Earnings reports from both Google and Microsoft show that search engine advertising revenue continued to grow last quarter, underscoring the continuing prominence the channel has in the larger digital marketing mix.

Google’s search advertising revenue reached $39.6 billion, up 24 per cent from the $31.9 billion it brought in during the first quarter of 2021. Alphabet’s other important marketing channels, Network and YouTube, brought in $8.2 billion and $6.9 billion respectively, for a total advertising revenue of $54.7 billion.

Microsoft reported advertising revenues of $49.4 billion, including $2.9 billion in search and news advertising revenue, up from $41.7 billion and $2.4 billion the previous year, respectively.

These numbers are good news for Microsoft and Google, but they also underscore the growing competitiveness in search engine advertising. As more and more companies realize the value of advertising on Google and other search engines, costs-per-click have increased drastically, especially for highly competitive industries with a history of digital marketing.

Yet there is still massive value to polished, refined search engine marketing campaigns. It’s not enough to dump thousands of dollars in monthly spend into Google Ads – optimizing these campaigns takes time, energy, and a constant eye for improvement. Companies continue to spend on Google because search engine advertising is still worth it when your company is highly visible for your most important keywords.

At GrowthEngine Media, our search engine marketing strategy includes careful pre-flight research (keyword analysis, competitive analysis, etc.), detailed campaign setup (targeting, budgeting, etc.) and constant monitoring, optimization, and communication to ensure our clients’ campaigns run efficiently, effectively, and transparently. If you’re interested in running Google Ads, or if you’d like to discuss your campaign, give us a call today.

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