Goodbye to Google Right Hand Side Paid Text Ads
Right Hand Side Paid Text Ads are gone and with it much speculation on the impact of Google's new policy to advertisers, business, industry related companies and users of Google's search engine.
What's the Google Change? There will now be four paid search ads at the top of a search return page now that Paid Search Text ads have been removed from the right hand side of search return pages (SERPs). With the addition of a fourth paid search ad at the top of the page, this pushes organic search return listings further down the page and in some cases, organic search return listings will only be "below the fold." The Bottom paid search ads remain unchanged. Google Knowledge Graph, Rich Answers and Shopping Feeds also remain on search pages, in the same location.
What's the Impact to Google Paid Advertising Campaigns?
- A decrease in "above the fold" Paid Search advertising opportunities, means there will be more competition for the top 4 placements, which could translate to higher CPC costs.
- You may wish to consider other Google paid advertising products such as Google Shopping feeds to ensure you have paid advertising placements above the fold - (Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 - Example of Shopping Feeds - Right Hand Paid Advertising Placement on a Google SERP
- Quality Score continues to be very important to your Average Position on any page and your Cost per Click
- WordStream notes (Feb 2016) that Side Ad and Bottom Ads impacted by this change account for 14.6% of total click volume. ... And 78% of SERPs show less than 4 PPC ads above organic results, leaving opportunities for your ads to be in one the top 4 positions.
- The "real estate" of your PPC ads has been expanded. For example, if your Paid Search listings include a "period" on the first description line of your ad, it will now appear as part of the ad title.
- Ad Extensions continue to make your ads stand out, in any position.
What's the Impact to Google Organic Search?
- There are more organic results below the fold. We understand that, there are nine "blue" links and two news stories, which is an improvement.
- To enhance your organic positioning (Figure 2 below) as noted in 'SEO in 2016 - Evolve or Be Left Behind' (DD&S - Winter 2016) - look out for attention grabbing opportunities at the top of SERPs including
- Knowledge Graphs and Rich Snippets. Keywords have become thematic - an opportunity to target pages which speak to your web page content and be shown above the fold
Figure 3 - Right Hand Attention Grabbing Feature
Bottom Line: *Compete for the top 4 paid positions as your budget allows. *Consider targeting some SERPs that have a commercial opportunity for your business and that have fewer than 4 ads above organic results. *Always include ad extensions where possible. *Don't miss out on attention grabbing organic opportunities that are above the fold.
Alex Wozny, is a digital analyst with amazing research skills. Through Concentric, he helps businesses develop, measure and optimize their digital advertising as well as their marketing initiatives.
