Let's start at the beginning. Today hardly anyone remembers that Before October 2000, Google commercials were not at all! It was in that month, just before the start of the twenty-first century, that Google launched its advertising service, then called Google AdWords. As you could then read in the Mountain View Giant message “AdWords text ads are displayed on the right side of Google search results and are distinguished as sponsored links, clearly separated from search results “ I'm sorry, I'm sorry. ” Interestingly, in the initial period of existence of this service, it was used by only about 350 advertisers.
The beginnings of Google AdWords
In fact, at first the search engine only displayed ads on the right side of SERP. In 2001, there were first experiments with sponsored results displayed over organic ones. Google also had the idea to highlight the advertising results in different colors, and each advertisement was marked with the slogan "Sponsored Link".
Around 2003 the ads in the organic performance section have disappeared, they have returned to the original place, i.e. on the right side of the SERP. However, this situation continued only until 2005. In 2007, the advertising results were only highlighted in one color – yellow. W 2009 Google has made it possible to compare advertised products (e.g. Financial ) – so-called Comparison Ads.
At the end of the same year, advertisements containing graphics and links to online shops presented certain products meeting the search criteria.
AdWords goes to other sections
At the end of 2010, Google AdWords were first introduced to the image search results. A graphic advertisement was added at the top of Google's image search results. The only thing that distinguished her from organic results was the small grey tag “Advertisement” in the upper right corner.
In November 2011, AdWordsy first hits the bottom of the search results, they are visible when the user scrolls the entire page and will want to go to the other side of SERP.
Not many people realize that, but Only in 2012 did Google make available the automatic display of location-specific ads (e.g. Warsaw or Chicago) indicated by the user.
AdWords take too much space! Sound familiar?
In mid-2012, the voices began to be heard for the first time that Google devotes too much space to sponsorship results. Some have pointed out that this means receiving traffic from other commercial websites for the search engine. Bruce Clay on his blog he wrote at the time that Google does not necessarily play by its own rules (it was meant to provide value to users), pushing users into the first contact with content that was just sponsored, rather than organic results.
This blog also featured a reference to research carried out in 2004, 2005 and 2012. In 2005, Pew Internet published a study that stated that 62% of people don't know the difference between advertising and organic results. . In the 2004 study 68 percent of users said that search engines are a fair and impartial source of information. . In 2012 66 percent respondents said the same thing. In 2019, a similar study was conducted, The Edelman Trust Barometer showed that The search engines are trusted until 65% of respondents. . You can see that the level of confidence in the content provided by Google is on a steady, high level.
On this occasion, it is worth mentioning that in 2015 Google changed its original slogan (introduced in 2000!) “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing”. In the context of these changes, you can consider ‘right thing’ for whom? Are you sure for users? How about more and more for shareholders and customers?
Continuation of amendments
In 2014, Google redesigned the advertising section. The yellow field was replaced with a small yellow icon “Ad” displayed next to the sponsored result. There was speculation about the reasons for this change, among others, suggested that users could easily scroll through the advertising section thanks to this change. However, as we mentioned, this close-up with the appearance of the organic and advertising result made it a better chance that someone (unconsciously) would click the advertisement.
In early 2016, Google changed the advertising layout again, removing ads from the sidebar in most queries and increasing the number of ads at the top of the SERP. The official justification was that the search engine thus unifies the SERP appearance on computers and mobile devices.
In mid-2016, extended text ads (Expanded Text Ads) appeared. This was announced during Performance Summit in May 2016. The change resulted in an extension of the available text by half. Extended ads were designed for all devices and caused CTR to grow by up to 20%, which made the marketers very happy. . In August 2018, Google replaced the name “AdWords”, a much shorter “Ads”, which was probably motivated by an attempt to block the link between the word “Ads” and Facebook, which previously called its service Facebook Ads.
Another change in Google Ads and SERP
May 2019 Google has introduced another significant change in advertising marking. It turns out that the advertising results from that moment are marked with a small black icon “Ad “ I'm sorry, I'm sorry. ” Similar icons will also be given pages displaying organically. The change is theoretically intended to help users to determine immediately from which source the information comes – whether paid or organic.
Google is constantly making changes in the way advertising is displayed. Theoretically, the main objective is to provide users with the highest quality of results available, but on the other hand, entrepreneurs receive a clear message that they do not exist on Google unless they buy out paid ads. The latest change is supposed to theoretically increase transparency of results, but on the other hand, now paid and organic results have a very similar appearance. Often it is simply impossible to reach the top of the SERP without the help of Google Ads.
Is there a Seo Twilight coming?
This short trip in Google Ads history has shown that the Mountain View search engine continues to try to show us more and more advertisements and this is as unobtrusive as possible. Currently, after entering a password into the search engine, the vast majority of places will take (depending on the type of query) either a Google map or sponsored results. Organic results are gradually pushed down.
This is translated into very real numbers. For example, online store Wayfair.com (acting in the interior fittings industry) only in the period 2015-2017, recorded a 25% decrease in organic clicks on the computer and as much as 55% decrease on mobile devices. . Does this mean that the role of SEO will soon decrease significantly? To a large extent, yes, although it will not happen immediately.
The role of SEO will remain extremely important for a longtail phrase (with a long tail) that allows to respond to very precise queries from the user. However, Google does not remain idle here, because recently introduced dynamic DSA ads are designed to attract customers who are looking for exactly the products and services that are in the company's offer. On a similar basis, PLA advertising, i.e. Product Listing Ads, are dedicated practically exclusively to the eCommerce industry and are used to present exactly the kind of goods the customer is looking for.
Google's performance display policy is very clear. Marketers who want to maintain good visibility in the search engine simply need to include Google Ads in their marketing campaigns. Currently, this is the simplest, most effective and fastest way to get to the very top of the SERP and this trend will not change quickly.
