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Comment by mpg33 | Hacker News Reader

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mpg33·

What? That's seems absurdly high..

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It's not.

"Insurance", "loans", "mortgage" are all $44+ per click.

Some very specialized one like "mesothelioma suit" are $800+. Even misspellings like "mesotheliama" are $600+.

I try to remember searching on that term and clicking the ads from time to time, for no other reason than to line Google's pockets. It seems like the quickest way for me to pay them back for the various free (and ad free) services that I use from them.

Probably there is something terribly wrong with this, but I'm not entirely convinced. I am a human typing a search, and physically clicking a link in the results. I just don't have or happen to know anyone who has mesothelioma.

https://www.adgooroo.com/resources/blog/the-most-expensive-k...

https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/05/31/the-most-expensive-...

mesothelioma cases must be quite lucrative for them to spend this kind of money.

This is the one of the saddest data table I've seen in awhile.

It's pretty steep compared to the last decade. For a while during the dotcom bubble GoTo.com used to list how much a text ad click cost when it was clicked. I remember Dell running ads on there that were paying $5+ per click at the time, and that wasn't uncommon. I really haven't seen anything quite that crazy since those days, when it comes to general / broad-based CPC advertising.

If (CPC * ConvRate * CLV) > CPC then you can pay those prices. Granted, it's not entirely that simple with payback periods to consider, but big advertisers like insurance companies have plenty of money to fund acquisition until it pays back.

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