Google may say it didn't launch Instant to make more bucks from Google.com searches, but that's exactly what has happened since Instant launched Sept. 8.
When Google
launched Google Instant to the market in September, financial
analysts assumed the company designed the predictive search technology to boost
search revenues.
Analysts
believed Instant, which displays changing results on the fly
as users type, would help users conduct quicker searches, leading to more
searching on Google, ultimately accelerating search ad revenue.
While Google has said it created Instant to improve the user experience, it
also appears it is making more money from Instant-about $5 million per week
extra.
Paid search management platform provider Marin Software
found
that impressions for paid search ads increased by more than 9 percent while
clicks increased by more than 5 percent through the first two weeks of
Instant's existence on Google.com.
Spending rose 2 percent after Instant launched, according to Marin, which
compared data for keywords from the two weeks before and after the launch of
Google Instant.
Marin, which sampled clients that together manage $1.3 billion in paid
search spend per year, asserted this is proof people are actually searching and
clicking more as a result of Google Instant.
Using Google's approximate $3.3 billion in AdWords revenues for Q3 and
Marin's estimate that AdWords spending was up about 2 percent after Instant
launched, Search Engine
Land
concluded Google pocketed an extra $10 million in two weeks from
Instant.
A Google spokesperson told eWEEK Google wouldn't comment on "individual
firms or campaigns' performance metrics."
Instead, he pointed to the comments Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice
president for product management,
made on the company's third-quarter earnings call Oct. 14, 12 days before the
Marin report.
Unprompted, Rosenberg told
financial analysts that the search engine didn't launch the Google Instant
predictive search technology to make more money.
"We launched Instant because it's so much better for the user. In fact,
from a revenue standpoint, its impact has been very minimal; and from a
resource standpoint, it's actually pretty expensive. So why did we do it? Well,
we believe from a user standpoint, Instant is outstanding and the data that we
are seeing actually bears this out."
Google may say it didn't launch Instant expressly to boost search revenues,
but Rosenberg and his colleagues had to know it would make more money. It's
straight common sense: More searches on Google.com equals more search ads shown
equals more clicks and impressions on AdWords ads.
Marin's data proves Instant is performing well for Google.
Rosenberg also said Google
Instant for mobile will come this fall, and Google
delivered that functionality for iPhone 4 and Google Android
2.2 handsets in the United States
Nov. 4.
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