jan 12, 2012 - Google’s Results Disappoint, Sending Shares Down

Description:

Analysts focused on the amount that advertisers pay for clicks on Google ads, a metric called cost-per-click, which dropped 8 percent over both last quarter and last year. Susan Wojcicki, Google’s senior vice president of advertising, told analysts that a drop in average cost-per-click often accompanied an increase in the number of paid clicks on ads, which rose 34 percent over last year. She also said that foreign exchange rates and 40 changes that Google made to ad formats in the second half of last year affected cost-per-click. It was also affected by an increase in ads on cellphones, which sell for a 20 to 50 percent discount, according to Goldman Sachs.

At one point, Mr. Page half-joked to analysts that he would prefer questions about something other than the cost-per-click on ads. He seemed much more eager to talk about the company’s social network, Google Plus, which he said had 90 million users. He also said 60 percent of them used it daily and 80 percent weekly. But advertisers and analysts are not yet convinced that Google Plus will become popular enough to compete with Facebook and Twitter.