Google has recently started to show paid search adverts at the bottom of the results page. According to the Adwords blog, they are assessing the results for each search to determine where is best for the adverts to show.

The blog claims that, on average, ads at the bottom of the page performed better than when the adverts were shown on the right hand side of the page. This was based on click-through from tests they previously ran. I wrote a blog post on this, which you can read here. Please see screen shot below of how it looks.

This means Google is also changing the Top vs. Side split in your Adwords account. This will now be Top vs. Other, and the other will include ads shown on the right hand side and the bottom of the page.

I am curious why Google has started doing this. It seems to me they are clearing space on the right hand side for other adverts. I have noticed the Product Listing Ads appearing more and more recently. These ads don’t include a message but just show a product image with the product name and price. These ads come from an advertiser’s Google Merchant Account. A screen shot below shows how these adverts look on the results page. This could mean that Google feels these product ads are more relevant to users than the paid search ads not in position one to three.

I am dubious of whether this will increase click-through rate or not but I will be monitoring the effect, if any, very closely.

If you have any of your own insights from this, please do share! - @aimee_roberts