The average conversion rate on Google ads is often less than 2% and rarely more than 4%. This is a fraction of what many of us get for organic results and it is a result of bots, bored kids, school projects, competitor clicks, fraud, ad nauseum. In other words the paid ad business model is deeply flawed.
So, how to get businesses to keep giving them money? Simple. Push their sites up in the SERPs even though there are many superior and better keyword focussed sites out there. This is why so many so many seemingly undeserving sites ride high, and specialist sites that visitors actually try to find get pushed out of sight.
Result? Fewer and fewer sites, invariably owned by high spending advertisers, dominate the SERPs; words that are included in search terms get ignored; and search results get more and more bland.
As a direct result of Google's monopoly, something that endless appeals against court decisions will prevent change to for years to come; and the huge cost of setting up a competitor in the first place; it is unlikely that any better system will come along in the foreseeable future.
Things can only get worse so search as we know it is doomed. It will be destroyed by advertising, something that was foreseen by Google's founders many years ago.
