You may have noticed a slight change on SERPS lately. Since February 19th, Google has stopped showing AdWords ads on the right-hand side of search results pages.
Complete and permanent since February 22nd, this change must be taken seriously by AdWords clients worldwide, as Google will now only show ads at the top and bottom of search results. These will not change for now, however this update might result in additional ads (possibly from three to four) at these locations for more commercial search queries.
The new display will effectively resemble the one experienced on mobile, and will affect all languages and regions.
How will this change for users:
– Regular users will probably not see much change, with PLAs (Product Listing Ads) remaining on the right side along with the Knowledge Graph.
– There may be a regular slope of organic listings (slow ‘push down’).
– CPCs will most likely climb up due to a higher competition between Paid Search advertisers.
– The fight for rankings may become tougher, with more businesses focusing on SEO.
CTRs were probably too low for right/hand side ads for them to be profitable to Google, and the (expected) inflated CPC might be significant for the search giant.
What should you do now to stay ahead of competition?
– Increase your PPC budgets to compete in top 3 positions.
– Invest into SEO to ensure you get buying traffic within your budget (transfer your budget to seo).
– Get an agency to audit your PPC and SEO campaigns.
POLARIS is an SEO and PPC agency in London. Contact our team for more information.
