Today, Google announced that it will be displaying some paid ads below search results (opposed to the side). I was not able to confirm, but still assume ads above search results may co-exist with those below search results. In this case, organic results will be “sandwiched” between paid results.

Google explains that during testing the bottom-vs-side scenario scored a higher CTR. I’m not too surprised, as we web searchers do browser in a north-to-south fashion, seldom scrolling back up to see the results on the right hand side.

But, remember that Google is in the business of making money. This means that it wants to have higher CTRs, even if it is just fractionally. We all know that even a fractional increase equals megabucks.

So, you should test this judiciously to ensure you’re obtaining the desired goals of your campaign. In my world, conversion rate is most important and a higher CTR does not always correlate to a higher conversion rate. So tread carefully, measure and monitor.