Google Advertising Statistics for 2021

By Kylie Moore

With a network that’s made up of over two million websites and a reach that encompasses 90% of consumers, you’d be remiss not to take advantage of pay per click advertising via Google Ads. So, how do you do it? And moreover, why should you do it?

As an agency of paid media and digital marketing experts, we’re here to help you with your digital advertising strategy – and we’ll start by giving you the latest Google Ads stats.

Google Ads Basics

Google was the most-visited domain in February 2020, with 74.17 billion hits (First Site Guide, 2020)
62% of all core search queries in the United States are generated by Google (Statista, 2020)
Google Ads is currently the biggest provider of search advertising on the market (Statista, 2020)
96% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising (Curvearro, 2020)
There are more than 2 million Google Ads accounts (PPC Statistics, 2019)
More than 7,000,000 advertisers use Google Ads PPC (KlientBoost, 2019)
80% of all companies focus on Google Ads for PPC (WebFX, 2020)
95.88% of Google searches are four words or more (Statista, 2020)
Of Google Ads that get clicked, 65% have buyer-intent keywords such as ‘buy,’ ‘shop,’ ‘purchase,’ etc. (PowerTraffick, 2019)
Online ads can increase brand awareness by up to 80% (WebFX , 2019)
Two in five small-to-midsize businesses are running a PPC campaign (WebFX, 2019)
80% of businesses focus on Google Ads for PPC campaigns (Tech Jury, 2020)
76% of the search engine market belongs to Google (WebFX , 2019)
73% of the paid search market belongs to Google (WebFX , 2019)
More than 650,000 apps serve Google Ads (SEO Tribunal, 2019)
Customers are 70% more likely to purchase a product when a company utilizes retargeting (Tech Jury, 2020)
More than three out of four marketers advertise on both Google Ads and social media (Tech Jury, 2020)

What Kind of Reach do Google Ads Have?

Heading into 2020, Google controlled about 75% of search share (PowerTraffick, 2019)
Google Ads alone reach a network of more than 2 million websites and applications (Valve+Meter, 2020)
The Google Display Network reaches 90% of online consumers (WebFX, 2019)
Consumers make more than 160 billion searches per month on Google alone (Valve+Meter, 2020)
Google sees an average of 83,787 searches every second of the day (Internet Livestream, 2020)
Google accounted for 92.96% of the global search engine market share in September 2019 (SmallBizGenius , 2019)
According to early reports, ad groups with one or more Gallery Ads earn up to 25% more interactions (Google, 2019)
On average, internet users conduct 3-4 Google searches every single day (Single Grain, 2019)

Types of Google Ads

Google Search Network offers 6 types of ads: text ads, dynamic search ads, call-only ads, shopping ads, and image and video ads (Google, 2020)
Google Display Network offers 8 types of ads: text, responsive, image, app promotion, video, product shopping, showcase stopping, and call-only ads (Google, 2020)
Search ads are the most popular PPC ads, followed by social, remarketing, display, shopping, native, programmatic, and podcasts (Acquisio, 2019)
84% of advertisers who use paid search are currently using or planning to use Google’s new responsive search ads (Search Engine Journal, 2019)

Consumer Interactions with Google Ads

More than 50 percent of people between the ages of 18–34 can’t differentiate between an ad and an organic result on Google (Search Engine Land, 2018)
Why do people click on paid ads? Because they answer a question (33%), mention a familiar brand (26%), are listed before other results (20%), or because they have a compelling title, description, or image (19%) (Clutch, 2020)
Google Ads results receive 65% of the clicks that started with buying keywords, while organic results only receive 35% (Askmedigi , 2020)
Internet users are four times more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google (63%) than on any other search engine – Amazon (15%), YouTube (9%), and Bing (6%) (Clutch, 2019)
63 percent said they’d click on a Google ad, while just 15 percent said they’d click an ad on Amazon, 9 percent on YouTube and 6 percent on Bing (Clutch, 2018)
Search ads are the most effective for brands while display is least effective (Acquisio , 2019)
Google Analytics is the top SEO tool used by marketers (Hubspot , 2020)
The average CTR is higher with Google Ads than with Bing Ads. A paid ad on the first position on the first page of Google has a CTR of 7.11% (99firms, 2020)
98% of advertisers rate Google as most trustworthy with a 4 or 5 out of 5 on the trust index (Search Engine Journal, 2019)

Google Ads on Mobile

Google Ads receive 95% of mobile clicks (WebFX)
Mobile devices accounted for 69% of all paid Google Ad clicks in 2019 (First Site Guide, 2020)
Mobile searches for local businesses grew by more than 250% between 2017 and 2019 (First Site Guide, 2020)
70% of mobile searches result in a customer taking action within an hour (Main Street ROI, 2019)
52% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista, 2020)
One-third of mobile ad spending goes to Google (MediaPost , 2019)
95% of paid search ad clicks on mobile is driven by Google (WebFX, 2020)
Google is responsible for 67% of smartphone search traffic and 94% of organic traffic (Net Market Share, 2020)
Of all mobile customers, 70% call their target business directly through Google Ads (SmallBizGenius , 2019)
When it comes to mobile conversions, more than half (64%) come from the top three results (KlientBoost, 2019)
A majority (70%) of mobile converters call a local business directly through Google Ads (KlientBoost , 2019)

Cost of Google Ads

96% of brands are spending money on Google Ads (State of PPC 2019/2020, 2019)
Small to medium-sized companies spend between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on average on Google Ads (WebFX, 2020)
77% of marketers plan to increase their Google Ads spend over the next 12 months (State of PPC 2019/2020, 2019)
On average, cost-per-click on Google Ads runs $1-$2 for the Google Search Network and under $1 for the Google Display Network (WebFX , 2020)
The average cost-per-click for a Google search ad is $2.69 (WebFX , 2019)
The average cost-per-click for a display ad on Google is $0.63 (WebFX , 2019)
The legal industry has the highest average cost-per-click on the Google Search Network ($6.75), while ecommerce has the lowest ($1.16) (WebFX , 2020)
The dating and personals industry has the highest average cost-per-click on the Google Display Network ($1.49), while travel and hospitality has the lowest ($0.44). (WebFX, 2020)
Google ads experienced a first quarter median CPC of $1.28, an 8.5% increase from the previous quarter but a 8.2% decrease year over year (AdStage, 2020)
For every $1 spent on the Google Ads platform, brands make up to $2 on average (GoRemotely, 2019)
Google delivers an 8:1 return on investment (ROI) — or $8 for every $1 spent (Google Economic Impact Report, 2018)
Companies dedicate 21% of their ad spend to Facebook, followed by 19% to Facebook and Instagram, and 14% to Amazon (WebFX, 2019)

Google Ads Campaign Management Stats

Marketers should plan to spend an average of 30 minutes per week adjusting campaigns, keywords, and strategies against results (Google, 2020)
Professional Google Ads Management should cost between 12-30% of ad spend per month (WebFX, 2020)
Most Google Ads services providers bill clients at 15% of ad spend – the minimum is $10,000 (Google, 2020)
79% of marketers call PPC a “vital” part of their business (Hanapin Marketing, 2019)

Effectiveness of Google Ads

Google Ads convert 50% better than organic search results (PowerTraffick, 2019)
Paid ads have a 200% ROI (Tech Jury, 2020)
27% of internet users now use ad blockers (KlientBoost , 2019)
Google Display Network ads see an average click-through rate of 35% (WebFX , 2019)
Paid ads have an 11.38% CTR on Google (Askmedigi, 2020)
The highest average click-through rate in Google AdWords is found in the dating and personals industry, while the lowest click-through rate is found in the legal industry (Valve+Meter , 2020)
While the average click-through rate for PPC advertisements is only 2%, the average click-through rate for the top paid result on the screen is almost 8 percent (Valve+Meter, 2020)
Search ads on Google see an average conversion rate of 3.75% (WebFX, 2019)
Display ads on Google see an average conversion rate of 0.77% (WebFX , 2019)
The average click-through rate in Google Ads is 3.17% for the search network and 0.46% on the display network (WordStream , 2019)
Consumers spend 10 percent more money in a store if they have clicked on the retailer’s Google search ad before visiting (Valve+Meter, 2020)