If you’ve stumbled upon this, it's possible that you already hold a layman’s understanding of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and its primary advertising platform Google Ads — formally referred to as Google AdWords.
PPC advertising continues to be the number 1 tool for marketers globally, regardless of their budget, owing to its cost-effectiveness and accurate targeting, compared to other marketing avenues.
If you are unsure about whether the Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) platform is a good investment for your business in 2021 and beyond, here are a few highlights comprising the most critical Google Ads statistics covered in this article for you to work through:
- More than 80% of global businesses trust Google Ads for PPC campaigns
- The average Google Ads CTR for ads placed at the first position is 7.94%
- People are four times more likely to click ads on Google (63%) than any other advertisement network
- Google recommends the daily Google Ads campaign budget to be capped at $50
20 Google Ads Statistics & Trends for 2021
Our roundup of the 20 Google Ads statistics and trends can help you get an idea of what to expect once you begin your first Google Ads PPC campaign:
Since Google turned into the primary directory for people searching local businesses, keyword search advertising has taken a great leap. According to recent reports, Google generates a gigantic proportion (97%) of its revenue from Google ads alone.
Despite other alternatives, 80% of businesses across the globe trust paid Google ads for their PPC campaigns,, according to a 2020 report.
To address policy violations, Google removed over 2.3 billion ads in 2019, adopting a zero-tolerance policy towards breaches of its guidelines on ad management.
Recent PPC stats indicate that keyword bidding and buying is a major contributor to the total number of clicks received by Google Ads, representing over 65% of the total clicks.
Google is widely regarded as a market leader when it comes to online advertising. An eMarketer Analysis report suggests that Google Ads will hold a whopping 29% share of digital ad spending in 2021.
According to a 2021 report, Google’s approx. 2 million approved publishers receive 68% of the ad revenue when their content displays on Google.
Google’s parent company —Alphabet, made $147 billion in revenue through Google Ads in 2020
Source: Alphabet Investor Statics ^
Alphabet—essentially a holding company for Google netted $183 billion in revenue in 202, $147 billion of whom were generated through Google Ads, representing over 80% of its total revenue.
More than 80% of advertisers either use or plan to use Responsive Search Ads
Source: Search Engine Journal ^
Responsive Search Ads allow users to easily create effective text advertisements, which is why Google's all-new responsive search ads have quickly become an emerging trend, with more than 84% of advertisers exhibiting strong interest.
Research highlighting Google Ads' click-through rates per position; revealed that ads appearing at the first position of Google search engine results have an average click-through rate of 7.94%.
People are four times more likely to click ads on Google (63%) than any other advertisement network
Source: BClutch.co ^
A marketing survey conducted in 2019 found that users are about four times likely to open an ad on Google than any other advertisement network.
The eCommerce industry has the lowest average CPC($1.16), while the legal sector has the highest average CPC ($6.75)
Source: Statista ^
According to Statista, both ‘Attorney' and ‘Lawyers' are on the list of the top 10 most expensive keywords on Google, owing to the massive search volumes, which is why it’s no surprise that the legal sector has the highest average CPC.
Amazon's total ad revenue share is expected to increase to 15.9% in 2021, while Google's is projected to contract to 70.5%
Source: eMarketer ^
It is reported that although Google will remain the dominant market player for the recent future, its share is dropping as more and more product searches now begin on Amazon.
Google Ads publishers receive up to an 8:1 return on investment. In other words, an advertiser receives 8 dollars for each dollar spent.
Users who visit a website through Google Ads’ PPC ads are 50% more likely to purchase
Source: NMoz ^
A survey by the SEO company – MOZ, says that internet users are 50% more likely to purchase from a certain website if they come across it through Google Ads. In other words, users are less likely to buy from a website than those discovering it through organic searches.
According to a Business Insider report, smartphone traffic beats both desktop and tablet. The report highlighted that google drove over 95% of its paid ad clicks on smartphones in the first quarter of 2016.
Over 1.2 million businesses rely on Google Ads to market their products and services
Source: Wishpond ^
Another figure that points towards Google’s stature as a dominant entity in digital advertising is that Google displays advertisements from over 1.2 million businesses worldwide.
The average Ads conversion rate for “search” across all industries stands at 3.75%
Source: Wordstream ^
Google beats its closest competitor – Bing, by a margin with a 3.75% conversion rate for search across all industries, with the Bing Ads conversion rate standing at 2.94%.
With an 8:1 return on investment (ROI), it is no doubt that Google Ads continues to be the dominant ad network on the Internet.
Small-to-midsized businesses allocate up to $10,000 for Google Ads budgets, taking a chunk of their overall marketing budgets.
Google recommends $10-$50 as the daily budget for a Google Ads campaign; for inexperienced beginners or businesses setting out to invest in Google Ads for the first time.
Google Ads Statistics: Summary
If you want to explore Google Ads further, its starter guide could offer the search giant’s outlook on how to proceed with it. These stats can help you gauge Google Ads for your business, but as with other platforms, you won’t know its true effectiveness, until you begin to use it.
Sources
- https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/97-of-googles-revenue-comes-from-advertising/
- https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/ppc-stats/
- https://www.wordlead.com/facts/ppc-statistics-adwords-trends/
- https://forecasts-na1.emarketer.com/5d13a07a64fe7d034c2cc15a/5d139fcab88aeb0b7c481d6e
- https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/how-does-google-make-money-advertising-business-breakdown-.html
- https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20210203_alphabet_10K.pdf?cache=b44182d
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/paid-search-is-still-the-dominant-digital-ad-channel-in-2019/317371/
- https://www.accuracast.com/articles/advertising/adwords-clickthrough/
- https://clutch.co/seo-firms/resources/search-engine-marketing-why-people-click-paid-search-ads
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/263800/cost-per-click-per-segment-in-us-search-engine-marketing/
- https://www.emarketer.com/content/google-dominates-us-search-but-amazon-is-closing-the-gap
- https://economicimpact.google.com/methodology/
- https://moz.com/blog/how-google-adwords-ppc-affects-organic-results
- https://www.businessinsider.com/google-drives-majority-of-paid-search-clicks-in-q1-2016-4
- https://blog.wishpond.com/post/78017573553/21-random-stats-and-facts-about-google-adwords
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/02/29/google-adwords-industry-benchmarks
- https://economicimpact.google.com/methodology/
- https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/much-cost-advertise-google-adwords/
- https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375454?hl=en
- https://searchengineland.com/google-took-down-2-3-billion-bad-ads-1-million-ad-accounts-in-2018-313979