I would love to be a fly on the wall for the decisions that led to Google making the distinction between ads and search results more ambiguous with the latest redesign because whoever signed off on this needs to be fired, for Google's sake.
Google SERPs are the one form of advertising I don't mind and are most effective because:
1. Unlike pretty much every other form of online advertising, you have the benefit of user intent in that they actually want to find something and an advertised result may be what they're looking for. Most other forms of online advertising are deliberately intrusive because attention = $$$; and
2. Google ads are paid for on a CPC basis rather than CPM basis so Google is incentivized to show you something relevant to you and your search rather than just churning impressions (like those pages that split an article into a gallery of 11 pages; ad impressions is why they do this).
But a key part of this is user trust that Google clearly differentiated an ad from an organic search result. I wonder what short term metrics and thinking went into this. I'm sure there was a short term topline revenue gain but it's one of those things that you're not actually increasingly value, you're just cashing in your brand's value for cash now.
But hey I'm sure a bunch of people got promoted, so it's fine.
Google SERPs are the one form of advertising I don't mind and are most effective because:
1. Unlike pretty much every other form of online advertising, you have the benefit of user intent in that they actually want to find something and an advertised result may be what they're looking for. Most other forms of online advertising are deliberately intrusive because attention = $$$; and
2. Google ads are paid for on a CPC basis rather than CPM basis so Google is incentivized to show you something relevant to you and your search rather than just churning impressions (like those pages that split an article into a gallery of 11 pages; ad impressions is why they do this).
But a key part of this is user trust that Google clearly differentiated an ad from an organic search result. I wonder what short term metrics and thinking went into this. I'm sure there was a short term topline revenue gain but it's one of those things that you're not actually increasingly value, you're just cashing in your brand's value for cash now.
But hey I'm sure a bunch of people got promoted, so it's fine.