WOW! The PPC Yellow zone just got bigger.

[thetime22]

Did anyone else notice this change? I'm talking about the PPC top 3 yellow area. Looks like Google just made it bigger.

 

[Andrew Baker]

It doesn't look much different (size wise), always depends on the type of ad extensions served...

Andrew

 

[thetime22]

It just hit me as being much bigger today. I had to scroll down just to get to the first organic result.

 

[Consultant sea]

Are you sure the area colour is yellow? Seems to be getting whiter by the day for me

 

[Curious]

Its the extra spacing isn't it on the serps? I shared a picture on an old thread somewhere showing the difference, it was quite noticable how much further down the page the organics were.

And it's deff getting paler by the day!!

 

[Rebecca May]

I agree that it is more and more difficult to differentiate where PPC ends and organic begins. Google is making changes to the look and feel including colour getting paler, "yellow" area getting bigger for some of the most popular and expensive terms, ads looking more like like title tags and display urls looking more like destination urls all adding up to more paid clicks to Google. Grrr...

 

[Curious]

Imagine if it all just integrated into one big mess of organic and paid.. lol

 

[deniser]

Definitely bigger, absolutely detest the extra spacing and yes, the colours have merged so impossible to see the difference. Horrible!

That along with the ugly +1 button I've had to add to my sites and our demotion in PR and rankings means it has not been a very good day altogether.

Actually, maybe it's just on Chrome? On Safari the box is still pink , small and the spacing normal!

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Did anyone else notice this change? I'm talking about the PPC top 3 yellow area. Looks like Google just made it bigger.

Maybe bigger and paler.

What's interesting is that the url is now before the description in both free and paid listings.

Steve

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

The new google bet that great big empty space on the right for PPC's got you all excited steve?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

The new google bet that great big empty space on the right for PPC's got you all excited steve?

It's all part of the inevitable process of google directing more and more clicks away from the organics and towards the ppc listings.

As a company that split-tests, they'll keep finding ways of doing that. That's split-testing: keep doing it and you'll find improvements.

What those ways will be, and when they'll find them, isn't that important. The end result is inevitably going to be a shrinking pie for SEO and a growing pie for PPC.

Steve

 

[crossdaz]

What those ways will be, and when they'll find them, isn't that important. The end result is inevitably going to be a shrinking pie for SEO and a growing pie for PPC.

Very true. Google isn't a charity and as the relevance metrics for ppc become more and more aligned to organic results I doubt Joe Public is going to give a monkey's who's paying and who isn't.

 

[thetime22]

To the people that said they couldn't see a difference. I took a screenshot of the google search for the company I work for. Tell me that yellow areas doesn't look any bigger.

 

[marketingquotes]

I would agree with Andrew, it depends on the ads that are serving at the time.

Sometimes while searching for 'website desingers' the top 3 adverts show, sometimes only 2 show - if advertisers have timings on their ad placements (and the size of their domain/text) this will effect the number of ads that show.

We do searches all through the day and notice that it does change all the time.

Regards,

Marketing Quotes Support

 

[thetime22]

Just as bad on Yahoo.. They are showing 4 results now. Example I typed in leather jacket. Check this out. Don't know why this has gone relatively unnoticed, nobody is kicking up a stink. It will end up being all PPC unless people stand up to this. Couldn't there be some kind of law to stop this from happening?

 

[eog]

The reason why your sponsored yellow box is bigger than usual is because

a) 2 of the listings have places attached to it (when i do the search only 1 listing has a place attached to it making the yellow box smaller

b) you have +1 the top listing adding an extra line, what you are seeing is personalised

To the people that said they couldn't see a difference. I took a screenshot of the google search for the company I work for. Tell me that yellow areas doesn't look any bigger.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Don't know why this has gone relatively unnoticed, nobody is kicking up a stink. It will end up being all PPC unless people stand up to this.

Why would they stand up to it? As you said, nobody is kicking up a stink. That suggests no-one cares... except for the people who are using SEO.

But they're not the customers of the search engines. The search engines' customers are the searchers.

Couldn't there be some kind of law to stop this from happening?

I hope not. I don't want laws telling us where we can and can't place ads on our websites.

Steve

 

[thetime22]

Why would they stand up to it? As you said, nobody is kicking up a stink. That suggests no-one cares... except for the people who are using SEO.

But they're not the customers of the search engines. The search engines' customers are the searchers.



I hope not. I don't want laws telling us where we can and can't place ads on our websites.

Steve

Right on Steve! So you wouldn't object to the entire first page of search results being PPC? They have a monopoly on the search market and they are now starting to abuse that power. I can see the searchers not liking this.

The beautiful thing about search engines was that anyone could crack it and rank number 1 for nothing. Now the best you can rank is 4th.

 

[thetime22]

Why would they stand up to it? As you said, nobody is kicking up a stink. That suggests no-one cares... except for the people who are using SEO.

But they're not the customers of the search engines. The search engines' customers are the searchers.



I hope not. I don't want laws telling us where we can and can't place ads on our websites.

Steve

Hey you are advertising a PPC website in your sig! no wonder your biased! hahah

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Hey you are advertising a PPC website in your sig! no wonder your biased! hahah

"Biased" in what way?

(1) You were the one who said no-one was kicking up a fuss. I merely agreed with you and suggested why this was happening.

(2) I pointed out that the search engines customers were the searchers, not the SEOs (or even the advertisers).

(3) And I said I object to laws that tell us what we can and can't do with advertising on our websites.

Where's the bias in any of these 3 points? Except, perhaps, a bias towards the freedom to control the content/monetisation of our own websites?

Does anyone here disagree with any of these 3 points? If so, the thread is open, post your counter-analysis...

Steve

 

[fisicx]

I can see the searchers not liking this.

Why would they object. My Dad doesn't really care what is displayed as long as it is relevant.

Google is a business, they want to make money. The organic results don't make money so they are going to keep squeezing them out as time goes by. Joe public really doesn't care that your site is dropping off the page as long as they get a link to a site that sells the stuff they want.

PS: It looks more pink than yellow to me. And if I move my head a bit the background fades to white...

 

[thetime22]

Why would they object. My Dad doesn't really care what is displayed as long as it is relevant.

Google is a business, they want to make money. The organic results don't make money so they are going to keep squeezing them out as time goes by. Joe public really doesn't care that your site is dropping off the page as long as they get a link to a site that sells the stuff they want.

Because organic results are natural and thus more likely to return a good result, whereas a PPC result is bought and has a much higher chance of being junk. I'm not saying in every case.

 

[fisicx]

Because organic results are natural and thus more likely to return a good result, whereas a PPC result is bought and has a much higher chance of being junk. I'm not saying in every case.

Disagree. The PPC listings are more likely to be very targeted which means a far better chance of landing on a relevant page than the usual list of directories, comparison sites, made for adsense and other detritus.

And the organic results ceased to be natural long ago. The link building fraternity have made sure that those with the deepest pockets are on page 1 no matter how cruddy the site.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Because organic results are natural

Surely not for anything commercial?

I know we call them "organic", but let's be honest, few high value "organic" rankings happen "organically".

and thus more likely to return a good result, whereas a PPC result is bought

They're both bought... one directly from google, the other bought from someone who sells SEO services (or from people who sell link juice).

(Or from your own time, if you do your own SEO.)

and has a much higher chance of being junk.

A PPC ad is unlikely to be junk. It needs to generate enough sales to pay for itself. That means it needs to add enough value to enough visitors to cover the cost of the ads.

An SEO ranking doesn't have to cover a direct cost per visitor, so weaker sites (ones that convert too poorly to use PPC) can be profitable with SEO.

This isn't a generalisation about SEO (or sites that use SEO) - any smart person that uses SEO knows they're urinating away profits if their site sucks - just a true point about the way paid advertising has built-in quality controls.

Steve

 

[thetime22]

Surely not for anything commercial?

I know we call them "organic", but let's be honest, few high value "organic" rankings happen "organically".



They're both bought... one directly from google, the other bought from someone who sells SEO services (or from people who sell link juice).

(Or from your own time, if you do your own SEO.)



A PPC ad is unlikely to be junk. It needs to generate enough sales to pay for itself. That means it needs to add enough value to enough visitors to cover the cost of the ads.

An SEO ranking doesn't have to cover a direct cost per visitor, so weaker sites (ones that convert too poorly to use PPC) can be profitable with SEO.

This isn't a generalisation about SEO (or sites that use SEO) - any smart person that uses SEO knows they're urinating away profits if their site sucks - just a true point about the way paid advertising has built-in quality controls.

Steve

1.) You lost me when you said all natural rankings are bought via SEO.

2.) You sell PPC for a living.

3.) Because someone buys the top position in PPC, they are therefore deserving of the spot because they have costs to cover?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

1.) You lost me when you said all natural rankings are bought via SEO.

That's interesting, because not something I said...

I said,

few high value "organic" rankings happen "organically"

not quite the same thing.

2.) You sell PPC for a living.

And?

Listen, if you want to continue to accuse me of being "biased", at least have the integrity to answer my earlier post where I challenged you.

This weak-minded, "you sell PPC services, so you must be talking it up" is nothing short of an insult.

I suggest you either show where the bias was in my earlier 3 points, or cut the crap.

3.) Because someone buys the top position in PPC, they are therefore deserving of the spot because they have costs to cover?

You've totally missed my point. There's nothing in any of my points that talks about what people "deserve".

Steve

 

[crossdaz]

Because organic results are natural and thus more likely to return a good result, whereas a PPC result is bought and has a much higher chance of being junk. I'm not saying in every case.

If you can get a junk result in that yellow box I'd like to see it?