Mountain View, California — In an attempt to deliver the best from its search results, yesterday world’s leading search engine giant Google announced a new ad placement, with ads now being displayed at the bottom of SERPs.
Anyone who keeps track of Google-related news will be aware that the company has been not so subtlety testing ads at the bottom of it’s SERPS for some time now, and this week, Google officially publicized its plans to implement the changes permanently.
Interestingly, the reshuffling started popping-up on Google’s website since Wednesday. The shift would not prevent ads from still appearing in the right column next to the search results though.
Google announced this week it will shift ads from the right side of its SERPs to the bottom in some instances to promote a more positive user experience.
On its Inside AdWords blog, Google noted that in testing, this new bottom ad placement produce better results with CTR than side ads. The company attributes this to the fact that users tend to scan a page from top to bottom, with the news ads fitting better into the user’s “flow.” According to Jerry Dischler, director of search product management, said the move will occur based on user preferences.
You can compare the performance of ads in top positions vs. other positions with the “Top vs. Side” segment, which will be appropriately re-named “Top vs. Other” in upcoming weeks. Also, the company has experimented with different ad placements over the last few months to create an experience optimized for the user.
Furthermore, Dischler stated that placing advertisements below 10 organic links on each SERP resulted in greater clickthrough rates without negatively impacting user experience. AdWords users skeptical of Google’s move will receive analytics regarding the performance of advertisements in different locations on SERPs.
However, the move seems to make sense, as moving the ads to the bottom of the page will retain them within view for users scanning down the links that appear on a page before clicking to the next page of results. While Google says this does not negatively impact ads’ click-through rates, the change undeniably takes away from distractions beside organic listings–a plus for SEO marketers. It also suggests that content in ads must compete with organic content as users are reading the ads as part of a continuous scrolling experience.
The initial concern for advertisers is that Google will stop serving ads to the side of search results, in turn jeopardizing click through rates and all the goodies that comes with it–Google said in its announcement that ads that have previously shown to the side of the results may in some cases appear below them.
Google Inc., which is based in Mountain View, California, regularly refines its search formula and advertising concepts in an effort to deliver better results to Web surfers and companies trying to promote their products.
Nevertheless, the company’s approach in many instances have proven highly effective so far. Google handles about two out of every three Internet search requests. It is expected to sell more than $35 billion in advertising this year.