Google's recent renaming of "Sponsored Links" to "Ads" has been a positive for advertisers, according to a new study.
The Search Agents blog (which is run by search marketing firm The Search Agency) reported that click-through rates (CTRs) increased by 11.4 percent since the ads were renamed to the much simpler "Ads."
The site had expected a negative impact, based on Harvard Business School Professor Benjamin Edelman's recent experiment which indicated that renaming "Sponsored Links" (Edelman's research was conducted prior to the "Ads" name change) to "Paid Advertisements" reduced ad clicks by between 25 and 33 percent.
The Search Agents analysis was based on AdWords data -- 80 million impressions and 1.5 million clicks -- from U.S. B2B and B2C campaigns running between Oct. 28 and Nov. 10. Their findings:
- Average position increased 1.5 percent
- Total impressions decreased 1.5 percent
- Total clicks increased 9.7 percent
- Average CTR increased 11.4 percent
- Average cost per click (CPC) dropped 2.3 percent
- Total cost increased 7.1 percent
Have you seen positive changes in CTR since Google switched from "Sponsored Links" to "Ads" on Nov. 4? Or are you seeing different results? Let us know in the comments.
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