What CPC on PPC would you pay for Bin Laden?

With the recent news about Osama Bin Laden, it has quickly risen to be the most searched term on Google. This led me to wonder if there was some sort of Pay Per Click advertising opportunity to be had from this, and indeed any “popular” subject at present. Searching for Osama Bin Laden on Google shows that no one at present is taking advantage of the most searched for term on the internet, but is it possible?

A couple of years ago just before the release of the Budget, Ann Summers was found to be bidding on political keywords. Surely this would be pointless in terms of CTR and Quality Score? Well apparently not. Ann Summers tried to improve their Ad relevance by including the phrases “Beat the Credit Crunch”, “There is no Recession in Pleasure!” and even including “Budget2009” in the Display URL. Reports suggest that they received Click Through Rates of 20% and a Conversion Rate of 2% for their political campaign. An obvious success, you would think, for their short exploit into the world of politics.

Google will no doubt be less lenient on people who are bidding on search terms based around Osama Bin Laden when compared to the Ann Summers’ political campaign, but this could well show where there is an opportunity for quick, smash and grab advertising on the most popular subjects of the day to help increase brand recognition. Volkswagen celebrated ‘Star Wars Day’ yesterday by rereleasing a Star Wars advert, where a mini Darth Vader apparently uses ‘the force’ to start the new Volkswagen Passat. So would this kind of Campaign work well for Pay per Click Advertising? Seemingly so for Ann Summers, and could be well worth testing.

Low Competition + Increased Brand Recognition + Cheap Clicks = what could go wrong?