{"id":2283,"date":"2016-02-24T13:21:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T13:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2016\/02\/24\/google-removes-right-hand-column-ads\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T15:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:37:17","slug":"google-removes-right-hand-column-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2016\/02\/24\/google-removes-right-hand-column-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Removes All Right Hand Column Ads \u2013 Our Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you perform a Google search today, you may notice that the SERP (search engine results page) you see is quite different to what you would have seen running the same search only a few days ago.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, as of the 22nd of February, Google has removed all right hand ads from the SERP *CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC*<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This right hand space will now be used for…\n<\/p>\n

1 \u2013 PLAs (Product Listing Ads):<\/h2>\n

\"product<\/center>We\u2019ve seen how PLAs have been an area of growth for Google so it should come as no surprise that they\u2019re sticking around \u2013 if anything they\u2019re now even more important.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hoverboards\u2019, on the other hand, we\u2019re not so sure about.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 Knowledge Graphs:<\/h2>\n

\"knowledge<\/center>Knowledge graphs are also retaining pride of place. Considered by many companies to be a mark of status, knowledge graphs are a popular feature that isn\u2019t likely to go anywhere.<\/p>\n

As for the space that will now be occupied by paid listings, there are suggestions that the number of paid results at the top of the page will increase from three to four if the search query is \u2018highly commercial\u2019.<\/p>\n

Why is this happening?<\/h2>\n

Before we cry out that PPC is dead, we need to try to understand why Google is making this change.<\/p>\n

In their article Google To Remove Right Hand Side Ads On Desktop?<\/a>, published on the 18th of February, The Media Image spotted the signs that this change was on the horizon. They stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne potential reason for limiting the amount of advertisers on the SERP might be that Google has determined the average CTR for the RHS ads is poor across verticals, and the expected CPC inflation from this major change is projected to be more profitable in the long run, we suspect.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This change also brings the desktop Google experience more in line with how it appears on mobile \u2013 although how these changes will affect the amount of ads shown to mobile users is yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Coast Digital View<\/h2>\n

As identified in the above quote from The Media Image, it seems likely this change it going to drive up CPCs.<\/p>\n

As a general PPC rule you should always aim for profitable clicks in the top 3 positions \u2013 our expectation is that few people will scroll down to the bottom of the SERP and get pulled in by ads there. A further knock on effect will be that click-through rates for ads below position 3, and thus now at the bottom of the page, are likely to drop.<\/p>\n

All of this increased competition for the top 3 spots can only mean one thing… the aforementioned increase in CPCs. Our prediction? It\u2019s going to get ugly.<\/p>\n

Renewing focus on SEO<\/h2>\n

With increased CPCs and less opportunities to be seen at the top of the SERP, this puts even more focus on the top organic rankings for your service or product.<\/p>\n

If CPCs inflate as predicted, then those organic clicks become even more valuable. If you\u2019ve been neglecting SEO in favour of PPCs ability to put you in front of your customers quickly, then now might be the time to pick up your SEO hat and even out your approach!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you perform a Google search today, you may notice that the SERP (search engine results page) you see is quite different to what you would have seen running the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"related_service":[64,63],"related_industry":[],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"card":"

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\n Blog <\/p>\n \n

\n Google Removes All Right Hand Column Ads \u2013 Our Thoughts\n <\/h2>\n <\/a> <\/div>\n
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\n If you perform a Google search today, you may notice that the SERP (search engine results page) you see is quite different to what you would have seen running the… <\/div>\n
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\n 24 February 2016 <\/p>\n

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\n PPC <\/div>\n
\n Search Marketing <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"related_service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_service?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"related_industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_industry?post=2283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}