Most people have probably seen the Pontiac commercials which encourage users to “Google Pontiac”. Seems like a colossal waste of money to me. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people have searched for Pontiac after watching these commercials. I bet at least 10% clicked on the Pontiac sponsored ads.

How many of those searchers are actively interested in searching for a Pontiac? Very few, I’d be willing to bet… Most are probably just curious about this stupid commercial they just saw on TV.

Countless sites are now bidding on the term Pontiac, from automotive web portals to Pontiac dealers and different divisions within the company. They have surely driven the cost of these keywords up significantly. I did a little research, and it appears that “Pontiac” keywords may be fetching $20+/click now. Hmm, maybe I’ll switch back to Adsense on this blog… serve up some overpriced Pontiac ads. Nah, the CTR would probably be horrible, even if each click was worth $10+.