> When you take into account the typically high click-through rate, Google is making more on a CPM basis(per 1000 pageviews)
Is this your direct experience? In my campaigns it's typical for me to see 5% CTR for the keywords I target and then a ~30% CTR for branded terms (depending on the brand name)
Branded clicks are more than 6x cheaper than non branded so the CPM is still lower.
Again, that at least has been my experience. And regarding the "would have been free" argument, I've gone back and forth and have seen better results with branded campaigns than not having them on. But I've seen accounts where that was not true.
Is this your direct experience? In my campaigns it's typical for me to see 5% CTR for the keywords I target and then a ~30% CTR for branded terms (depending on the brand name)
Branded clicks are more than 6x cheaper than non branded so the CPM is still lower.
Again, that at least has been my experience. And regarding the "would have been free" argument, I've gone back and forth and have seen better results with branded campaigns than not having them on. But I've seen accounts where that was not true.