Google makes major change to display advertising (again)

Google have changed the game yet again with a recent update – removing all ads from the right hand side column and adding one more to the maximum number of ads that can show above search result. This brings the total ads “above the fold” to four, so what does this mean for marketers?

If you’re happy to pay; it opens up more advertising space, however some would say that the more they extend those top spots – they less valuable they become. For marketeers who concentrate on pursuing organic traffic? They may find that it reduces their clicks and thus makes their job that little bit harder.

Getting rid of the right hand column does, however help make the browsing experience more standardised across desktop and mobile and creates valuable real estate currently taken up by the knowledge graph. With Google testing new ideas daily, who knows what the next update will bring?