Which exact keywords pay the most CPC on Adsense?
SEMrush did a nice study on some of the best keywords by country here.
If you are looking for exact top paying keywords such as mesothelioma which pays $1000+ per click, you can check out the list compiled of 1M+ adsense keywords by GrepWords. For instance, they reported the ultimate top paying keyword “mesothelioma survival rates” at $1006.56 per click.
Here are a few of my favorite top paid keywords per industry found through SEMRush (data for 2017, 2018 and 2019, 2020):
Mesothelioma Keywords sorted by CPC
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that lines the lungs, stomach, heart, and other organs, and unfortunately can’t be cured. Nevertheless, treatment can help reduce the pain. People that contracted mesothelioma did so at their jobs so that is why you see searches like “mesothelioma attorneys”, “mesothelioma law firms” and “mesothelioma compensation”.
This is a very competitive keyword set so unless you can outrank WebMD and MayoClinic, I suggest you look for other industries.
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition | Results |
| compensation mesothelioma | 10 | 67.96 | 569.67 | 0.91 | 594,000 |
| mesothelioma attorney houston | 30 | 55.72 | 545.84 | 0.74 | 109,000 |
| mesothelioma attorney california | 10 | 55.3 | 390.08 | 0.86 | 223,000 |
| mesothelioma compensation | 110 | 64 | 326.85 | 0.84 | 596,000 |
| pleural mesothelioma stages | 90 | 71.76 | 318.44 | 0.93 | 148,000 |
| mesothelioma lawyer directory | 20 | 63.42 | 290.34 | 0.86 | 212,000 |
| mesothelioma lawsuit settlements | 110 | 61.8 | 276.44 | 0.85 | 139,000 |
| statute of limitations on mesothelioma claims | 90 | 53.98 | 274.07 | 0.82 | 64,000 |
| lawyers for mesothelioma | 40 | 58.43 | 265.92 | 0.86 | 537,000 |
| mesothelioma settlement fund | 40 | 59.3 | 257.12 | 0.82 | 262,000 |
*Competition of 1 means highly competitive.
Top Paying Keywords for the Lawyer Niche
Being a lawyer must be nice. You get to dress in a suit (which I love) and you also get to afford to spend exorbitant amounts of money for website traffic. Not too shabby.
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition | Results |
| car accident lawyer moreno valley | 90 | 52.02 | 584.44 | 1 | 112,000 |
| ft lauderdale car accident lawyer | 10 | 48.18 | 566.17 | 1 | 267,000 |
| auto accident lawyers in chicago | 90 | 59.03 | 542.95 | 1 | 2,280,000 |
| car accident lawyer ny | 30 | 53.89 | 508.62 | 1 | 1,320,000 |
| car accident lawyer in phoenix | 20 | 55.27 | 504.53 | 0 | 1,070,000 |
| california motorcycle accident lawyer | 30 | 47.51 | 475.78 | 1 | 5,410,000 |
| car accident lawyer augusta | 90 | 44.3 | 463.71 | 1 | 416,000 |
| car accident lawyer in fort lauderdale | 50 | 47.13 | 462.97 | 1 | 1,110,000 |
| personal injury lawyer ft lauderdale | 10 | 43.06 | 429.36 | 1 | 860,000 |
| dallas truck accident lawyer | 90 | 49.67 | 426 | 1 | 721,000 |
Doctors keywords CPC Adsense
In this list you will find a mix of people looking for Physicians and people looking for a PhD program.
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Com. | Results |
| can you sue a doctor for wrong diagnosis | 40 | 70.83 | 250.96 | 0 | 697,000 |
| doctorate in security | 70 | 74.61 | 189.19 | 1 | 25,000,000 |
| doctor after car accident | 40 | 60.59 | 136.95 | 1 | 29,200,000 |
| doctors car insurance | 10 | 66.17 | 128.46 | 1 | 3,100,000 |
| car accident doctor atlanta | 70 | 43.8 | 122.42 | 1 | 762,000 |
| rehab doctors | 210 | 59.77 | 118.49 | 0 | 22,900,000 |
| business doctoral programs online | 30 | 73.19 | 118.19 | 1 | 1,810,000 |
| best doctoral programs in education | 30 | 77.26 | 114.31 | 1 | 11,000,000 |
| top online doctoral programs in business | 10 | 71.32 | 112.46 | 1 | 995,000 |
| educational leadership doctoral programs online | 20 | 81.12 | 108.97 | 1 | 734,000 |
Best Attorney Adsense Keywords
I thought attorneys and lawyers were the same. Guess I was wrong.
Here are some other keywords pertaining to attorneys:
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition | Results |
| personal injury attorney cape coral fl | 70 | 44.08 | 573.71 | 0.79 | 302,000 |
| accident attorney rancho cucamonga | 90 | 46.05 | 548.48 | 1 | 71,000 |
| mesothelioma attorney houston | 30 | 55.72 | 545.84 | 0.74 | 109,000 |
| truck accident attorney san antonio | 50 | 47.2 | 432.95 | 0.85 | 703,000 |
| motorcycle accident attorney orange county | 30 | 52.34 | 404.05 | 0.83 | 2,180,000 |
| auto accident attorney colorado springs | 70 | 51.94 | 396.78 | 0.66 | 280,000 |
| accident attorney riverside ca | 30 | 43.12 | 390.88 | 0.51 | 331,000 |
| mesothelioma attorney california | 10 | 55.3 | 390.08 | 0.86 | 223,000 |
| phoenix accident attorneys | 20 | 54.24 | 358.08 | 0.71 | 1,500,000 |
| louisville accident attorney | 20 | 46.44 | 345.62 | 0.63 | 674,000 |
Educational keywords
| KEYWORD | CPC |
|---|---|
| ONLINE BUSINESS DEGREE PROGRAMS ACCREDITED | $140.00 |
| online accredited psychology degree | $135.00 |
| online degree in educational psychology | $135.00 |
| online business degree florida | $135.00 |
| online university college | $125.00 |
| online psychology bachelor’s degree | $125.00 |
| online college business degree | $125.00 |
| fastest criminal justice degree online | $125.00 |
| online masters degree in business administration | $125.00 |
| parapsychology degree online | $125.00 |
| online degree criminal justice | $120.00 |
| online school for business degree | $120.00 |
| online masters degree programs in healthcare administration | $120.00 |
| masters degree in human resources online | $120.00 |
| public administration masters degree online | $115.00 |
Bitcoin CPC Adsense KWs
I threw this one in because the crypto space is just so hot right now. These keywords are not the highest paying on my article roundup but I expect their cost per click to rise in the coming years.
Aside: I personally just love blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Actually, I love it so much that with my company Flux Ventures we launched an entire division just to buy and sell bitcoin and alt-coins.
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition | Results |
| bitcoin merchant account | 20 | 56.02 | 64.32 | 0.87 | 217,000 |
| bitcoin merchant services | 30 | 62.35 | 33.24 | 0.87 | 336,000 |
| bitcoin mining cloud computing | 10 | 66.05 | 32.65 | 0.73 | 604,000 |
| buy bitcoin australia | 30 | 52.36 | 21.47 | 0.32 | 783,000 |
| buy stocks with bitcoin | 50 | 83.4 | 21.08 | 0.46 | 6,010,000 |
| software mining bitcoin | 10 | 65.75 | 18.19 | 0.62 | 936,000 |
| bitcoin mining gpu | 70 | 71.59 | 18.19 | 0.36 | 696,000 |
| buy stock with bitcoin | 30 | 81.94 | 17.59 | 0.48 | 64,000,000 |
| bitcoin stock chart | 210 | 73.86 | 16.24 | 0.09 | – |
| how to invest in bitcoin stock | 50 | 77.64 | 16.16 | 0.71 | 1,060,000 |
Top Paying Insurance Related Adsense Keywords
The insurance companies surely make a killing from those outrageous premiums they charge us. Otherwise how could they afford all those TV commercials and these crazy spend on Adwords? If you are in the insurance blogging space, kudos to you. You’ve picked a winner.
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition | Results |
| compare car insurance | 70 | 78.04 | 469.12 | 1 | 5,720,000 |
| auto insurance troy mi | 10 | 66.48 | 420.29 | 0.84 | 1,080,000 |
| car insurance comparison quote | 10 | 77.7 | 342.54 | 0.88 | 2,400,000 |
| cars with cheapest insurance rates | 40 | 85 | 316.47 | 0.89 | 3,200,000 |
| best learner driver insurance | 10 | 67.65 | 300.26 | 0.77 | 830,000 |
| insurance quotes young drivers | 10 | 76.73 | 299.63 | 0.94 | 6,490,000 |
| automobile club inter-insurance | 20 | 84.42 | 299.49 | 0.81 | 783,000 |
| car insurance personal injury | 10 | 82 | 298.54 | 0.95 | 2,210,000 |
| auto insurance conroe tx | 40 | 69 | 298.08 | 0.82 | 443,000 |
| auto insurance philadelphia pa | 170 | 63.03 | 293.14 | 0.48 | 1,330,000 |
I actually took some of those keywords ^ and launched my site TheInsuranceNerd to attract those high paying clicks. So far, so good.
And lastly, how could I forget this…
Stop worrying about SEO and have me do it for you
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Best Digital Marketing/SEO Adsense Keywords
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you are most likely interested in all things online marketing / SEO so this list is for you:
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Competition |
| seo explanation | 10 | 73.3 | 108.42 | 0.42 |
| digital marketing degree florida | 30 | 77.4 | 100.48 | 0.96 |
| online courses on digital marketing | 10 | 73.88 | 92.38 | 1 |
| digital marketing certificate programs online | 20 | 80.74 | 87.56 | 0.91 |
| digital marketing course review | 20 | 67.72 | 85.6 | 0.9 |
| internet marketing classes online | 70 | 74.36 | 83.93 | 1 |
| courses on online marketing | 10 | 72.8 | 83.63 | 0.73 |
| online marketing education | 30 | 75.65 | 80.56 | 0.91 |
| email marketing wikipedia | 10 | 79.3 | 76.14 | 0.71 |
| digital marketing degree course | 20 | 75.56 | 72.71 | 1 |
| digital marketing classes online | 30 | 73.78 | 70.72 | 0.94 |
| seo marketing company | 90 | 57.52 | 58.44 | 0.65 |
| search engine optimization articles | 20 | 78.13 | 58.32 | 0.54 |
| seo companys | 20 | 59.89 | 54.77 | 0.87 |
| types of seo services | 50 | 44.34 | 53.13 | 0.86 |
| seo technology | 110 | 72.09 | 49.29 | 0.75 |
| search optimization companies | 10 | 61.61 | 48.65 | 0.83 |
| seo specialists | 210 | 74.3 | 45.35 | 0.61 |
| search engine optimization marketing services | 10 | 60.4 | 44.83 | 0.59 |
| seo company | 30 | 59.63 | 43.01 | 0.74 |
Keywords to target if you are in the ‘software for fitness’ niche
| Keyword | Volume | KD | CPC (USD) | Com. | Results |
| fitness showrooms stamford ct | 10 | 76.54 | 138.6 | 0.3 | 22,000 |
| ea fitness | 260 | 68.9 | 84.16 | 0.03 | 116,000,000 |
| fitness barre cranberry | 30 | 76.41 | 72.41 | 0.89 | 371,000 |
| fitness center software | 10 | 54.49 | 67.1 | 0.81 | 4,240,000 |
| fitness gym software | 40 | 50.54 | 63.03 | 0.56 | 24,100,000 |
| apogee fitness | 30 | 69.7 | 60.03 | 0.16 | 420,000 |
| fit online classes | 10 | 64.82 | 59.65 | 0.39 | 381,000,000 |
| rpac group fitness classes | 40 | 84.79 | 57.8 | 0.1 | – |
| fitness management software | 10 | 52.8 | 52.73 | 0.56 | 17,100,000 |
Aw man, you still forgot my industry…
No worries, you can find all these keywords (and more!) by going into SEMRush and clicking on Keyword Analytics > Phrase Match (or Related Keywords), typing the keyword(s) that you want and then sorting by cost-per-click.
Here are other ideas to do keyword hunting.
Now, onto my favorite part. The bonuses.
Bonus #1: Target these countries if you want to earn 10x more
Aiming for the right countries can really skyrocket your adsense earnings. Here are the top 10 countries to target:
| No. | Country | Avg. CPC ($) | Max. CPC ($) | Avg. CTR % | Average RPM ($) |
| 1 | United States (US) | 0.40 – 2.3 | >50 | 2-3 | 2.04 |
| 2 | Canada | 0.50 – 2 | >30 | 2 | 1.83 |
| 3 | United Kingdom (UK) | 0.10 – 1.6 | >19 | 1-2 | 1.37 |
| 4 | Germany | 0.40 – 1 | >11 | 1-3 | 2.62 |
| 5 | Thailand | 0.30 – 1 | 6 | 2 | 1.6 |
| 6 | United Arab Emirates (UAE) | 0.15 – 3.1 | 11 | 4 | 2.07 |
| 7 | Japan | 0.20 – 0.85 | 4 | 3 | 2.44 |
| 8 | Switzerland | 0.20 – 1 | 6 | 3 | 2.35 |
| 9 | Italy | 0.10 – 0.50 | 3 | 1-3 | 0.73 |
| 10 | China | 0.10-0.30 | 4 | 1-2 | 0.9 |
If you take a look at this chart, you will notice that most of the countries in this list are first-world countries.
How do you target a particular country in your blog?
The easiest way is to blog in their native language. To get visitors from Canada, US, UK or australia, your blog must be in English. Similarly, write in German if you are looking for people from Deutschland.
You may also change your targeting settings under Search Console.
Bonus #2: Unlock even more revenue by blocking low CPC ads
As a publisher, you have a good amount of control as to which Ad Categories you want to show on your site.
If you are trying to raise the CPC, RPM or CPM of your Adsense ads, then I suggest you take a look at your ad performance and start blocking categories that are not paying well.
Here’s how you can do that.
- Go to Adsense and on the left hand column click on “Blocking Controls > Content> All Sites”
- Click on “General Categories”
- Sort by % Earnings (Ascending).
- In there you can take a look at which ads are taking a good amount of impressions but generating relatively low earnings.
- For instance, let’s say the “Hobbies Games & Leisure” category is taking 4% of impressions yet just making 0.7% of your revenue, you can try and block it, and see if your performance improves.
You may also experiment by blocking certain ad networks. I haven’t personally tried this, but some people claim it works.
A word of caution: Don’t block too many categories (or ad networks) or else you will significantly reduce the bid competition and will start driving your revenue down.
Pro tip: Run Optimization Experiments
You can always run an Experiment (found under Optimization > Experiments) and see if blocking your ads yields more revenue or not.
You can also test if showing 50% of your total ads vs. 100% of ads yields more revenue.
Google Adsense experiments typically last for 10-30 days, up to 100 days (depending on your experiment and traffic).
For instance, I am running the experiment of blocking certain categories, and as you can see below I already started to see some good results (unfortunately Adsense policies prevent me from sharing the exact numbers).
Bonus #3: Steal your competitor’s lunch (aka. find which keywords are driving the most revenue to them)
What if you could view which keywords gets your competition the most clicks and revenue?
I’ll show you how I do it.
The process is very simple and uses SEMRush. (7 day free trial)
All you have to do is:
- Find any authority site in your niche. (For the sake of example in online marketing, I will use my own site)
- Type that site on the search bar in SEMRush
- Scroll to “Top Organic Keywords” and click on “See Full Report”
- On that report, sort by CPC.
- Voilá, you have a list of potential keywords that you can now use.
- Rinse and repeat with other sites that you admire.
Once you do this process with 3-5 sites, you will have a good set of keywords that you can target. (By the way, you can hire someone on Fiverr or Freeeup [my favorite] to write quality articles for you so you don’t have to actually spend time doing it.)
Bonus #4: Find more high paying keywords using Search Console
Did you know that Google already provides you with the keywords that you rank for?
What if you could optimize your existing blog posts to target even better keywords?
Instead of spending tons of hours writing a thorough post, you could use update an old one and pick juicier keywords.
Here’s how.
- Install the Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension
- Head to the Search Analytics under the Google Webmasters Tools
- Choose your website
- Be sure to check the Clicks, Impressions, CTR and Position boxes at the top
- Filter by any specific page that you want keywords to show for: i.e. https://alejandrorioja.com/high-cpc-adsense-keywords/
- Since you installed the Keywords Everywhere tool you will see an additional 3 columns on your list, namely: Monthly Volume, CPC and Competition
- Unfortunately you can’t sort by CPC so you will have to copy all the data into a spreadsheet and sort it there. I suggest you hit the Show 500 rows at the bottom of Webmaster tools.
- I made a Google sheet for you that you can copy (File > Make a Copy..) to sort all your keywords.
- Copy and paste all your keywords, and then hit the arrow on the column of CPC and sort from Z->A
- Voila, you will see all the keywords that your blog post ranks for, all ranked from highest CPC to lowest CPC.
As you can see this last trick will yield keywords that might not be applicable to your blog post. In my case, “mesothelioma lawyer directory” does not apply to this specific post so I will just ignore it.
However, it will also find keywords that I am already getting impressions like “top paying keywords” but for which I am still ranked on page #2. The secret here is now to extend my existing blog post to include that new keyword so that my page gets bumped to page #1.
Pro tip: You can also sort by Volume or competition to find other hidden gems.
(Remember that now with the new RankBrain algorithm you shouldn’t target each specific long tail keyword but rather target medium-tail keywords that cover a broader topic.)
Related: Remember you can also show ads on Youtube (here’s a fun guide to Youtube SEO).
so, how can you make $100 a day with Adsense?
I don’t know about you, but 100 bucks a day on ads sounds like a good passive income to me ($3k/mo).
Let’s run some calculations to see what it would take to make $100/day on Adsense.
First, some assumptions.
- You are targeting US readers (as we saw earlier, US ads pay the most on average)
- Your CTR (click-through rate) is 1% (i.e. 1% of visitors click on ads)
- Your CPC is $0.50 (your niche is strong but your site is just getting started)
- Your RPM (revenue per 1000 impressions) is $2
? Btw, you can increase your earnings using Ezoic. (an ad tester platform)
With these numbers we can now calculate how many visitors we need to earn our target amount.
The formula is = Visitors * CTR * CPC + Visitors/1000 * RPM
So with 15,000 visitors per day we obtain around $100/day on Adsense.
(15,000 * 1% * $0.5 + 15,000/1000*$2 = $105/day)
But how do you obtain 15,000 page views per day? Is that reasonable?
Yes, it is reasonable. To do that, you can either
- produce 15 articles that get 1000 page views (hard)
- produce 150 articles that get 100 page views (much easier)
Learn how to write articles that will attract a lot of visitors.
Want learn how to get more organic visitors? Check this out!
Tips for Youtube CPC
In case you were wondering the same steps apply if you are looking to grow your earnings on Youtube. The same industries, languages and countries discussed above will also do well on YT.
To further optimize your Youtube earnings, you should also include a thorough description of your video that includes the high paying keywords you are targeting.
Here are more Youtube SEO tips.
Conclusion
I hope you found this list of high cost-per-click keywords useful.
I also hope you liked the strategy to find keywords that your competitors are getting money from. If you want additional tools to find keywords, head to my SEO tools list.
Building a high grossing blog is a combination of picking a solid niche, doing SEO on your articles and having fun while at it.
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment and share this article with a friend.
I put a lot of work into it so I’d appreciate it if you tweet it out. Also let me know what you want me to write about next! If you want you can hit me up on Snapchat @youngslacker or Instagram: @youngslacker.
Read also:
- My KILLER on-page SEO techniques
- How to get to #1 on Google and why you haven’t yet
- Who is Alejandro Rioja?
- What the heck is RankBrain and why haven’t I heard about it before?
At this point, aren’t you wondering how I got the first result on Google for this blog post? Read here to find out how.
Alejandro Rioja
Alejandro Rioja (UCLA ’17) is a serial entrepreneur who founded Flux Ventures, a holdings company that owns: 1) Flux Chargers, the top rated and best selling power bank in over 90 countries, with a #1 worldwide rank by Mashable, Engadget, and Digital Trends; 2) Flux.LA, a software and marketing consulting firm that will get your site at the top of Google; 3) Flux Capital, an investment firm and 4) Young Slacker Media, a series of popular websites (like FutureSharks, and The Insurance Nerd) and his own rapper persona, Snap: @youngslacker, Instagram: @youngslacker. If I can be of any help or if you would like to do business with me, don’t hesitate to reach out!
