Google rarely mentions that you have to fork over a little of your profits to them when people use your AdSense search. I was wondering about how much do you have to give to the multi-billion dollar Google? Thanks, Jonathan
I think you've got it backwards. When you use google search on your site (a service that benefits your users), google gives YOU a percentage of THEIR profits. It's a symbiotic relationship. You'd make no money (and have no search) without them, and they'd make no money without you (well, actually they would because they've got other revenue streams, but you get my point). Based entirely on their SEC filings and what they list as "traffic acquisition costs", google pays somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-70% of what they bring in to publishers. Of course, the actual amount you get will vary from site to site and search phrase to search phrase.
Are you SURE I have it backwords? I've heard that at the end of the month, Google charges a "small" fee for using AdSense Search. If not...hey my AdSense search is making me lots of money already, so I'm happy with it.
The AdSense for search fees will never be greater than the publisher's AdSense for search earnings, so no publisher will owe Google at the end of the month as a result of these fees.
And in 99.99% of the cases they don't charge anything. It's mostly a clause for a site that makes 1M searches/month and generates $2 in revenue. They can take the $2 revenue to cover the cost of excessive searches with no revenue.
Oh okay... well then I should be good. I think I'm making lots of money from the search because of the way Google made the layout. People have a tendancy to click on the first thing they see in a list...lol...and the ad part is right up there.
I have yet to hear from a publisher who has been charged any fees for this... so if it does happen, it happens to very few publishers.
I got charged one month because of a weird situation where 28 days of the month no ads were showing on my AdSense for search results. So when it was fixed, I only had 2 days worth of click revenue against 30 days of searches. Needless to say, I was dinged with 100% of the 2 days of click revenue. But that was the only time I ever was hit with any charge.