The Google Map to Success

Google recently introduced a new feature on their search engine results page (SERP) that could have a widespread impact on Pay-Per-Click advertisers. When users search for specific destinations and local businesses (or anything that Google determines is relevant to a particular location), Google now automatically displays these destinations in a map.

At first glance, this new alteration is deceptively subtle and without much consequence. However, as users begin to scroll down the results page, the new Google Map will slide down along with them and actually hide the paid advertisements as it goes. Obviously, this could have potentially serious implications for PPC ads. Any ads that are now below the top three positions risk being masked by the Google Map as users scroll down the page. In addition, even if users never scroll down the page at all, the Google Map still takes up a sizeable chunk of real-estate that further pushes the lower ranking ads down the page and off screen where many users may never see them.

What will this all mean in the long run for current PPC advertising campaigns? The simple answer may just be that advertisers will be forced to spend more money in Google Adwords to increase positioning and avoid getting steamrolled by the Google Map. There is also the possibility of quality scores (Google’s metric for deciding how relevant advertisements are to search results) being affected. One factor that goes into calculating quality scores is click-through-rate. If click-through-rates fall as fewer users click on lower ranking ads that get hidden by the Google Map, quality scores could go down for campaigns that are not aggressively bidding for higher positions.

Still, this doesn’t necessarily mean that bids have to all fly through the roof and spending skyrocket. While this new feature will almost certainly benefit Google’s wallet, the user experience remains their top priority. The staples of best PPC practices are all still applicable and more important than ever. As Google continues to evolve to provide users with the best experience possible, PPC ads will be forced to evolve as well and that means only the brightest and best will survive. Utilizing effective ad copy, targeting relevant keywords and striving for the highest possible quality scores will still net the best results. In the end, success in Google is increasingly becoming about quality and not quantity.