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    Marketing Must Know – Google SERP Changes

    By under AdWords, PPC

    Heard about the new changes Google has made to the Search Engine Results Page?

     

    If not, here’s a handy run down of what’s changed and what this means for your Adwords account.

    What’s Changed?

     

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    Google’s Search Engine Results Page now has 4 ads above the organic search results, with 3 additional ads at the bottom of the search page just above the suggested searches.

    Gone are the days of sidebar ads.

    This new format has been in testing since December and is rumoured to have been rolled out in February.

    You might be wondering, how does this affect my Adwords account?

    CPC May Increase

    Cost Per Click (CPC) may increase – Since there are only four ads at the top of the page, there will be greater competition for these top spots. That increased competition will likely increase the cost per click.

    Google Shopping Ads Will Get a Boost

    Rather than there being just one line of shopping ads, there is now another line taking the total number of ads from 4 to 8. More ads means more clicks, so now is a great time to expand your shopping campaign.

     

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    You May Want to Diversify Your Campaign

    If your ad ranking position wasn’t very high or you thought you were spending too much in cost per click it may be worth trying Facebook, which is far cheaper.

    Facebook adverts can also be very aggressively targeted towards a specific target audience – meaning you can engage customers earlier in the sales process.

    Not a Facebook fan? Try LinkedIn. LinkedIn direct marketing can be very effective for B2B sales, one tip is to focus primarily on LinkedIn groups – with a large number of industry professionals all in one place you have a potentially untapped market available at your disposal.

    Just get in contact with the owner of the group and see if you can reach a mutually beneficial agreement – this method is guaranteed to reach a quality audience at minimal expense.

    Ad Extensions Will Be More Important

    With ads taking up more screen space, we can expect that Google will start to increase the number of extensions shown in each ad. If you haven’t already, start using ad extensions – more information could well lead to more sales.

     

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    The more room your ad takes up on Google Search, the more likely the chance that someone will click it. Not just that, ad extensions also boost quality score, give prospects more information about products/services you have to offer and give you better visibility on Google search.

    Should I be Worried About These New Changes?

    If you’re running a quality campaign you have little to worry about. Campaigns with targeted keywords with high impression share, extensions, good ad copy, good ad positioning and well-optimised landing pages are still going to perform well. In other words, if you were seeing good results before, you will continue to see good results now.

    What About the Loss of Sidebar Ads?

    Losing sidebar ads is not a big problem; Google data shows that fewer people were clicking these ads than was expected upon release. Instead, Google took the success it had with mobile ads and brought that format over to the desktop version. So there’s no major loss here, in reality Google is optimising based off its (rather huge) data pool and of course, when it comes to data, Google knows best.

    So remember, the clear winners are advertisers who:
    • Are using ad extensions
    • Have a Google Shopping campaign
    • Have a robust campaign

    If your campaign has everything on the checklist, Google’s new changes are nothing to worry about.

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