Google - NFR

[richie17]

Google's mainly funded by ad revenue, right?

Thing is, who actually clicks on google adverts?

If nobody does, how come all this pays off for them?  Isn't the whole thing a house of cards waiting to fall apart?

Clearly I'm missing something but it seems like a fundamental flaw in the whole shooting match.

[Lighthouse]

Who looks at  adverts in magazines and TV? Unless you are looking for something then adverts are ignored. Look at how ITV put extra adverts on popular progs. So people record the progs and just fast forward through the adverts. Somebody somewhere thinks they work. Just occasionally they do.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

Rich, you may be interested in this article about the genius of google:

http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/

And

http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/

[MJG]

We use adwords on Google for my company  and its really just paying for a shortcut to the website or pages within it.
For our company it gets us on the first search page for areas where we would be well down the ranking otherwise.

[Gozorich]

Henry Ford (I think) said 'only 50% of advertising works.  The problem is I don't know which 50% it is.' (Paraphrased)

[Nick the Swede]

I spend loads of time and money on Google ad-words for my clients and trust me when I say a lot of people do click on the ads/links. On average I have a ROI of 80 x 1 so far this year on my initial investment. Of course that key figure would vary on investment, industry, market etc. etc.

If I do click on an add myself it would however only be for the competition just for fun  :dft011: