June 5, 2012 in Driv3 Blog, SEO, Social Media by David LaPlante

Google Paid Search Ads Have a New Look in 2012

Paid Search (PPC) ads have always been critical to Google’s revenue. However, have you noticed that the PPC ads are starting to look even more like the organic search engine result pages (SERPS). Great strategy on their part. Please see picture below:

Google Ad changes that have evolved over time

1. Restructuring the PPC ads to have the same layout as Organic SERPS (Title, URL, description)

- The Ad description use to show along the right side of the URL.

2. Integrating sitelinks below the ad description (4 pack, 6 pack, etc.)

3. Improving click-through rates with social signals as validation (reviews, ratings, Google+)

4. Ad background color – Is is just me or has the ad background color become even lighter and that much harder to notice the difference between Paid and Organic?! This is especially evident when I browse on computer monitors with the brightness turned all the way up.

A key takeaway is to recognize and integrate your Google+ profile with your PPC ads. Your click-through rates will improve. Google will continue to improve their ads in order to increase click-through percentages. Look for Google, Bing and others to use social signals as a click driving factor in online advertising.

Please reach out to me on Twitter and Google+ so that I can update additional changes. Thanks!

David LaPlante
@DLSteez
David LaPlante+