So after the dust has settled not much has been lost. Right side ads are gone and the 4 ads on top of SERPS and the 3 on the bottom are working just fine.
With Wordstream stating that 85% of clicks come from top ads and 15% of clicks from right side and Seer Interactive saying 7% the change has not hurt that much. In our data it has had a small effect and we have made some minor upward bid adjustments.
One benefit is PLA’s so if in ecommerce its almost a win and you should take them more seriously if selling online.
Google last fiscal ad revenue was $19.08 billion? and not to mention growing [up 17% on prev. year] so would they shoot themselves in the foot of course not …
February 22nd ; http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/02/22/google-kills-off-right-side-ads
“Google has confirmed a huge change to the way AdWords ads are displayed for desktop search results, and it is now rolling out for all of its users globally. Google is killing off right-side text ads completely– although Product Listing Ads and ads in the Knowledge Panel will continue to be shown on the right – and adding a fourth ad for “highly commercial queries” above the organic search results.”
then Erin Sagin’s 5 takeaways; http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/03/10/takeaways-from-serp-change
“In a nutshell, they nixed the ads in the right-hand rail, shifted the fourth ad position to appear just above the organic listings, moved ad positions five through seven to the bottom of the page, AND pushed positions eight through eleven to page two—ultimately creating a more streamlined structure that looks more like the mobile SERP.”
Winners and losers from Search Engine Land; http://searchengineland.com/googles-new-serp-layout-4-biggest-winners-losers-based-data-243292
“It’s also important to remember that this change only impacts desktop, which now accounts for less than half of all searches. So, really, this will impact 7.3 percent of queries.”
How have your campaign been effected?