Google Ads Changes

In one week, Google has made two changes to local search and Google maps. These changes impact local businesses ads and organic search results.

The first is that ads are now being shown in the Local Finder results page on Google after clicking “more places”. Before, this was purely organic. This is a good thing for businesses that are not in the top three organically, as their ad can populate. However, for those relying on organic search, this is now another area infiltrated with advertisements. These people might want to invest in a Google AdWords campaign.

The second change applies to ads in Google Maps. Ads will soon only be featured if they have a location extension in Google Maps, omitting regular text ads. Google Maps has also been removed from the list of Google Sites in Search Partners. Therefore, advertisers that have map extensions, but were not part of Search Partners could now have their ad shown. Conversely, those that do not use location extensions and were part of Search Partners will no longer have their ad shown in Google Maps.