Google has got serious: After various test runs, the placement of ads to the right of the search results was discontinued on 22 February 2016. From now on, only a maximum of four adverts will be displayed above the search results. Google Shopping results are not affected by this change; they will continue to be displayed in the right-hand column.
According to Google, this extreme measure is intended to harmonise with mobile search results. What is certain is that the competitive pressure for the top positions is now increasing massively.
Due to the growing competition for positions one to four, you should urgently review your own rankings and restructure your campaigns accordingly.
Until now, advertisers have often used AdWords ads to drive traffic to topics for which they were unable to achieve top rankings in the organic search results. As the keywords and adverts are not an optimal match for the target page in this use case, a poorer quality factor combined with a higher click price was accepted. This "midfield strategy" will now hardly be possible.
You should take this change as an opportunity to review, tidy up and revise your AdWords account. It is important to separate the "wheat from the chaff" according to the new guidelines, but not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater". Individual criteria must be defined according to which a page visit is categorised as successful or unsuccessful after an ad click.
As a Google partner with several certified AdWords experts, Blackbit is happy to support you in measuring and optimising as well as in developing alternatives.