Google Should Use AdWords to Make BP Fund Oil Spill Relief

For the past couple weeks I’ve seen headlines and tweets regarding BP’s leveraging of Google Adwords (as well as Bing and Yahoo!) to control the top (sponsored) search results for such terms as BP Oil Spill. This is a natural response to crisis for any corporation, no matter the depth of its PR 2.0 savvy.

But according to recent AdWords number crunches, BP is only paying an average of $1.33 per click or roughly $1 million each month (SearchEngineWatch, June 9). Perhaps as low as $1.22 per click.

Why so little? Nobody has been outbidding them in the AdWords marketplace. It’s time for some guerrilla tactics.

Here’s what I propose: Google should donate any revenues above $5 per click for any keyword to funds and charities dedicated to restoring the Gulf and/or to benefit those whose livelihoods have been shattered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill.

Yes, this is a crazy idea and it could throw AdWords of its hinges. So let’s just do it for ONE DAY. Google can’t change the rules for specific keywords but they can change the rules across the board. All it would take is a few noble souls willing to launch a bidding war with BP up to say – $20 per click. And Google’s word that monies will be donated (a great PR move in itself).

Justice is: clicking a search result and having $15 transfer BP to a non-profit Oil Spill fund. With each and every click!

Would millions of clicks accrue? ABSOLUTELY. Tens or hundreds of millions? I don’t know what the record is for most click-throughs from a Google Ad in one day. But I do know that Google has staged similarly engaging (and distracting) campaigns as recently as last month. We wasted nearly 5 million man-hours playing with Google’s PacMan 30th anniversary tribute, according to one report. BP has already wasted at least $50 million on TV ads. Why not make BP put its ad money where it should?

BP Logo mashup via Greenpeace UK‘s Behind the Logo flickr set.