Google: Search Ads Drive 89% Incremental Traffic

Google recently ran over 400 studies on paused AdWords accounts to figure out whether or not paid search campaigns cannibalize organic clicks. Google says they don’t. 

We talked about this at WebProNews when this information was first released. 

Today, Google is talking about these studies again, saying search ads drive 89% incremental traffic. They have a new video about the research. 

"On average, the incremental ad clicks percentage across verticals is 89%," says Google’s Quant Management Team in a post on the Google Retail Advertising Blog. "This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused."

The number, Google says, was consistently high across verticals. They show the following stats for industry/mean incremental ad clicks:

Classifieds and local – 94%

Retail – 87%

Finance – 88%

Healthcare – 93%

Technology – 90%

CPG – 88%

Automotive – 88%

Business and industrial markets – 93%

Food and beverages – 89%

It’s worth noting that search (along with email) is one of the top two things consumers are doing on the Internet. This comes from a separate report from Pew Internet. Search is actually just below email, and ahead of getting news, buying products, and using social network sites.