Not every search makes money for Google. Search queries like “US president in 1836” or “Facebook login” are not something you can put ads on. In fact, Google says that it serves ads on only 20% of its total queries.
Searches that make Google money are known as “commercial queries.” Some examples include “cheapest flights to London” or “best phones of 2023” and this week we got a rare insight into what Google searches made the most money for the company.
This information came from the ongoing US vs Google antitrust trial. It revealed the most lucrative search queries for Google for a week of September back in 2018. This list is ordered by revenue and it was only revealed to the public after Judge Amit Mehta pushed Google for more information.
These were the top 20 most revenue-generating queries for Google in the US:
iphone 8
iphone 8 plus
auto insurance
car insurance
cheap flights
car insurance quotes
direct tv
online colleges
atandt
hulu
iphone
uber
spectrum
comcast
xfinity
insurance quotes
free credit report
cheap car insurance
aarp
lifelock
The revenue generated from all these queries was redacted in the document. Take a look at the image below.
There are three search queries for the iPhone alone, which makes sense since the iPhone 8 launched around that time. Several retailers, carriers, accessory makers, and others were likely trying to be at the top of every search result.
There are also several insurance entries, which have always been a highly competitive space in the US. Searching for car insurance gives you 4 ads before giving you any actual search results.
Keep in mind that these searches are only for a week and the entire year’s worth of queries would have looked quite different, though it is unlikely that we will ever get to see that.
Source: Pro Pakistani