Google has been secretly mixing ads with organic results for nearly a year now, and more recently one With updated documentation Make it official. Google encourages users to click on sponsored ads, but that shouldn't come at the expense of user experience, he wrote Search Engine Magazine.
This aspect of search – the experience – seems to have suffered in recent years, and Google has taken actions that have negatively affected users.
Search engine users are accustomed to placing ads at the top or bottom of the list of results, and the page itself is either made up of purely organic results, or the organic results are placed between the ads. That has changed now.
There was a recent change in the Google documentation that states:
For some queries, top ads may appear below top organic results
– The document says in detail that the placement of the best ads is dynamic and subject to change. Let's take a closer look at this change and its impact on users and organic search results.
Timeline of changes
Before the change, Google tested mixing sponsored ads within organic listings in different capacities for ten months.
Here's the timeline of changes leading up to the official launch:
- As of June 17, 2023 – Initial testing: This was the first time the test appeared in Google search results, and then only on mobile devices. During this initial testing period, the ad appeared to a very small number of users, more discreetly, only on mobile, and could easily be confused with users with a membership list.
- As of October 23, 2023 – More robust testing: This testing period was the first time that the broader SEO community began to notice ad tags appearing within organic listings and were visible on both mobile and desktop. This testing period was longer before application.
- Effective March 28, 2024 – Go Live: On this date, Google Advertising Contact announced that the change will be permanent and a new definition will be added to the Best Ads documentation. From that date, users should expect an official change, where ads will be mixed with organic results beyond limited testing.
Different types of placements
Now that Google has been mixing sponsored ads with organic results for a couple of months now, we can better understand how much has changed and how sponsored ads appear. There are two common situations where Google displays ads within organic listings: mixed in with organic results or below featured snippets.
- The first is the usual approach, and means placing at least one simple ad among the top organic results. It is common to place one or two ads together in this case, but it is rare to have four ads in a row.
- For the second type, ads seem to be often mixed in with organic listings by being placed directly below featured snippets. However, in such cases, it is actually common for four ads to appear in one complete item within the featured extract.
Both can be considered a bad user experience, but especially the second one, considering that featured snippets are usually displayed when the answer to the query can be explained by a short page description.
What are Google's intentions?
Each of the situations described in the previous section can be interpreted differently.
The first position (mixed with organic results) is quite clear regarding Google's intentions: to encourage more clicks on ads and get users used to ads appearing at the top of the list. However, users can easily confuse ads with organic listings.
On the other hand, the second situation can be understood differently with featured excerpts. While the ads continue to appear in the window on desktop, the answer to the user's search appears at the top of the search results without the ads getting in the way.
This may not be bad for users or SEO, as Google makes organic listings more visible in these cases.
Obviously, Google's goal is to increase advertising revenue by changing the placement of ads. Although there are certainly arguments to be made on both sides of this change, the outcome so far has been fairly neutral from both perspectives.
Ads with organic results are still exceptionally rare, but placements within featured snippets are becoming more common and have some clear advantages.
Final thoughts
Overall, based on Google's current process, the company's change in ad placement rules isn't particularly concerning. Although the change is official based on a Google documentation update, it serves as a test, as ads will still appear in normal placements in the vast majority of cases.
This change can be considered neutral from the perspective of Google users and SEO, as ads are mostly mixed in with organic listings, and those who don't want to click on them simply scroll through – as long as they realize what the ad is.
Google Ads testing recently went back to using the “Ad” label instead of “Sponsored” also on mobile, which has only changed in the last couple of years and was the standard before. We can certainly expect these types of tests to continue in the future, as revenue has to be generated somehow at the end of the day.
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