Maybe this isn't new but... Didn't Adwords used to start the regular sponsored listings UNDER the premium positions? I thought the premium (top shaded) postions used to take up the whole width of the page. Now it stops at the gray bar. I wonder if this will increase CTR for the listings on the side and decrease CTR for the top spots. Does anyone know when this started? I would like to run some comparison reports. New layout:
I did not notice that. I believe you are right. May be an effort on their part to get more ads "above the fold"
I'm not sure I'd want my ad to be in the top spot on the right column anymore... kinda shoved too far up in the corner.
My eyes! My eyes! Well, like I said, they may just be trying to get another ad above the fold. More ads surely must equal more potential clicks for them. I am sure they can tell which slot works best and run the adds accordingly.
The problem with the new layout is that ads ranked 1 and 2 lose their copy on the extreme right of their box. Given that Google restricts this anyway it means many ads are effectively incomprehensible.
I try and target positions 4 - 6 with my ad campaign's, based not on ctr but on overall roi. For my campaigns 4 - 6 out perform 1 - 3 by 157%.
I'm seeing three top ads for most searches today. This means that there are nine ads displayed "above the fold" now (on my screen ).
That is very interesting, I'll have to look into that, it would seem if google saw similar stats though they would change the way ads are server so that 4-6 were some times filled by the top bidders.
How 'bout this blast from the past! Both of these screenshots are from today. Can you spot all of the differences? _____________________________________________________________ The top one looks like they did back in 2000!
How did you pull that off? Did you use a datacenter IP or something? I remember that around 2003 there was a phase when Google seemed to switch randomly between the old and the new layout. Very weird.