The Top 20 Most Expensive Pay-Per-Click Terms

Paid Search 5th, Dec 2013

By:

When most people think of Google, they usually think of search results or cell phones. But did you know over 97% of Google’s revenue comes from online, paid advertising? In the last four quarters alone, they have made over $32.2 billion in total advertising revenue!

Google’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Paid Search management system is known as Google Ads. Simply put, it is a dynamic, auction-based marketplace designed for building and managing online ad campaigns. These ads are then shown throughout Google’s search results pages, and more.

Though Google Ads, it is possible to bid on keywords, search phrases, topics, locations, interests, brands (you name it) to compete for top ad placements for search results intended to get your company found. You now the results at the top and right-hand side of the search results page? Those are Google Ads ads. The minimum bid can sometimes be mere pennies, but highly competitive categories can get to a bid price upwards of $50 per click. That’s not even a customer, it’s just a click!

Let’s take a look at the top 20 most expensive industries on Google Ads.

*Please note, these are industry metrics as reported by WordStream and reflect their records of highest bids overall. Many, if not all Google Ads users should find success in bids far below these numbers. 

The Top 20

1.       Insurance:

At an average bid price of $54 per click, searches related to insurance are some of the most competitive terms in Google Ads. Top sample queries include: auto insurance price quotes; CA automobiles insurance; building contents insurance; buy care insurance online; and life insurance comparison quotes.

2.       Gas/electricity

With power concerns on the rise and the de-privatization of power suppliers in many areas these terms have quickly risen in cost to an average of $54 per click.

3.       Mortgage:

Mortgage keywords cost an average of $47 per click. Some common keywords that fall under this category include refinanced second mortgage and remortgage with bad credit.

4.       Attorney:

Personal injury attorney and dui defense attorney are among the most competitive attorney keywords and come in at around $47 per click.

5.       Claim

Legal issues are a definite favorite in terms of competitiveness for keywords and terms like personal injury claim and accident claims no win no fee now cost around $45 per click.

6.       Loans:

With a cost per click of $44 dollars, loan related ad placements are also highly contested and include terms such as: consolidate graduate student loans; fixed home equity loan rates; cheapest homeowner loans; and fixed rate secured loans.

7.       Lawyer:

Similar to attorney keywords, lawyer related search terms are quite expensive and come in at about $42 per click.

8.       Conference call

With best conference call service and conference calls toll free as some of the most searched terms in this category, conference call related searches are up to an average of $42 per click.

9.       Recovery

Addiction recovery is becoming a more prominent and openly discussed and advertised industry. This has caused related search terms to reach an average price of $42 per click.

10.   Donate

Demonstrating that even good causes can have stiff competition, keywords relating to donations can cost upwards of $40 per click.

11.   Degree

With the increasing need for post-secondary education, institutions are popping up all over the place and degree related terms have grown to a cost of $40 per click.

12.   Treatment

Similar to recovery related terms, the treatment of addictions and other conditions have driven per click prices to around $37.

13.   Credit:

Credit terms related to home equity and buying homes can cost upwards of $36 per click.

14.   Classes

As with degree related keywords, online classes and registrations have increased in recent years, driving the average cost of top ad placement for the category to around the $35 mark.

15.   Software

Software searches are also at an average cost per click of about $35.

16.   Trading

Cheap online trading and stock trade online terms have risen as the market recovers from the recent recession and trading keywords now cost an average of $33 per click.

17.   Rehab

Less competitive of a term than recovery or treatment, rehab keywords are nonetheless expensive and competitive: they cost an average of $33 per click for top ad placement.

18.   Hosting

As more and more companies develop an online presence hosting is becoming a competitive business, and a competitive search term, and ad placements often cost over $30 per click.

19.   Transfer

Online money transfers can save users lots of time and effort and competition for rankings can get fierce. Related keywords can have costs as high as $29 per click.

20.   Cord blood

Finally, despite seemingly never-ending controversy, more and more parents are opting to save cord blood when they have a child. This has driven cord blood related searches, particularly those to do with storage, into the $27 per click range.

Strange, but insightful metrics via WordStream

By: Tyler Shannon

2 thoughts on “The Top 20 Most Expensive Pay-Per-Click Terms”

  1. Probably the biggest mistake people make when doing their own PPC advertising is choosing the wrong keywords just because they want to get traffic. A couple of things to know are 1) General keywords get lots of searches and traffic but are less qualified and less likely to buy. When you’re paying for visitors, you want results, not just traffic. 2) The keywords that are being bid on must be extremely relevant to the product/services you are offering. If it was a retail store, would you want to pay for male motor bikers to walk into Victoria’s secret? Nothing against bikers, it’s just not the target market – and that’s what happens when you bid on general, broad keywords. You get lots of untargeted visitors so your ROI doesn’t work. If anybody wants help with this, call my buddy Simon here: 240-455-3886.

    1. Simon must not be very good if he has to resort to his friends spamming blogs and pasting his phone number! Guess he doesn’t even have a website? Why would anyone trust Simon?

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