Google Ad Update: No More Ads on the Right
By Hibu |
The old saying is true – “the only constant is change.” And once again, Google is making changes to where they place ads on their search results page. Basically, Google is changing two things:
What‘s changing now?
- No more right side ads – there will no longer be ads running down the right margin of the search results page.
- One additional paid ad at the top – there will now be four ads above the “organic” search results instead of three.
A Google spokesperson said:
“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.”
Obviously, Google is the biggest player online. The Google team constantly studies users (aka potential customers) behaviors and makes changes that will help make it as easy as possible for those users find what they are searching for. Due to their sheer scope of influence, when Google changes anything, no matter how small, the marketing world analyzes the update with a microscope.
These may not sound like dramatic changes, but they could have a major impact on your Google Ad campaign. The trick, of course, is keeping up with the changes, so you can stay ahead of your competition. If you advertise online, you have to keep up or risk getting left behind.
What can you do to keep up?
Anyone who has ever used Google Ads to market their business online has become accustomed to digital marketing companies needing to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing online ad platforms. So what can small business do when Google makes changes?
- Jump on the phone with Google to get details of the changes and the impact
- Read industry forums to get a sense of how to prepare for and react to the changes
- Conduct a deep analysis of reporting across hundreds or thousands of campaigns with similar goals
- Get acquainted with the latest AdWords interface and make all the required changes, across all of your campaigns
You can try to do all of the above… or, you can just contact a certified, Google Premiere Partner… like Hibu.
We know – you have a business to run. You don’t have time to do all the things listed above. That’s why we’re here. This is what our team does every day, and we know our stuff.
These latest changes have initiated a ton of industry conversation about what the impacts will be and what advertisers can or should do to ensure their campaigns continued to perform. Everyone has their opinion on what the impacts will be, some good, some bad, most unsure.
One thing you can be absolutely certain of… we will continue to stay on top of the changes, we’ll continuously review the data as it comes in, and we will apply what we learn to your campaign to make sure it performs as well as it should.
And here’s one other thing you can count on… while the entire industry is still breaking down the numbers to really learn what the impact is and will be, we are also exploring the ever improving “other” options for our customers, and ensuring our teams are informed and our systems are intelligent enough to know when to make the right changes for the best results.
What else can you do to successfully advertise online? Diversify your marketing.
And that leads us to what can you do in addition to Google ads. We strongly recommend that you diversify your digital marketing – especially as we see what impact these latest changes will have.
There’s no denying that Google Search Ads are a powerful tool for driving leads to your business, but it’s only one of many online marketing tools available to SMBs that can drive high quality impressions, clicks and leads. You should also be thinking about Facebook advertising, mobile advertising and online display advertising, too.
Diversifying your marketing plan is good practice in any case, and it can help insulate you from the changes that Google, Facebook and other marketing platforms make from time to time. At Hibu, we’re already working across these other platforms for thousands of SMB advertisers. We’ve seen what works, what will deliver real business results, and we have the experience to show where SMBs can get the biggest bang for their online marketing buck.
This is the value we provide: The right minds, the right systems, the right analysis, all working to make sure ad dollars are always as productive as they can be, so SMBs can spend time concentrating on their business. We make sure SMBs potential customers see the messages, regardless of where they go online; searching, tweeting, posting, reading, liking.
Next time Google, Facebook or any other digital marketing platform makes a change, we’ll be doing what we always do: translating their changes focused on working in the best interests of our customers, and ensuring every cent is invested appropriately to achieve campaign goals.
The bottom line, the main thing to remember… when Google makes changes, don’t sweat it. We’ve got your back.
We’ll be posting an update soon, as the data comes in, and we see the impact this change has on campaign results.
