Google is dedicating a higher proportion of its ‘above the fold’ space to pay-per-click adverts, according to web experts.
A number of industry commentators have reported that the amount of immediately visible PPC ads in search results for “high commercial intent” keywords has significantly risen in recent times.
According to research from econsultancy.com, only 40 per cent of Google users will be able to see the first organic result for certain searches without scrolling down, depending on their screen resolution.
This statistic highlights the advantages of using Google Adwords to advertise a company website. Many online businesses have benefited by paying to get their website above the fold in Google search results and the search engine appears keen to drive even more clicks to these sponsored listings.
An article studying this trend featured on venturebeat.com suggested that the amount of screen space dedicated to PPC adverts has significantly grown in the last 90 days.
Reacting to these figures, eConsultancy’s director of product development, Chris Lake, questioned what the future holds for Google’s search results pages.
“You have to wonder how many more levers Google has left to pull, in order to further boost ad revenue (not many.) How long before we see bigger fonts and flashing ads?” he joked.
