To get the word out that its upcoming search engine Bing is better than Google, Microsoft will spend between $80 million and $100 million.
That is a huge expenditure according to Ad Age, which reported the story. Most national consumer product campaigns cost $50 million, and Google only spent $25 million on all its advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Microsoft won't attack Google directly. The ads will instead push the idea that Bing is better at solving people's problems than other search engines. Even though 65 percent of search engine users are happy with their experiences, Microsoft has data that says 42 percent have to refine their searches and 25 percent of clicks following a search are the "Back" button. This suggests that users aren't getting as good a search as they could be, and Microsoft will cling to this idea in its advertisements.
But Google's own data suggests that branding is more powerful than search effectiveness. Ad Age reports that people preferred Google-branded searches, even when the results themselves are secretly switched for those of another search engine. This is why Microsoft's advertising approach is a mistake.
I could see the company doing well by setting up some "blind test" scenarios on camera to illustrate how people are choosing Google out of uninformed devotion. Turn the tables and set people up with a Google-branded Bing search, then play back their comments about how much they love the results. It may not be the most honest approach, but it could awaken people to the concept of better searches without trying to blatantly argue against 65 percent satisfaction.
