Paid clicks on Google's online ads jumped 31 percent year-on-year

Panda, penguin, 2 algo changes a day, everything going along as planned....

For the record, here's the official Google release.

Google Inc. today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2013.

"We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth. Google's standalone revenue was up 22% year on year, at $15.7 billion", said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "We made great progress across a wide range of product improvements and business goals. I'm also very excited about improving people's lives even more with continued hard work on our user experiences." Google Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Results [investor.google.com]

Q4 Financial Highlights

Revenues and other information - On a consolidated basis, Google Inc. revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 were $16.86 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012.

Google Segment Revenues - Google segment revenues were $15.72 billion, or 93% of consolidated revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2013, representing a 22% increase over fourth quarter 2012 Google segment revenues of $12.91 billion.

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated segment revenues of $10.55 billion, or 67% of total Google segment revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2013. This represents a 22% increase over fourth quarter 2012 Google sites segment revenues of $8.64 billion.

Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated segment revenues of $3.52 billion, or 23% of total Google segment revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2013. This represents a 3% increase over fourth quarter 2012 Google network segment revenues of $3.44 billion.

Other Google Revenues - Other revenues from the Google segment were $1.65 billion, or 10% of total Google segment revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2013. This represents a 99% increase over fourth quarter 2012 other Google segment revenues of $829 million.

Paid clicks on Google's online ads jumped 31 percent

Panda, penguin, 2 algo changes a day, everything going along as planned....

Repeat, for all those who are blind and cannot see . . .

G is a one trick pony, let's see how far they can still go with this.

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I'm also very excited about improving people's lives

Yea, dumbing it down. People are in a hurry. Most don't want thorough explanations of a search query. "Give me the answer computer..."

They won't get it anyway with top of the SERPS loaded with brand name web pages selling a product, or maybe filled with their own biased information, or very generic stuff.

The Gorg is in a different world looking through rose colored glasses. Sad, sad and sadder.

If the millions of adwords buyers were aware of their lousy PPC campaigns their earnings would tank...

[unbounce.com...]

but the average cost per click that marketers paid Google declined 11 percent.

So even with a huge extra 31% clicks on adverts, the income from those clicks dropped 11%.

So unless I am having a really bad seniors moment, the amount of money that advertisers put into the pool was a lot less than previous years?

By association, doesn't that also mean the amounts being bid for Adwords placements must have dropped.... significantly. Why... is this a watershed moment? Lots of questions spring to mind.

Has the upward spiral of Adwords bidding come to a stop?

Are more businesses finding Adwords does not work for them and dropping out?

Has the domination of SERP's by the big authority sites given them enough organic traffic to cut back on their Adwords spend?

Are current Adwords buyers paying more attention to bid price vs ROI than previously?

Have Adwords bid prices reached a peak that can no longer be sustained?

Did the remoulding of the internet with Panda and Penguin strip out a big chunk of "highly clickable" Adwords exposure?


Your thoughts?

So unless I am having a really bad seniors moment, the amount of money that advertisers put into the pool was a lot less than previous years?

Start with 100 clicks at $1.00 cpc = rev of $100.00.

31% more clicks = 131 clicks.
cpc down 11% = .89 per click

rev = $116.52 up from $100.00

More clicks is the key here. Why are there more clicks? Here's why, searchers have fewer good options on the search results page.

Why are there more clicks? Here's why, searchers have fewer good options on the search results page.

Or maybe they're seeing more ads, or more compelling ads. Or maybe there are more people searching and clicking. There could be a number of reasons besides "fewer good options" on the SERP.

By association, doesn't that also mean the amounts being bid for Adwords placements must have dropped.... significantly. Why... is this a watershed moment? Lots of questions spring to mind.

One reason is likely to be the growth in mobile ads.

More clicks is the key here. Why are there more clicks? Here's why, searchers have fewer good options on the search results page.

I completely agree. Far less diversity and diminished relevancy in organic listings makes paid listings look more appealing and is drawing more clicks. I don't know how much more Google can squeeze out of this technique before they have to start dropping organic results to make more room for even more ads to support their aggressive growth targets. Alternatively, Google could take a larger slice of Adsense clicks to help sustain their profit margins, which could also help to offset the royalties they must pay for being found in violation of another company's patent.

For me the BIG take-away is that their Adwords paying customer base shelled out 11% less than previously. It doesn't matter how may extra people clicked on ads, their advertisers spend was down 11%. Why is an interesting question.

CPC was down 11%, total spend was still UP.