Fewer PPC Ads Above the Fold on Google

What’s Happened?

For some search results Google has now moved the Ads that were on the right hand side to the bottom of the page:

As per the example above this is mainly happening for “local” search terms at the moment, terms such as “takeaway”, “barber” etc.

That’s because Google’s moved the results to be able to use the Right Hand column for a map.

What does this mean?

Well, if you rely on these local search results pages then you need to:

• make sure the rest of your search activity is working hard – reviews, Place pages, SEO etc
• consider bidding to get into the top 3 on the page (but keep an eye on how well this works for you)
• don’t get scared when your PPC click through rate falls – with ads “hiding” at the bottom of the page the rate of impressions will go up but people might not see the ads

If you don’t rely on these local search results pages then at the moment you don’t really need to do a lot – this still a new development (Google only announced it 2 weeks ago). But keep eye on what’s happening with your PPC results – because this may (and probably will) be rolled out further.