Last year Google earned a staggering $67.39bn (97% of their revenue ) through their online pay-per-click advertising and with this set to increase this year, let's have a look at the keywords helping to reach this outrageous total.
Perhaps understandably, the most expensive keywords come from the legal sector. With some of the huge fees involved in certain cases, firms clearly see value in bidding serious money in the hope of landing their next prospective clients.
The highest cost per click on the list is "Best Mesothelioma Lawyer", which at $935.71 a click generates leads from Asbestos related incidents. This does seem an insane amount of money to fork out for a click, not even a guaranteed conversion, but considering the average mesothelioma settlement is usually in excess of $1m, it perhaps starts to make a little more financial sense. Legal terms, do tend to generate a larger fee per click due to the potential ROI, and do tend to take up the majority of "Most Expensive Keywords" lists.
The next biggest sector for expensive keywords is those relating the Water Damage. In a similar vein to the legal sector, repairs and costs can reach the tens of thousands mark, again lending itself to explaining the slightly "inflated" prices.
The financial industry is one which has seen an increase of interest in digital marketing over the past few years, specifically in the Paid search discipline. It's particularly focussed around insurance claims and reaching an audience looking for specific search terms, usually geo-located. For example, three out of the five highest costing seach terms all refer to locations, "Philadelphia", "Vermont" and "Anaheim".
Four out of the top five highest paying keywords relate to rehab, once again due to the high cost associated with potential clients, with some of the top rehab facilities costing in excess of $10,000.
I must stress that these are all extreme examples, and does not represent the average cost of PPC, so don't be deterred if it is something you're looking to get into. For more information, have a look at our PPC Guides.
By Alexander Clark
A former member of the Smart Insights team, I’m always on the look out to collaborate with the finest minds in Digital Marketing. Currently working at Silverbean, I have a distinctive interest in all things outreach, content, strategy, and measurement. If you’d like to get in touch, you can do so through my LinkedIn or Twitter accounts. When I’m not planning new campaigns and content, I love playing the Bass Guitar and Drums (not necessarily at the same time) also racking up as many hours as possible on Football Manager and the Rugby pitch.
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