How can we know if paid search advertising works?
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How can we know if paid search advertising works?
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Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#2The article fails to mention that shortly after this made the rounds in the marketing communities, eBay suddenly got a very large SEO penalty. Conspiracy theories aside, I once inherited a large Adwords account with nearly 25% of spend dedicated to branded KW bidding. Simply dialing back bids by 90%+ dropped impression share from 95% to 80%, but the paid branded clicks just shifted to organic branded clicks-- confirmed by lining up Google Webmaster Tools click level data (since Google stopped providing organic keyword data in GA 10 years ago).
Brand keyword bidding is simply a rent-seeking behavior. Sure, it can help with new entrants trying to grow their visibility (albeit likely ineffectively) as an alternative to an incumbent with more brand recognition, but the majority of brands are simply paying protection money to keep their own site, that users are explicitly seeking, above the fold on search results.
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#3Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords.
Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auctions to determine ranking of product placement on search results.
I don’t have numbers but I suspect Google ads get far more eyeballs than do their search results. The distinction though is margin not quantity. Ads aren’t worth very much. Google ads generate a higher margin than Facebook ads but still tiny, like maybe fractions of a penny. When I was at Travelocity a million years ago I remember hotels bidding up to $18 per click for placement on searches related to Las Vegas. Not only is that click-through worth a fortune it is also relevant and thus far more likely to be clicked.
EDIT
Death by a thousand paper cuts.
Somebody provided a source below, they clearly did not read, which explains all of this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/how-does-google-make-money-a...
> Search is Google’s most lucrative unit. In 2020, the company generated $104 billion in “search and other” revenues, making up 71% of Google’s ad revenue and 57% of Alphabet’s total revenue.
This section of the article further details how the auctions differ from online advertisement products.
I don't have the source but Google's chief economist has been very clear about how the micro auctions work and generate revenue separately from display ads.
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#4Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords. Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auc…
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/030416/googles... and https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/how-does-google-make-money-a... (first results I could find) both say 80% of Alphabet’s revenue comes from Google ads; unless you have numbers to say otherwise, I think it's pretty reasonable to call that their primary business
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#5Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords. Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auc…
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Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#6Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords. Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auc…
> Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business.
Per their 10K, ads are >80% of their revenue.
I'm sorry, carry on.
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#7eBay did me a whole different dirty:
I went to sell a few things 2mo ago. Sold them. And when the buyers paid, it went to an ebay escrow.
Only after I sold them, and money was sent, ebay DEMANDED unfettered access to my checking/savings account. They would not cut a check, pay to paypal, or any other method. One of their managers said the only way I could get my money was to wait 1-3 years and would send the money to federal unclaimed money (!).
Obviously, I never sent them. I could never get the money. I messaged to all the buyers that I could not fulfill any sales BECAUSE ebay refused to send me my money in an appropriate manner.
All the sales fell through... And then ebay tried to lay on me $50 in "sold fees". Talk about a double-whammy. I get if I got paid, that they get their cut. But this whole checking acct demand wasnt listed anywhere UNTIL the sales closed.
After this, I'm done with the ever-closing noose around buyers and sellers in the ebay ecosystem. I'm not going to get screwed. And after talking with others who do buying/selling, everyone's getting squeezed. Enough of that for me.
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#8The article fails to mention that shortly after this made the rounds in the marketing communities, eBay suddenly got a very large SEO penalty. Conspiracy theories aside, I once inherited a large Adwords account with nearly 25% of spend dedicated to branded KW bidding. Simply dialing back bids by 90%+ dropped impression share from 95% to 80%, but the paid branded clicks just shifted to organic branded clicks-- confirm…
I believe spending money on ads is the only way to get any sort of favoritism from a major tech company, and also being a famous/important person
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#9Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords. Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auc…
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/030416/googles... and https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/how-does-google-make-money-a... (first results I could find) both say 80% of Alphabet’s revenue comes from Google ads; unless you have numbers to say otherwise, I think it's pretty reasonable to call that their primary business
> Search is Google’s most lucrative unit. In 2020, the company generated $104 billion in “search and other” revenues, making up 71% of Google’s ad revenue and 57% of Alphabet’s total revenue.
From your second source. I guess you were conflating ad revenue to online advertisements. Its all ad revenue, but its not all online advertisements.
Re: How can we know if paid search advertising works?
#10Google does make money from ads, but that is not their primary business. Yes they have AdWords and they bought DoubleClick around 2007. They also have YouTube that took them forever to figure out how to monetize. They bought Urchin (Google Analytics) specifically to monetize AdWords. Google’s primary business is search. They monetize search in a couple different ways. The primary revenue model for search is micro auc…
> Google’s search results are independent of Google’s advertising programs.