Think Google’s having it all its own way? Seeing your client’s spend drifting to the tech behemoth? Then you might possibly take some joy in its fourth quarter results revealed over the weekend.
According to a company statement, Google’s earnings were down primarily due to lower cost per click on its advertising, although actual total volume of clicks grew.
Paid clicks in the fourth quarter grew 36 per cent year on year, even while cost per click fell 15 per cent. Between the third quarter and the fourth quarter of 2016, paid clicks increased by a fifth while falling on a cost-per-click basis by nine per cent.
Net revenue increased to $US26.1 billion, up from $US21.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015. Earnings per share increased to $9.36 from the $8.67 reported during the same period a year earlier.
Quarterly advertising revenue grew by 17 per cent over the same period in 2015, up from $US19.1 billion to $US22.4 billion.
Revenues from Google’s non-advertising ventures (things like driverless cars and cloud computing) were up year on year by $US112 million to $US262 million.
Operating losses for other non-advertising ventures decreased slightly, costing the company $US1.1 billion in the quarter compared with $US1.2 billion during the same period in 2015.
