Friday, September 15, 2006 2:53 PM/EST

Google Removing Ads Based on User Behavior

Google is testing a new advertising layout on search results pages in which ads are removed if a user consistently chooses not to interact with any of the ad elements on the page.

According to posters in the WebmasterWorld forum, Google is removing the top blue ad from search result pages and only showing ads on the right side of the screen. The blue ad is removed if a user consistently does not click on ads. The blue ad is restored if the user clears his or her cache.

One poster writes:

I spoke to my account rep. They are testing a new feature whereby when a user performs multiple searches and does not click an ad, the ads are all moved to the right side of the page. The rationale is that the user does not want to see the ads anyway and it lessens the chance of a poor prospect clicking on an ad. If you clear your cookies, the results will go back to normal.

Google's ad serving technology has long been lauded for its customer-driven approach. When Google serves an ad on a page, it doesn't always place the ad with the most expensive bidding price at the top of the ad column. Instead, Google evaluates several external factors, such as search term relevance and customer behavior, in placing ads.

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Comments (15)

Roger Browne :

Google's ad placement is not customer-driven, it's profit driven. The ad which Google places at the top is the one they think will be the most profitable, not the one they think is best for the customer. Naturally, the "most profitable" ad is not necessarily the one with the most expensive bidding price, because it might have a lower click-through rate.

Posted by Roger Browne | September 16, 2006 4:19 AM

Steve Bryant :

I think we can both agree that there's a good deal of confluence between between the customers' motives and google's profits.

Posted by Steve Bryant | September 16, 2006 10:17 AM

Wouter van den Brink :

[quote]The ad which Google places at the top is the one they think will be the most profitable, not the one they think is best for the customer.[/quote]Tell that to advertisers that now (since the last Adwords update) have to pay many dollars instead of dimes for getting a top position while others still pay dimes for the same keywords. The reason for the above is that if Google thinks the website in the ad is a bunch of crap they don't list it in the ad space unless you pay around 4-9 dollars (even when you had a good CTR rate before the update) while others with good sites only have to pay a few cents or dimes. In other words, Google is not only looking at good CTR rates, but is also after serving the best content for customers. (makes sense)

Posted by Wouter van den Brink | September 19, 2006 6:37 PM

Google Watch :

Love Google but don't love all the shopping sites included in the search results? Check out Give Me Back My Google, a search site that returns Google results but filters out comparison shopping sites like Pixmania, Dealtime and Pricerunner by including the "-site:" operator.

Posted by Google Watch | October 17, 2006 1:04 PM

Google Watch :

Posted by Google Watch | October 17, 2006 2:20 PM

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