THIS is why everyone wants to get on the internet. THIS is why SEO is so important. What start-up can pay $5 per click?

Thanks Aaron!

Graham

I have had a similar problem in m market. Bid prices that are so high I was bidding upto £2 (thats $4) and not even seeing first page.
It's basically cost my out of the industry.

That's the beauty of the Internet. You need to learn hard for a few years, after which you can become competitive and earn big money (or at least decent).

I think you guys have this post wrong?

They earned ~$4 per visit to their site. So if 100% of their traffic came from PPC (High? Especially since they rank 2nd organically for 'credit cards') They still made at least 4 or 5 million dollars in the last six months if their Avg. CPC was 3.64

So when does it stop? I'm afraid it will only get more expensive for the time being. Google's 10-Q filings were $7.535 billion vs. $4.7 billion for last year and online spending is skyrocketing. Wait until you see the holiday sales numbers compared to last year.

So where is Google's revenue coming from? With new rules like the one they just published about using the maximum bid vice actual bid to determine highest placement, it's obvious. Good for them, bad for businesses.

I do want to throw something out there, too... Google is 9 years old. That's it. They've never survived a recession, bubble, CEO-scandle, public sell-off, congressional inquiry, etc. They have only enjoyed good, profitable times. I can't see how long they can squeeze dollars out of businesses while having very scary privacy practices, sub-par customer service, extremely lax corporate atmospheres, and acquisition spending sprees while they push the limits of anti-trust laws, taking on other big corporations (eBay, MS) and creating a public image of "don't be evil".

IMHO, it may take them awhile, but they cannot continue to exist if they don't curb the rediculous scraping of businesses pockets.

So when does it stop? I'm afraid it will only get more expensive for the time being. Google's 10-Q filings were $7.535 billion vs. $4.7 billion for last year and online spending is skyrocketing. Wait until you see the holiday sales numbers compared to last year.

So where is Google's revenue coming from? With new rules like the one they just published about using the maximum bid vice actual bid to determine highest placement, it's obvious. Good for them, bad for businesses.

I do want to throw something out there, too... Google is 9 years old. That's it. They've never survived a recession, bubble, CEO-scandle, public sell-off, congressional inquiry, etc. They have only enjoyed good, profitable times. I can't see how long they can squeeze dollars out of businesses while having very scary privacy practices, sub-par customer service, extremely lax corporate atmospheres, and acquisition spending sprees while they push the limits of anti-trust laws, taking on other big corporations (eBay, MS) and creating a public image of "don't be evil".

IMHO, it may take them awhile, but they cannot continue to exist if they don't curb the rediculous scraping of businesses pockets.

The rise in costs will continue until marginal profit per incoming click comes near 0% incl any PPC management costs incurred by the advertisers.

Google will take the profits via arbitrage.

I'd have to agree, this highlights the importance of SEO, social media, and affiliate programmes.

Well, they're CERTAINLY not high because the profits are going into MY pockets as a publisher. I made 3 times as much 2 years ago. Same basic traffic or better, and same solid content. That part sucks.

I haven't bought ads for the last 18 months or so. I'll actually be starting to do so over the weekend...but, based on what I've seen in my market, you're right. Top keywords are over 3 bucks a click.

Add to that the fact that I'm quite certain that some folks click on competitors' ads in order to tap their ad budget with no possibility of return, and it does tend to make one skittish.

Wow, $4+ per visitor. My site has been live for about 18 months. I would be extremely happy with $1 per visitor.

Just a note, this is not results of SEO. This is most likely results of direct type-ins. The domain industry makes more money with such little work that IT is the real industry. SEO is good, but direct type-in domains is better. Sorry for the let-down.

Hi Nate
I bet CreditCards.com gets more traffic and more conversions from Google than it does from type ins.

In the first six months they did $27M in rev...the sales/marketing break was $17M which amounted to PPC, affiliate network, misc advertising, and the employees associated with that. The leftover was $10M rev that could have been generated from either organic SEO or direct nav -- was at least $5M from organic SEO on the rankings they have? I'm inclined to say no, though from the S-1 one cannot derive a definitive conclusion. Their office layout looks nice though.

Graham - yeah, this highlights how SEO can be useful, but I think it's an even more important demonstration as to the importance of monetizing your traffic and having a profitable business model.

A good conversion rate and high EPC will allow a business to consistently outspend their competition on marketing - so long as their marketing is as efficient as their business, they'll kick everyone's tail given enough time.