• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 1, 2018

Google’s search and advertising tools helped to provide $283 billion of economic activity for more than 1.5 million U.S. businesses, website publishers, and nonprofits in 2017, according to company stats.

An annual report published Thursday focuses on the company’s services and the economic impact on business globally. It estimates that in the U.S., more than 1.5 million businesses, website publishers, and nonprofits benefited from using Google’s advertising tools AdWords and AdSense in 2017.

Despite Google’s increasing U.S. market share as consumers spend more time on mobile, more than 30% of clicks for U.S. businesses advertising on Google came from outside the country, which has highlighted the company’s awareness to adhere to strict EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines.

Estimating the impact of Google Search and AdWords relies on two assumptions, per Google -- first that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords. The second is that businesses receive an average of five clicks on their search results for every one click on their ads. (You can read more about it here.)

In Wyoming, where the U.S. Census Bureau pushes the population to 579,315 in 2017 for the entire state, Google estimates that it has provided an estimated economic impact to the state of about $218 million last year. About $2,100 businesses, such as BrushBuck Wildlife Tours, used its advertising tools and it gave away $598,000 in free advertising to Wyoming nonprofits through the Google Ad Grants program.

Even in a state like South Dakota with about 869,666 in population, Google estimates it has provided an economic impact of about $133 million. The company provided $1.1 million of free advertising to South Dakota nonprofits through the Google Ad Grants program in 2017.