How accurate is Keyword Tool's CPC

by MarkWW
3 replies
  • SEO
  • |
It has been a couple of months I am working on ranking a website for a keyword that gets 12,000 exact monthly searches (Health niche).

Google's Keyword tool shows:
$5.38 CPC (Exact match type)
$2.09 CPC (Broad match type).

So far I received 2 clicks and that earned me $2.4. So that is $1.2 per click.

Does that mean, we cannot count on Exact match type when it comes to CPC?

According to Google:
For displaying ads with AdSense for Content, publishers receive 68% of the amount Google collects from advertisers.
And for what I received so far, the Broad match type is more accurate when it comes to CPC.
#accurate #cpc #keyword #tool
  • Profile picture of the author FraserC
    Hey markw89, you've got to understand that the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is designed for paid search advertisers. So that's the average price that they can be expecting to pay for their ads to show up on the Google search results.

    Prices on Adsense are similar, but they can vary because Google has to figure out what your page is about and try to display ads against them. So, you might find you're getting higher paying ads, and sometimes lower ads.

    Google also does something called "retargeting", where the ads people are seeing are actually based on their interests, not the content on your website. Have you ever noticed specific advertisers are following you around the internet?

    Finally, Google is taking a percentage of the revenue you receive. I've heard they take around 30%.

    P.S. The Google CPC values are extremely inaccurate on the low end. Even though a keyword says it'll only pay $.05, it actually pays the same amount per click as a shorter keyword with high volume.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cosmit
      Fraser you were close, they actually take 32% and from my experience, for example my recently ranked to #1 keyword that gets 14k exact at around $4-$5 gets $0.60/click on average. Go figure. (This number comes from hundreds and hundreds of clicks btw)

      Sometimes, however, clicks are ridiculously high (like today). Averaging $2 a click, 20% ctr, i'm sitting at about $20 with that site atm. Day's barely started.

      So it really depends, you can never tell.
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  • Profile picture of the author FraserC
    I'm at the other end of the spectrum. I get an enormous amount of low-value clicks - about 3,000 clicks a day. But they don't pay more than about $.30/click.

    That's the cool thing about this business. You can get a low number of high paying clicks, or a large number of low paying clicks. Both approaches work well.
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