July 2, 2012 9:45 AM PDT
Google is driving serious economic activity in the U.S. -- at least,
that is, according to Google.
The search giant today unveiled
its 2011 Economic Impact report, and said that its search and
advertising tools, including AdWords and AdSense, drove $80 billion in
economic activity across the U.S. last year. The company said it reached
that figure with help from "1.8 million businesses, Web site
publishers, and non-profits across the U.S."
In order to arrive at that figure, Google used some
fancy math. The company estimates that businesses that use AdWords
make $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on the advertising platform.
In addition, the company assumed that a business will receive five
clicks in search results for every one click on their ads.
"If search clicks brought in as much revenue for businesses as ad
clicks, these two assumptions would imply that businesses receive $11 in
profit for every $1 they spend on AdWords," the company said. "This is
because, if advertisers receive 2 times as much value from AdWords as
they spend on AdWords, and they receive 5 times as much value from
Google Search as they do from AdWords, then the total profit they
receive is 11 times what they spend."
