Google rolled out BIG changes to Google Ads.

Google rolled out BIG changes to Google Ads. They are removing Ads from the right hand side of its desktop search results. 

Searchengineland reported on the story after receiving information from a Google Advertiser. It was later confirmed by a Google spokesperson who stated that Google is removing all ads from the right hand side of search results, worldwide. It will now only place ads centrally, four at the top and two at the bottom of the page. 

To clarify, the elimination of right-side ads impacts all desktop searches worldwide; the addition of the fourth ad above search results will happen for “highly commercial queries.” This would involve searches like “hotels in New York City” or “car insurance”.

Also with the removal of all right-side ads it will appear to users that the desktop and mobile search results look more similar.

There are, however, two exceptions:

1.     Product Listing Ads (PLAs) will appear above or to the right of search results

2.     The Knowledge Graph panels will continue to appear in the right hand side

Google also stated about the change to the additional fourth ad:

"We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries. We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers."

So what does this mean for advertisers?

Well, with the additional terms added to the top of the page, this will mean the organic listing is lower than it was previously.

It will also mean more work for your Paid Search team, as the competition for the higher spaces in the Ads will inevitably increase with the potential for the average CPC to increase as well.