How to Calculate Potential Earnings From Keyword Data - Monthly Search Volume & CPC Value

[gasmonkeygarage]

When going for a keyword,is it possible that a keyword has a cpc of1$ and a monthly search of 1000 and not make money?For MFA sites.

 

[Ryuzaki]

When going for a keyword,is it possible that a keyword has a cpc of1$ and a monthly search of 1000 and not make money?For MFA sites.

Consider this kind of math before you commit based on numbers like these.

First off, they could be totally off the mark. They could be WAY wrong, in a good way or bad way.

Assuming they're correct, think about this. The CPC is for Adwords, so you as the publisher would keep I think 68% of the click value. If I'm remembering that percentage right, that drops you to $0.68 per click. Already a 32% drop in expectation.

Then figure you can rank #1. You'll get around 40% of the total volume, so you're looking at a reality of 400 monthly visits.

Let's say (and it really depends on the niche and intent and your split testing, let's go with a normal starting value that might even be generous...) that you get a 2% click through rating on 400 visits with about 1 pageview per visitor.

$1.00 * 68% * 1000 visits * 40% * 2% = $5.44 per month.
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That's fairly realistic. You could do something like that on an authority site and make it shake out over the long-haul of that amount across a couple hundred pages and make $1000 a month. Realistically there you'd have a handful of huge winning pages possibly bringing in $1000 a month each themselves with the scragglers adding another $1000.

I wouldn't recommend the MFA path in the sense you're talking, because it sounds like keyword sniping likely with an EMD or partial match domain. Pretty much a waste of time since with SEO everything is compounding. The game is now "go big or go home." when it comes to MFA content sites.

 

[gasmonkeygarage]

@Ryuzaki thank you for your feedback,i had a chat with a friend of mine and he was saying,if,u type a keyword and no ads show up on google,you cannot make money even if,you target those keywords,no matter what the cpc says,is that possible?

 

[ryandiscord]

@Ryuzaki thank you for your feedback,i had a chat with a friend of mine and he was saying,if,u type a keyword and no ads show up on google,you cannot make money even if,you target those keywords,no matter what the cpc says,is that possible?

If this keyword is the premise for your entire site then this may be good general advice. Not necessarily the case if this is a topic within an authority site though.

Technically, just because you searched for a keyword and didn't see ads at that moment, doesn't mean an advertiser isn't bidding on it. Advertisers could be day parting, bidding in different locations, and devices. Also not everything you see in search directly correlates with what you could earn in adsense. I've run display campaigns with different targeting and expectations than search.

Technicalities aside, think about the intent of the keyword and how you can funnel your visitors to a more money focused page. Take the keyword "how to tie a shoelace in a cool way" it's searched 110 times a month and has a CPC of $2.10, yet I don't see any search ads. An advertiser isn't likely going to target this exact phrase but if you had a sneaker site, that got traffic for this keyword, you could earn from display ads targeting sites contextually related to sneakers. (If not you would at least have some retargeting ads following your visitors.) This article could also link to and direct visitors to your buyer / comparison intent page "The Coolest Quick Lace Sneakers of 2017" (or collect their email and hit them with this later). My point is, just because it appears advertisers aren't bidding on a keyword doesn't mean there isn't opportunity in it.

 

[JasonSc]

@Ryuzaki thank you for your feedback,i had a chat with a friend of mine and he was saying,if,u type a keyword and no ads show up on google,you cannot make money even if,you target those keywords,no matter what the cpc says,is that possible?

Basically, your friend is correct. In Google Keyword Planner, there is a competition column, high, medium and low. If the competition is high, then you will get closer to that 68% of $1.00.

To give you a good example, I have a site built 4 years ago and it's strictly monetized with Adsense. Average monthly traffic is 4K. YTD this site has made $211. It has a CTR of 5.2% and a CPC of $0.14.

Adwords says its a $1.10 CPC with medium competition.

The first ad is based on the Keyword, the remaining ads are retargeted ads.

Unless you have a lot of traffic, then Google Adsense is basically beer money.