2016 is becoming the year for Google AdWords’ makeover. With many major changes rolling out this year, for instance, Google changed the layout of the AdWords which took a toll on everyone especially users.
Google started with its AdWords in 2006 and there was no major change in the AdWords world except the change in 4-Ad layout which impacted SEO and SEM.
- Overview of Impact on SEO
- Continuous pushing down of Organic listings
- Overview of Impact on SEM
- Increase in competition
- Changes in bidding strategies
- Long tail keywords and the brand term search activity
- Well Optimized sites
- Increased importance of Ad extensions
- RLSA
Yet again, Google has come up with another change though a subtle one in its AdWords world. People using Google will now see green Ad labels and not yellow ones next to Google text ads in the search results.
Last week, more and more users started seeing the green labels. This switch is no longer a test and Google has officially announced that the green labels are rolling out to all users.
“We regularly test ways to improve the look and feel of our search results page. We’ve been experimenting with a green search ad label and have decided to roll it out based on positive feedback from users and advertisers. ” Google
They further added, “Our goal is to make our results page easy to use, and our labeling clear and prominent.”
Why this Change in AdWords?
Google experimented with the change in color for several weeks. They thought using the same green for the label as well as display URL would make it easier to miss for users and advertisers. However, it was found that change in color had no impact on users. They were not confused with distinguishing organic listings and paid ones. This is supposedly the goal of Google.
No matter which color Google text ads label has, it is important to note that Google’s Ad label is more visible than its competitors like Bing, Yahoo, and the ‘sponsored’ labels used by most the social sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.
The Ad Label
Google first started its ‘Ad’ icon treatment instead of shading it in 2013. Now, the green labels are taking hold and replacing the yellow ad labels that are into being since 2013.
The search engine giant will roll out this change in Google text ad labels to all devices globally. So if you don’t see it now, you will soon see this. This change will be on mobile as well as desktops.
History of Google AdWords
Just four years after Sergey Brin and Larry Page came up with an idea in the year 2000 that changed the online world forever. With the introduction of Google AdWords, their main page announced: “Have a credit card and 5 minutes? Get your ad on Google today”.
Undoubtedly, Google’s search listings changed for better. The revenue generated by Ads in the first year was $70 million which has now grown to $67 billion in 2016. Google Ads with its targeting options, addiction to shopping, video ads, and other unique features, one cannot stop using ads for business.
Progress in Google Ads
The progress made by Google AdWords started to appear on more and more searches. The standard layout demonstrated by Google is:
With three ads at the top of search engine result pages with a beige yellow background, followed by organic listings and ads on the right, this format remained for many years.
Though the number/frequency of ads varied depending on the search just like today, the AdWords grew too quickly. There was another big shift in 2014 when Google removed the background colour from the ads by replacing it with a small yellow ad.
With time, Google started testing differences in this basic view of ads. Now it has tested green ads background. Removing all ads from the right-hand side and adding a fourth ad above the organic listings was one of the most important changes by Google. The ads looked less like ads and more like organic search. It was continued this year too with Google rolling out green markers on the ads
Why this change?The difference between clicking on an organic listing or an ad has disappeared. The ads now are so smoothly blended in that they look natural with no hint of ‘spam’ and instead just a list of relevant results could be seen.This could be a way of fighting with the fact that people are becoming more immune to ads and following the more native ad trend. The new color for Google’s Ad has been officially announced which is a special text labeling that distinguishes regular search results from paid ads.
The change from yellow to green labeling might seem to make organic results and advertisements look similar than before. However, there was positive feedback from advertisers and users. The test for Google ads text showed no difference in people confusing organic results with paid ones.
Comments
Post a Comment