Thinking about doing some CPC ads, but curious if it would have any effect on actual Google search rankings. I could see how it would be in their interest to keep a paying customer from ranking higher and negating the need to adwords. Then again, they could have an incentive to reward paying customers. Or have no effect at all on search results... What's been your experience?
There are even rumors that it helps (because you are giving them money), but I highly doubt that is true.
I think the damage to Google's reputation from the public finding out about preferential (or negative) treatment for AdWords advertisers would be huge. This is why I believe Google when they say that advertising on AdWords has no effect what so ever on it's organic SERPs.
I have recently started an adwords campaign and since then my clicks on adsense have increased, so it is a good idea to have both in my opinion