30 percent of potential Bing users are quite valuable, so make sure to spend as much time perfecting your Bing campaign as you did perfecting your Google campaign. Your budget for Bing doesn’t necessarily have to be as big as your Google budget. The fact that there are fewer advertisers using Bing should make the keywords slightly cheaper than Google. Test out different budgets and see how often your ad appears and how many clicks you receive. Bing and Google both have similar interfaces, so the learning curve is minimal.

Regardless of which search engine you use, Google or Bing, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. In the end, it really doesn’t matter what search engine they come from. What does matter is that they all go to your Website and eventually, your dealership.

Tom Knoop is director of search engine marketing for Stevenson Advertising. If you need help starting your own SEM campaigns, feel free to contact him at 800-643-8584 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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