Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Channel » SEO » Schmidt: Someday, AdSense Publishers May Know Google’s Cut Of Ad Revenues

Schmidt: Someday, AdSense Publishers May Know Google’s Cut Of Ad Revenues

How much money does Google keep back for itself from the AdSense ads it places on third party sites across the web? Right now, most publishers don’t know. But that might change in the future, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. AdSense is largely a black box for publishers. They agree to carry ads from Google. […]

Danny Sullivan on September 17, 2009 at 4:27 pm

How much money does Google keep back for itself from the AdSense ads it places on third party sites across the web? Right now, most publishers don’t know. But that might change in the future, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

AdSense is largely a black box for publishers. They agree to carry ads from Google. Those ads generate revenue. Google deducts a cut and gives the rest to the publisher, but the percentage deducted isn’t disclosed. The exception is for large publishers who negotiate deals to carry AdSense ads.

Shouldn’t this change, especially to be in keeping with Google’s talk about how open and transparent things should be?

“We’re doing better. As you know five years ago when we started all of this … it was a complete black box,” said Schmidt, when I talked with him earlier this week. “The criticisms of the lack of transparency, they were quite valid. The reason we didn’t go into the details was that we kept changing things. And that’s still the case. And the problem is that if we … say well this is exactly how it works, and people get themselves organized around some outcome, and we make an algorithmic change, then we create a huge negative wave.”

Continuing, he said:

“Ninety percent of people seem to be quite happy with that [few details disclosed], because revenue keeps going up. And 10 percent want much, much more information for god-knows-whatever reasons,” he said. “We have a lot of ideas about giving you more information about traffic to the site, advertiser behavior. I don’t think we will ever fundamentally give people what the critics want there, because the net of that is that we would then become frozen in time.”

But it seems so simple to reveal the cut. Why not show how much a site earned in aggregate and the percentage that Google kept from that?

“That kind of stuff, my guess is we’ll do, but there won’t be much more that. I think the answer is you’ll see us do things in very high aggregates but not a lot more,” Schmidt said.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    4 elements of good content, according to Google research 

    Google Ads bug inflating some cost-per-click (CPCs) for non-US campaigns

    3 changes coming to Google Ads audience features

    Chrome will show Google Lens results in the same browser tab

    Google Marketing Live 2022: Everything you need to know

About The Author

Danny Sullivan
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Related Topics

SEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

Dominate Your Competition with Google Auction Insights and Search Intelligence

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.