Click Through Rates Could Be Deciding Factor In Google's Q2 Report

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is announcing their Q2 2012 earnings results today. Despite many side projects, Google remains today primarily an advertising business, with approximately 97% of revenues coming from its core search engine advertising business. As such, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)'s earnings are largely dependent on key advertising metrics such as the cost-per-click (CPC) and click-through rates (CTR) of search advertisements.

A new search marketing advertising study compiled by WordStream, Inc., a provider of search engine marketing software for small and medium-sized businesses, shows that the CTR of paid search advertisements on Google now outnumbers clicks on “free” organic search result listings by nearly a 2:1 ratio for high commercial intent keyword searches conducted in the US....