Ad clicks were up 30% y-o-y on google properties... that's impressive, wonder how they did that?

That's including YouTube, which has shown growth.

>>Ad clicks were up 30% y-o-y on google properties... that's impressive, wonder how they did that?

I think the strongest clue is that "Paid clicks on Google Network Members' websites" is down 10% for the same time period.

So that's likely:

a) Pushing organics down further. Like with the "Answer Box" and other Google widgets
b) Ads the sidebar also extend down further now, competing with organic listings further down the result list that used to not have ads next to them. This was accomplished by injecting more "google owned" stuff into the right sidebar
c) Changing links that used to go to non-google properties into links that go to google properties. The KG, and links that used to go to Wikipedia and other destinations is one example.

And, of course, some of that 30% is just normal internet traffic growth. The glut of clicks did drop the value of those clicks by 16%, so 30% isn't as big a win as it might seem at first.

That's including YouTube, which has shown growth.

"...watch time on YouTube is up 60 percent year over year" so, yeah, that could be a driving factor.

Would like to see what the growth is on google's SERPs ad clicks.

If youtube ads are making all that money then and advertisers are getting ripped off as I SKIP as early and often as possible.

Plus they keep playing the same ads over and over and over when I've shown i'm not interested, still not interested, never going to be interested yet they're billing away and I'm sure that's most of that money comes from millions that ignore it as well.

Must be a nice business model if you can get it.

If you browse any of the seemingly infinite member groups at Facebook, 95% of the posts are just a Youtube video.

Do these income numbers ever get verified? Enron was famous for posting fake revenue numbers to boost stock prices and these numbers don't jive with what is happening in the real world.

It would be interesting to see the history of measurements like first page bid, top page bid, and CPC for keywords over the time. It's so easy to mathematically set the AdWords engine/algorithm to squeeze out few cents here and there in order to match the goal. Google simply goes into the future in what it expects from specific keywords, based on so much of data it has (primarily GA and Conversion tracking, and then the rest).
I.e. as some legal or banking related terms are very expensive, what would happen if all of the players on a specific keyword reduce their bids to not more than i.e. 35 cents. That would result in plenty of those that would show up there based on their broad match. Once that (hypothetically) stopped, who knows...

these numbers don't jive with what is happening in the real world.

Actually the numbers do coincide with what is happening in the real world. Publishers are making less money and Google is using their search engine to divert more people to their properties and hold them there. While many others make much less money, such as mom and pops, Google's profits soar. Right or wrong, this is precisely what is happening.

Do these income numbers ever get verified? Enron was famous for posting fake revenue numbers to boost stock prices and these numbers don't jive with what is happening in the real world.

Verified is maybe too strong a word. But the figures which appear in the published accounts are checked by "independent" auditors / accountants who must sign off the accounts before they are published.

That was also true of Enron and of course we know now just how hard those accountants checked the figures.

My guess is that the figures are true at the moment but the future is something different. When execs come under intense pressure to publish profitable figures, all manner of normal behaviour goes out of the window.

I worked at BCCI, the largest independent bank in the world, many years ago and the figures that came out year after year were laughable. The employees knew it, I knew as a consultant, but the auditors still signed the bottom line of the accounts for several years. They went bust one day in a blaze of publicity but the accountants / auditors went away with hardly a blemish on their record.

You just never know when that very slim white has been crossed. And the day it does get crossed, the zig-zags across it get wider and wider by the minute.

Actually the numbers do coincide with what is happening in the real world. 

from my perspective i see advertisers not advertising and viewers not clicking ads like they did in the past. Advertisers have figured out the return is not there and viewers now know what ads look like.

In my sector, the advertisers have nearly disappeared. I have an adwords campaign going on that 10 years ago would have required constant budget monitoring to avoid me going broke from the number of clicks. Now, clicks are rare.

goog is simply squeezing as hard as they can in an attempt to hold on.

from my perspective i see advertisers not advertising and viewers not clicking ads like they did in the past. Advertisers have figured out the return is not there and viewers now know what ads look like.

In my industry there is still competition for ad space, but the CPC is so insanely high for some keywords that there has to be some funny stuff going on. Imagine a product that sells for < $0.50 in a local store yet the Adwords bid exceeds $1 to be on the first page. Obviously for keywords like this I don't even bother because I'm in business to make money and don't exist to simply make Google rich. But much like you, I see few clicks these days. It may be a combination of users being ad bling and others using ad blocking software. Regardless, Google does not drive most of my sales. That well dried up a long time ago in both organic and paid Google placement.

but the CPC is so insanely high for some keywords that there has to be some funny stuff going on

totally agree. I look at what they want me to pay and who the competition is and it is obvious thay are not paying that much. Advertisers are being subjected to click fraud before they ever publish an ad.

I also close the YouTube ads as fast as possible, but somebody must be clicking!

I can cite many examples of clients choosing to pull back from advertising on google because the CPC became too high to be worthwhile, even on some high ticket items. Having dropped out from that, there seemed to be plenty of advertisers to fill the slots, and that's probably what's going on, too.
What are the advertisers doing now? Some went back to using traditional offline advertising, or to only SEO, or a mixture of all but PPC, and some to Bing. The CPC is lower for Bing, and, although the clicks were fewer, the ROI was better.

The key factor for Google and its investors is to maximize the return on their investment. Which, while there is still growth in mobile and other countries, it's much easier to produce the performance. Throughout this time, Google has to continue to keep the performance up in the mature sectors, and that may mean pushing the envelope to maximize ad performance.

It'll be a while yet before some of the big projects Google's working on come to fruition, such as driver-less cars, but Glass may be sooner. Investments and profits in other businesses, such as Nest, will help earnings. However, while they have a war chest of cash, Google is doing the right thing to invest in making it more than just a one-trick pony, even if it's a very profitable trick and pony.

Can it keep the performance up before the other projects come to fruition? I can't say, but most investors and institutions are often there for the long term.

In the meantime, i'll take the organic or paid clicks while I can get them, and all the time, I'll keep looking for other opportunities to market a business.

(Shopping ads and remarketing is going gangbusters. I am turning away clients in droves who want help with these)

I don't know if Google is behind all of it, but it seems to me that I see a lot more ads generally than I used to see -- adwords, adsense, and other types. Also, the ads are more intrusive than they used to be. That's my general impression anyway.

I wonder how many of those click are accidental?

I have a site with many document download links...in an experiment, I placed adsense code just above or below the link.
Google's ad computer quickly places a DOWNLOAD lookalike ad next to my download button. Pretty sneaky G. Of course I quickly removed the adsense code...you know, for a quality user experience. meh