Google’s sprawling advertising network is one of the most heavily-relied upon resources for many retailers, both large and small. With a number of different advertising options and perhaps the industry’s most recognizable name, Google has channeled its search dominance into the net’s leading pay-per-click advertising source.
And according to its most recently released data, business is good.
Google unveiled its 2010 Q1 advertising stats yesterday, reporting that total clicks on the ads it placed jumped by 15 percent over last year’s first quarter, and also increased by 5 percent over the last quarter of 2009.
The increase in overall clicks led to higher pay-per-click prices on Google ads as well. Prices for ads placed through AdWords and the AdSense network were up 7 percent over Q1 2009. While those prices were lower than in the final quarter of last year, that can mostly be attributed to advertisers and internet marketers raising the bid prices on their ads for the holiday season, when conversion rates typically increase also.
Overall, Google is reporting $6.77 billion in revenue for the first quarter of this year, a massive 23 percent increase over the first quarter of 2009, which saw $5.51 billion in ad revenue. Of that $6.7 billion-plus, 66 percent was generated directly through the Google search engine; including 30 percent generated by Google’s AdSense program. International revenue made up over half of all of Google’s revenue for the first three months of the year as well, indicating that not only is the company resonating with U.S. advertisers, but with those overseas as well.
Net income for the first quarter was listed at $1.96 billion, up 38 percent from $1.42 billion a year ago.
“Google performed very well in the first quarter, with 23% year-over-year revenue growth driven by strength across all major verticals and geographies,” says Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette. “Going forward, we remain committed to heavy investment in innovation—both to spur future growth in our core and emerging businesses as well as to help build the future of the open web.”
While most of the U.S. economy continues to recover at a snail’s pace (if at all), it would appear that Google is immune to the economic problems plaguing so many other businesses across the country. Similarly though, if Google’s advertising revenues are up, that’s a promising sign that more companies are relying on internet advertising themselves to try to get back into the swing of things.
If you’re a company that is considering starting an ad campaign with Google, we’ll advise you as always to do your research beforehand and learn all the terminology involved with their advertising programs.
In particular, become well-versed on keywords and how to choose the right ones to maximize your advertising dollar. We also recommend keeping track of your own click logs and monitoring traffic from those ads yourself—that’s the single easiest way to make sure you’re not getting ripped off or that your ads are the target of click fraud.
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