It had reported back in November of 2013 that Google was testing a new user interface for search results shown to desktop users. This new user interface was finally released for everybody to use on March 13th of this year. Because of this, it made a big change on how ads were displayed in search results.
After some research had been done on the before and after of the switch up with the user interface, it was found that the change made paid ads blend in better with the natural search results. Because of this, more people clicked on ads. But has this change for the better (as far as Google is concerned with the ads that is) really lasted?
Nope.
In the end, after only three months, Google users tended to revert back to the old ways of clicking and began only clicking on organic search terms. But what are the specifics behind this? Check out the article on Search Engine Land, written by Gene McKenna, where they will go into more detail on why searchers stopped clicking on the ads provided by Google. To get to the article, just follow the link below.
Search Engine Land: New Google Ad Format Only Changed User Behavior For 3 Months