Today’s New York Times has a short article about Google’s ad quality team. Much of what’s discussed is old news to those of us who buy PPC ads, but it’s an excellent summary to share with colleagues and management who don’t really understand what we do.

For example, an advertiser who offers to pay $1 per click to attract those searching for “vacation rentals in Colorado” may receive more prominent placement than another who bids $1.50 for the same query but has a lower quality score. An advertiser with a very low quality score may have to bid so much for placement as to make it uneconomical.

One figure jumps out from the article. We all know that Google makes an extraordinary amount of money, but it’s still eyeopening to hear that their revenue “… in this year’s first quarter, came in at the rate of more than $2 million an hour.”

Wow.