How much does Google make from ads?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is well and truly Google’s domain. They’ve developed and perfected a marketing model which in many ways could be described as a win-win situation, bringing money in for them, but only charging advertisers when their ad ‘works’. But just how much does it bring into Google every quarter?

During the second quarter of 2014, between March and June, the search giant reported a 22% jump in revenue. This gave them a profit increase of 6%, a total of $3.4 billion for just three months.

This was largely put down to a strong demand in their advertising services.

Google has now released its quarterly earnings for July to September, quarter 3. PPC ad revenue increased by 2% in total. Interestingly, Google has said that the network revenue went down by 4%. Network PPC ads include those that appear to ‘follow’ the customer, so that they see your ad as they look around on other websites and will hopefully, remember to go back and buy from you.

This drop is curious, as it could mean more businesses are returning to search page ads only, and are no longer interested in having their ads chase customers. Perhaps they have seen a drop in their clicks from these kinds of ads, or feedback shows that customers don’t appreciate that form of advertising anymore.

Of course this drop is nothing for a market dominating force like Google, and they’re still reporting huge revenues of billions of pounds each quarter. In the third quarter of 2014, the company made a whopping $16.52 billion. In the UK, it picked up a cool $1,627 million. They say that as well as the ads, they’re focusing on high customer interest sites like YouTube and Chrome, and new businesses, like social and commerce to drive more revenue.