How much does Google value you ?
As you know, Google last year introduced a feature that dynamically sets the required Minimum Bid for a given keyword (before that they had a flat $0.05 minimum bid for all keywords). I commented on this change as being smart but evil at the same time, since it lets Google price its keyword inventory to perfection and capture every penny possible, thus leaving a small margin for you, the bidder.
This allowed Google to drop the default minimum bid from $0.05 to $0.01, which allows them to capture more listings from keywords that were not ROI positive at 5 cents and above. However, at the same time it protects the high value keywords since Google can over-ride the minimum keyword bids for those terms individually.
So for fun, I went to Google today and checked what is the minimum required bid for some people names, here are the results:
| Alicia Witt | $1.00 |
| Courtney Love | $0.50 |
| Rene Russo | $0.50 |
| Arnold Schwarzenegger | $0.30 |
| Ken Norton | $0.30 |
| Julia Roberts | $0.30 |
| Steve Jobs | $0.20 |
| George Bush | $0.20 |
| Isaac Newton | $0.20 |
| Britney Spears | $0.20 |
| Terry Semel | $0.10 |
| Tom Cruise | $0.10 |
| Osama Bin Laden | $0.10 |
| Albert Einstein | $0.10 |
| Chris Anderson | $0.10 |
| Jeremy Zawodny | $0.10 |
| Guy Kawasaki | $0.10 |
| John Battelle | $0.10 |
| Larry Page | $0.10 |
| Mark Cuban | $0.10 |
| Bill Gates | $0.10 |
| Matt Cutts | $0.10 |
| Amr Awadallah | $0.05 |
| Caterina Fake | $0.05 |
| Chad Dickerson | $0.05 |
| Jennifer Sleg | $0.05 |
| Udi Manber | $0.03 |
Its really hard to figure out the logic behind their algorithm, if any, so for example, consider these facts based on the numbers above:
- George Bush is valued at twice Osama Bin Laden
- Arnold Schwarzenegger is valued three times Tom Cruise
- Steve Jobs is worth twice as much as Bill Gates
- Isaac Newton is worth twice as much as Albert Einstein
- Alicia Witt is the most valued among this list, she is worth five times Britney Spears
- Terry Semel, Larry Page, Mark Cuban and Bill Gates all have the same value
- Among the bloggers I checked, Ken Norton topped the list at $0.30
- I, Caterina, Chad, and JenSense were tied as the cheapest bloggers, at $0.05 each
- Poor Udi Manber is valued at $0.03, hopefully his recent move to Google will help improve that
– amr
Alicia Witt? What am I missing here?
Comment by SJGMoney — April 5, 2006 @ 8:23 amThats the whole point, there seems to be no logic. If you look
at Yahoo or Google, there is no marketplace for her name, i.e. no
ads show up for Alicia Witt. So where is Google comming up with
the $1 minimum bid !! However, searches for her name have been
spiking a lot recently (according to yahoo buzz).
– amr
Comment by amr — April 5, 2006 @ 3:18 pmThere must be some nude photos turning up from 10 years ago or something, either that or she got busted for something. Seems to be the majority of “Buzz” people.
Comment by SJGMoney — April 6, 2006 @ 6:26 amDon’t you work near Jeremy? Is he gloating about his .10 valuation?
Caterina gets the cover of Newsweek but only worth .05 to Google? Tragic.
.. and speaking of Google jumping the shark I hope you comment on how they’ve
Comment by Joe Hunkins — April 8, 2006 @ 10:53 amsuccessfully snuck so many sponsored links within the organic listings for
searches like “Real Estate” Dallas to SFO , etc, etc. Fine to put up ads but
it’s deceptive to have them listed as regular results!