Report: Google Gets 54 Cents a Click

Marketers who purchased sponsored listings on Google paid an average of 54 cents per click in the third quarter, up from 53 cents in the second quarter, according to a new report by Majestic Research, a New York City financial research firm.

The report also revealed that Google's average revenue per query in the third quarter was 9 cents -- which is five times higher than JupiterResearch's U.S. industry-wide estimate of 1.8 cents per query. JupiterResearch also pegs average cost per click at just 36 cents, for all U.S. paid search.

Majestic's founder and chairman Seth Goldstein said his company's cost-per- click estimate for Google was based on proprietary information from financial companies. "There's no clearinghouse of search data," said Goldstein. "It's as much an art as anything else." comScore Networks also provided Majestic with information about Web surfers' search patterns, based on a panel of 1.5 million U.S. consumers.

Other key Majestic findings included that half of all Google searches in the second quarter included at least one paid listings in the results, and users clicked on a paid link about one out of every three times they did a Google search.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Some key statistics from Majestic's report appeared Wednesday night on John Battelle's Searchblog. Goldstein said the company issued a more complete report to its paid subscribers last week in preparation for a private conference it will sponsor Monday in New York City.

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