Who uses Bing? – How age demographics affect how someone searches on the internet

Thanks to the internet it is now so much easier to find things and search for any information that you need. However, what we might not realise is that your age will actually have a big impact on how you use the internet and what you look at. In particular search engines. So, how does your age affect how you use search engines online? Let’s take a look.

 

Search Engine demographic breakdown

It is no secret that when it comes to marketing powerhouses, Google is the search engine of choice for many. However, that doesn’t mean that it is the only one. There is a wealth of other search engines out there that you can take a look at and which one you use will really have something to do with your age.

A study carried out by Further during 2015 showed that those aged 45-64 were most likely to use Bing, whilst for those that were over the age of 65, Yahoo!, was the go-to search engine.
Which answers the question that so many of us in the know may ask, “does anyone use Yahoo anymore?”

In comparison, those who were aged 25-34 (who most used Google for their search needs) were not fans of Bing, whilst those who were aged over 65+ were not fans of using Google.

The above graph, courtesy of Further, shows that there is a definite link between the age of a person and how they use search engines. The positive scores show where they are most likely to use a search engine and the negative shows where they are less likely to use it.

Yet more research has been completed into this, with comScore carrying out their own review during 2015. This showed that Bing was definitely the search engine favoured by older users. Those who used Bing were at least 35 years old, most commonly within the 55-64 bracket, whilst their children, who fell into the younger age bracket, would be the ones to use Google.

One thing to bear in mind when considering running PPC ads (pay per click) on Yahoo/ Bing (YB) ad is that they are spread over three different networks
1.  Bing
2. Yahoo
3. AOL

So the reach of a campaign you are running may well be wider than at first thought.

Compared to Google the search volume on Bing is TBH small. Google accounts for just over 92% of all searches with Yahoo / Bing pulling in 6%. That said the user demographic and audience profile may be much aligned with your niche and therefore may deliver a higher conversion % than Google.

As we see above the core users are being between 55 and 64. What we also know is the average household incomes of a Bing users is £58,000+ or more. Taking these two statistics alone we know that your target market is in the older end of the scale and your product is a higher price point then Bing ads could be a route to add to your marketing mix.

To back up this Bing said recently that the audience on the Microsoft Search Network spends typically 38% more when they shop online in comparison to the average internet user as well as have a measurably greater intent to purchase due to the higher levels of disposable income.

Some headline YB stats that are interesting to note are:
–  The split between men and women is equal 50/50
–  46% of the users are married
–  32% of Yahoo/ Bing users have kids
–  38% are University graduates
–  96% of users across the Bing network have been into an ecomm shop in the past month
–  10% of the user identify themselves as LGBTQ

Voice Search usage analysis

One of the newest introductions to the world of search engines has to be voice searching. However, it definitely seems that there is an age bracket preference on this particular approach to searching for what you need.

Google carried out a survey in 2014, looking at 1,400 smartphones in the US and how often voice searches were used on those smartphones. The usage of voice searches was the highest in those aged between 13-18 and of those teens over half of them said that they used voice searches more than once a day. Teenagers were also much keener to use voice searches with their friends or other company with 57% happy to do this in public, this compared to the 24% of adults who would be willing to search in public.

The amount that adults used voice searches was at a much lower rate than teenagers, however, at least 41% of those adults who used voice searches said they did so multiple times each and every day.

It makes sense that your age will affect how you use your mobile phone and the internet in general, however, it is interesting to see that your age actually has a much bigger impact on what you do then you may realise.