Big Changes for AdWords Ads

Google announced last Friday (2/19) that the ads that have been showing to the right of organic search results will no longer appear on desktop searches. This is a major change in the search results pages that will without a doubt have an impact on those using AdWords to market their business on the Google search engine.

In as many years as I can remember AdWords ads have shown with usually  3, sometimes 4 ads above search results, several ads to the right of search results, and  2 or 3 ads below the organic search results. This meant a ton of ad real estate on each page of Google search results, most importanly the 1st page of search results. 

How Will the Google Ad Change Impact Advertisers?

At this point it's too early to tell the real impact these changes will bring, but here's a curated list of the most common expectations.

• Multiple sources believe that cost-per-click (CPC) will increase drastically due to the fact that there is less inventory.
• Other sources believe that because there will consistently be 4 ads before the organic search results, the CPC for the top positions will actually decline.
• You may see an increase in click-through-rate (CTR) for 2 reasons: A) To maintain competiveness you will be forced into a position that typically garners a higher CTR and B) There are less ad options funneling ad clicks to the other 7 positions on the page.
• At this time product ads will continue to display to the right, so those advertisers won't be signficantly impacted at this time.
• For branded searches, the right side will be used for informational purposes pulling from various sources, including Google My Business containing local information.

Again, it's pretty early to tell the real impact this will have. However, don't just ignore this one, it is a major change. If you are an AdWords advertiser I have no doubt you will see an impact. For some advertisers it will be positive change and for some it will be negative. My intial guess is that the more negative impact will be on very small business trying to compete in the oversaturated markets.