Google SERP Changes: Advertisers Pay for More Traffic from Google"Last week, Google made a major change to their search results page for desktop computers, eliminating the right hand column of paid search ads and increasing the number of ads that could appear above natural search results from three to four (check out our POV on the impact of this update). Since this change, SEM managers and Google advertisers have been closely monitoring to see how it’s going to impact the landscape. Many speculated that the impact would be significant, both in terms of paid search CPC and natural search CTR and traffic. Some have even speculated that this was an opportunity for Google to increase profits from AdWords search.
So, we're now one week into the new SERP format. What was the impact and what does it mean for advertisers?
Traffic shifts from Organic to Paid….again.
iProspect has analyzed performance results for over 100 of our clients, and the initial data suggests that natural search is the loser for this particular Google update. For brand queries, organic click through rate dropped 8% in a pre/post comparison, indicating that the addition of the fourth ad at the top of the page is decreasing the searcher’s propensity to click on the natural search listing. For some verticals, this change was even more pronounced—for example, B2B clients saw an 11% decrease in organic CTR for brand queries and an 18% decrease for non-brand queries.
Yet, overall paid search CPC actually declined 2% week-over-week for brand keywords. Does this mean Google is actually losing money on the change? Absolutely not! The decrease in organic CTR means more overall paid search traffic from brand terms, and that 8% adds up! This is another in a series of shifts in the SERP layout that has shifted traffic from Organic to Paid. Read more about iProspect’s findings in the mobile SERP."
#google #SERP #organicsearch #naturalsearch #paidsearch #ppchttp://bit.ly/1UwSxVS
