Lessons from the world's biggest - and most profitable - ad agency

Lesson No.1: The 'what' never changes
In 2008, Google earned more than $4 billion in profits – with more than 95% of that coming from advertising tied to its search engine, AdWords. And, you need to pay only when someone actually clicks on the link. In essence, Google AdWords works by delivering a clear and relevant message. Period.

Well, the earliest ad agencies simply sold media space - often throwing in the message (copy) as a value add. Some still do!

Lesson No.2: The 'how' never stays the same
Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering at Google, says: “We are seeing a very fundamental shift where increasingly, particularly among the young demographic and in Asian countries, the primary access to the internet is not through the PC, but through mobile devices."

Ironically, in an advertising agency somewhere right now, they are trying to concieve a complelling Print & TVC campaign for their brand, while twittering or updating their Facebook status on an iPhone. Or checking out a hilarious forwarded email on a Blackberry!

Lesson No.3: Being 'focused' can never go wrong.
Google’s innovative, uni-purpose search engine attract nearly two billion Internet searches worldwide. Everyday.

It's not a secret, or coincidence, that single-focus communications get better results.

Lesson No.4: Things 'change'. And how.
In 1998, Yahoo had a chance to buy Google. They turned it down. Now who'd have thought that an upstart like that...

Until yesterday, Advertising was thought of as 'necessary evil' because all our free 'entertainment', 'news' and 'infotainment' on TV, press and radio depended on it. Today, the internet has changed the rules.