It’s not hard to find out what search queries are trending on Google, but it’s rare we get a peek into what searches drive the most ad dollars. Coming out from the ongoing antitrust trial, new documents have unveiled some of the highest-revenue search queries on Google, and a lot of them are about the iPhone.
As highlighted by The Verge, an email that has been made public during the US antitrust trial with Google has shown a list of some of the top-ranking search queries on Google.com, as ordered by the amount of search revenue they drive.
Not all searches on Google drive the same amount of money, as some factual searches often lack advertising at all, while others regarding products or prices can be plastered with advertising. And that trend is made abundantly clear by looking at this list of search queries from the week of September 22, 2018, and is the first time ever we’ve seen searches ranked by the revenue they drive for Google.
The top 20 queries are as follows.
- iphone 8
- iphone 8 plus
- auto insurance
- car insurance
- cheap flights
- car insurance quotes
- direct tv
- online colleges
- at&t
- hulu
- iphone
- uber
- spectrum
- comcast
- xfinity
- insurance quotes
- free credit report
- cheap car insurance
- aarp
- lifelock
Many of these make a lot of sense for driving high ad dollars, especially in the case of “cheap flights” and “car insurance quotes,” which are both competitive and lucrative advertising topics.
But there’s also a clear trend at the top, with Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus taking the #1 and #2 spots respectively, and notably a full year after their 2017 release dates. The generic search “iphone” also ranks further down the list at spot #11.
Really, it comes as little surprise that Apple’s two mainstream smartphones drive crazy revenue, given the sheer market demand behind them and their accessories. There’s no shortage of carriers, accessory brands, retailers, and likely Apple itself competing for the top ad slots on these search terms. As The Verge points out, Google has previously recommended that brands bid for ad slots on their own products to avoid competitors taking that top position, and it’s likely a small part of the reason why the iPhone appears so high on this list, and why products such as Hulu, Uber, and companies such as Comcast, AT&T, and others show up here.
The actual advertising dollars these searches drove are redacted in the published documents, but it’s probably a safe bet that many of these, especially the iPhone, are still up at the top of the list in 2023.
More on Google:
- Google uses search revenue to strongarm Android OEMs into pushing security updates
- Alphabet reports Q3 2023 revenue of $77 billion
- Google was once bold enough to expect Apple to pre-install its search app on every iPhone
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