Dive Brief:
- Microsoft’s Bing and CBS Interactive signed a multinational syndication partnership Tuesday that covers PC, mobile and tablet search in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Germany and France, according to a Microsoft press release.
- Marketing Land pointed out that growing mobile search is something Bing is actively pursuing, referencing a report from Statista that found the company currently only commands 3% of the U.S. mobile market share; Marketing Land said that 70% of search volume on CBS Interactive’s properties come from mobile devices, and that it claims more than 300 million monthly visitors across its various sites.
- Under the new deal, Bing will provide algorithmic organic search results and paid search ads for CBS Interactive outlets including CNET.com, Download.com and Mysimon.com, with exclusive search services for Store.com, ZDsearch.com, Findarticles.com and Searchnow.com
Dive Insight:
The deal is an important one for Bing, given that CBS Interactive has more than 300 million visitors each month. It also an attractive audience for advertisers, with nearly 60 percent of CBS interactive users under 45 and more than 40 percent having a household income of $100K or more.
In practical terms, several CBS sites are working exclusively with Bing for search, meaning marketers looking to reach these audiences will have to figure out ways to utilize Bing’s paid search platform rather than the more popular Google AdWords. Connecting to those consumers might provide some necessary turnaround for Bing, which has long stood in Google's shadow: A report in April estimated Google gets 95% of all U.S. mobile paid search clicks alone, with Bing Ads' spend slipping in Q1 of this year.
Even with the exclusivity brokered from the partnership, it is highly unlikely that Bing will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with its competitor any time soon, as Google continues to better optimize its already dominate search and mobile methods through features like the recently upgraded AMP project or its revamped Universal App Campaigns.
