Heads Up: Google is Eliminating Right Side Ads

Have you noticed something with Google recently? The Mountain View company has reportedly eliminated all of its right side advertisements.

No More Right Side Ads?

Google generates a significant portion of its revenue through the Adwords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program. Using this program, business owners and entrepreneurs can purchase ad space on the search engine, paying only when a qualified user clicks on their ad.

For years now, Google has displayed these Adwords ads at the top, bottom and right side of the search results, which seems to have worked well considering that Google’s total ad revenue was $43.7 billion in 2012.

It appears the Mountain View company is taking a different approach to its Adwords program, as new reports have emerged indicating that Google is no longer displaying ads on the right side of its search results.

Did You Notice Where the Ads Are Now?

You can test out the new format by searching for a common keyword or phrase in Google. If you search using your laptop or desktop computer, you should only see paid listings at the top and bottom of the search results, not the right side.

Exceptions to the Rule

There are a few exceptions to this rule, however, one of which is the use of Product Listing Ads (PLA). Not to be confused with Adwords ads, PLAs are designed specifically for physical products marketed through the advertising platform. These ads will be displayed either above or on the right side of the research results.

In a Nutshell

Google is rolling out a dramatic change that removes ads from the right side of its desktop search results, and places ads only at the top and/or bottom of the page.

At the same time, the company says it may show an additional ad — four, not three — above the search results for what it calls “highly commercial queries.”

“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,” explained Google.

So, what does this mean for the thousands of small business owners who use Google Adwords to promote their products and services?

With ads no longer being displayed on the right side, there’s less real estate to take up, which could potentially drive up bid prices. Of course, this is probably one of the reasons why Google has decided to ditch the right-side ads. In any case, marketers will have to adapt to these new changes if they want to succeed.

Do you think this is a smart move by Google? Let us know in the comments section below!