Who Knew Insurance was so Expensive: Topping Google AdWords Cost-Per-Click List for 2011

So, by now, we all know what Google AdWords are, right? For those of you that have had your heads buried in the sand for the last 10 years or so, they are those little text ads that appear whenever you search for something (using Google obviously). Google makes an absolute fortune from these little text ads. To be precise, 97% ($33.3 billion) of Google’s revenue over the last twelve months was derived from AdWords. Of course, advertisers wouldn’t be using AdWords if it didn’t work, but some advertisers spend more than others.

Wordstream, a company that automates search engine optimisation, undertook research into which keyword categories attract the highest cost per click. They used their own database of keywords, over 90 days, to work out the top 10,000 most expensive English words.

Just for you, here is the list of the top 20 highest cost per click words, as discovered by Wordstream:

1. Insurance
2. Loans
3. Mortgage
4. Attorney
5. Credit
6. Lawyer
7. Donate
8. Degree
9. Hosting
10. Claim
11. Conference Call
12. Trading
13. Software
14. Recovery
15. Transfer
16. Gas/Electricity
17. Classes
18. Rehab
19. Treatment
20. Cord Blood

Topping the list, ‘insurance’ pulls in around $55 per click for Google. Not a bad little money spinner at all. The most regular search queries included ‘buy car insurance’, ‘building contents insure’ and ‘life insurance comparison quotes’. Even ‘loans’, which comes in at a close second to ‘insurance’, nets Google around $44 per click.

As you can see, the most expensive keywords are a product of society’s needs. We all seem to use the web today to search for information and assistance with topics that we are not necessarily experts in, but are a part of daily life: finance, professional services, health and education.