Google’s parent company, Alphabet, released its Q4 2021 earnings report last week, highlighting the critical role search engine advertising plays in the company’s bottom line. More broadly, the report underscores Alphabet’s outsize influence on the digital marketing industry in general.
The company brought in $75.3 billion dollars in revenue last quarter, beating investor expectations and obliterating Q4 2020’s total by 32 per cent. The lucrative quarter brought the company’s fiscal year 2021 total revenue to $257.6 billion, up 41 per cent from the total $182.5 billion it earned in 2020.
As always, Google was the engine that powered these massive revenues. The search engine brought in $43.3 billion in advertising revenue in Q4 2021, up from $31.9 during the same period in 2020, and $149 billion for the year, up 43% from $104 billion generated in 2020.
Growth was powered by “broad-based strength in advertisers spend and strong consumer online activity,” said Google SVP and chief business officer Philipp Schindler. “In the fourth quarter, retail was again by far the largest contributor to year-on-year growth of our ads business. Finance, media and entertainment and travel were also strong contributors.”
YouTube was also a major revenue source. It brought in $8.6 billion for the quarter and 28.8% billion for the year, up from $6.8 billion and $19.7 billion for the previous periods. However, it was also the only revenue source that failed to meet investor projections.
Google Network, the display advertising branch of Google’s digital marketing services, brought in $9.3 billion for the quarter, up from $7.4 billion year-over-year, and $31.7 billion for the year, up from $23 billion.
Why does this all matter? Because it proves that Google advertising is a must-have for any successful digital marketing campaign. Microsoft also released its quarterly earnings recently, and its search ads revenue came in at a miniscule $3 billion. If you want to be found by searchers, Google’s the place to be, and GrowthEngine can help.
Image: Shutterstock
