How well does the google search bar earn ??

Hi people,


As you can see from the title anyone have any sucess with the search feature of adsense.

If so what kind of payout does it give, and can it compete with the content ads ??

Thanks !!

 

it works great for high traffic sites..and i guess its important to have search bar right above the fold.

however earnings vary based on keyword searched...

 

I have a question concerning the google search bar as well.
Do you make money if they just search using it? Or do they need to click on a result?

 

They need to click on a result. But I have to agree, it's really only very good for high traffic websites. However if you optimize your search bar and make it very appealing for your users, you could still make a decent amount from this.

 

Ah okay, thanks James.

 

If people don't find something on your site or want to search further , they may use the search bar.

 

Track what they search for and use that as ideas for future content.

 

I do that to some extent actually.

 

How can you track what they search?

 

One is right in your reports area, google provides a culled down list right on the main (not advanced) reports page.

The other way is to have the search page be on your site...have it open a page on your site rather than googles site when a person does a search. There is a way of specifying this when you set up the search box code.

Then, if you have access to your raw log files, just look at those (grep the name of the search page, maybe something like /resultspage.html) and the search terms will be listed tagged right to the end of it.

OR

If you use analytics, you can view them in your content-drilldown area. Just drill to wherever the search.html page is (I have it at my root so it's right at the top and can be accessed just as /resultspage.html from anywhere.

 

the search bar does lousy for my site... The CTR is real low even with the amount of searches I get...

 

My CTR (and eCPM) is great, I just need to work on getting people to use it. If I had as many searches done as ad impressions (and the search CTR/eCPM stayed the same) I'd be quite pleased.

 

on my page, searchbar is also not so affective. Probably because of low traffic as you say...

 

I could not say that I success about Google search placement in my web.

But anyway I got accumulated earning about 2 $ from searching. ^_^

 

This is a rather dangerous direction you are heading, Adpubster.
Google's AdSense for Search is actually detrimental for a well-designed and well-optimized site displaying AdSense For Content.

Let me explain.

I understand that at a first glance Google Search stats look fantastic, but if we look a bit deeper and make a short calculation we can see that a site can actually LOOSE money utlizing AdSense for Search.
Consider these stats (arbitrary period of time) for an average, well-designed site displaying AdSense for Content (stats are not representative of any site and used for example only):

9000 250 2.77% $8.88 $80.00

AdSense for Search on the same site and during the same period of time shows these stats:

150 35 23.33% $36.66 $5.50

Now, we can clearly see that CTR and eCPM for AdSense for Search are dramatically higher, but the impressions are lacking as site's visitors prefer to click on the text ad than type something into a form and use the search function.

So, the first idea we get is "WOW, I want more impressions for my AdSense for Search to make lots of money"....

Not so fast. Even though stats look great one key number is not shown. It is cost per click for your ads (content and search).

In our example it is ($80.00/250=$0.32) $0.32 for AdSense for Content and ($5.50/35=$0.15) $0.15 for AdSense for Search.

Here is the interesting part.

We had 150 times someone used the form to search your site and 35 people subsequently clicked on the ads displayed. These 35 people earned us a whooping $5.50.

But the same 35 people (very much looking for information and very much inclined to click the ads) didn't click on the regular AdSense for Content ads.

Now we are having a problem as these 35 people could potentially earn us $11.2, not $5.50 (cost per click, remember?).

Thus the AdSense for Search pulled your hard-earned visitors from your well-optimized AdSense for Content ads and moved those visitors to another site through a MUCH CHEAPER AD displayed on the results page of the AdSense for Search.

Individual results may vary, but the point is clear.

Don't look at nice numbers AdSense shows you - do your own math.

In my example, if the time period was one day (and if AdSense for Search is removed and not used) the monthly difference would be around $150.

 

For the sake of brevity I'll stop the quote there just so we know which one I'm responding to You make some excellent points. A lot is site specific, though. Some people might tank if their search and content clicks switched. Others might not do so bad.

What I was saying has quite a few ifs in it, most of which are a pipe-dream, especially getting that many people to use the search! The other is that the stats would stay the same for CTR/eCPM if searches were increased.

However, using my stats (I have looked at the CPC for both search and content) I would be ahead since my CPC in search is usually the same or even actually slightly higher than on ad-click. The CTR is much higher and the combination of the two would likely be positive...though I haven't had any coffee yet this morning so I can't guarantee 100% brain function right now

Now, would that stay the same if the search numbers went up that dramatically. Who knows, probably not, which is why I caveated by saying IF the CTR/eCPM stayed the same.

Edited: If 35 people click on the search, can we necessarily say that all of them would have clicked on ad units? If the CTR on ads is so much lower than on search, should that be applied as a factor on the 35, such that only 4 of them would have clicked ads? Rhetorical question...I sure don't know

 

What if your Adsense for Content ads are under $0.15? In that case, by your model, it would be more cost effective to have a search box than a content ad.

Has anyone done A/B testing to see if users are more likely to make a search or click an ad if both are placed in the same location?

 

That's a worthy suggestion...will have to look into that.

 

I would think most use the search to search your website and if they click an ad they would more than likely return to your website as the ad may just have tickled their fantasy at that point in time.

Therefore it is likely that you have not lost a click on your site but may have in fact gained two click...one on your page and one through the search.

 

The click that goes to your page won't earn you anything, though Unless you are advertising on your own site, in which case you just sold a click back to yourself, recouping only a fraction of what you paid for it (man that gets complicated!)