14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft isn’t quite the biggest fan of Google products and it’s easy to see why, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Redmond software giant isn’t trying to use them for its own benefit.
According to a research made by search marketing analysis firm AdGooroo and posted by AdAge, Microsoft was the fifth biggest spender on Google ads in 2013, as it tries to bring more people to its products straight from Google’s search results pages.
Amazon is the clear leader in this chart, with total spending of $157.7 million (121.8 million euro), followed by Priceline Group with $82.3 million (63.5 million euro), AT&T with $81.9 million (63.2 million euro), and Expedia with $71.6 million (55.3 million euro).
Software giant Microsoft is fifth with $67.1 million (51.8 million euro), the results of the study show, while rivals at Yahoo come far behind on the 19th position with $36.2 million (27.9 million euro).
Why the need for spending big on Google ads?
After seeing these statistics, many could wonder why so many large companies need to spend so much money on a product that’s actually owned by a rival.
The answer is as simple as it could be: in order to make sure that they attract as many users as possible, companies purchase ads on Google’s search engine, which continues to be the number one service of its kind on the market.
If they buy ads, their own pages appear higher in search results, hence the increased possibility of bringing more users on their own websites. Google is at this point the top search engine in the world and in the United States, with nearly 65 percent of the search engine traffic in the country going to pages belonging to the Mountain View-based company.
In the case of Amazon, investments are even more important. Amazon is currently one of the leading web retailers, and spending money on Google ads is critical in order to make sure that more results are bringing users to products sold on its website.
Amazon isn’t pumping money only on Google ads. In July 2014, the company spent a total of $19.5 million (15 million euro) to purchase Google search ads, but also $1.2 million (1 million euro) for ads on Microsoft’s own Bing.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, things are pretty much the same. Microsoft needs users to come directly to its website for more information or products, so buying ad slots on Google’s results pages is the best way to make sure that those using the world’s number one search engine find its pages.