Three ads in the top spot

[webquest]

I'm seeing three ads (instead of two) in the top spot for some searched. Is this something new? I never noticed it before.

[deej098]

I too am seeing this for the first time. I was performing a search relevant to my website in the automotive industry and noticed that there were 3 listings across the top.

To my knowledge this is a new development.

[johnyfav]

I'm seeing this too......

I think that it looks too big!

[briggidere]

yep,

me too, time to tweak some campaigns.

briggidere

[sem4u]

I have seen this as well today. One search had three ads in the premium positions, then three Froogle results underneath. If my monitor was set to 800x600 I would have only seen the AdWords, Froogle results and the top natural result before having to scroll down.

[running scared]

There have been occasional sightings of this in the past (various previous threads about it) but this seems to be more widespread. Here hoping!

[ShaneRbn21]

I Really do think this is a BIG..in fact HUGE mistake on google's part.. that extra one result is FAR too intrusive

3rd will get a better click through than it ever previously did (good if you are in 3rd of course)at the expense of first and second places.

Google must be serps led (and I say that as a PPC specialist! so that's no small statement) for the quality of visitor experience as far too many adwords ads are still poorly targeted and too peripheral to the actual product/service searched for when compared to serps results.

Really hope they are just trialing for a day, as it's a bad bad move by google...needs removing like yesterday..

[HayMeadows]

Seeing three sponsored listings at the top right now for a search phrase we follow.

[beren]

Bad. But probably inevitable.

[powerstar]

Yes... how long before we see 4?

Good for Google and good for us if you are on Adwords

[Shane21]

In the long run I don't think it is good for google or good for "us" on adwords..

The more adwords intrudes into the serps rankings the more chance over time the quality of the user experience will go down.

Also having a list of 3 will mean more comparing than before I think..which means less conversion in the long run, not to a massive degree but already I'm seeing a drop of about 10% in CTR ratio's on some of my listings where I'm in second place, so if it had a CTR of 20% it's like 18% for yesterday.

I just think it's a bad move all round, it's not offering the best user experience in my view, it's too intrusive on the page.

If all adwords were ultra highly targeted and relevant then yes maybe but many are just too sloppy and not 100% relevant to the search that the user has conducted so over time I think it will show up as not good move

[dougl]

Looks good on a large monitor - no doubt Google will do ongoing testing, and adjust results according to keyword CTRs, perhaps also taking into consideration the user's screen resolution.

[shorebreak]

How come when a change like this happens in the AdSense world there are 4000 posts within 2 days, but when such a monumental change happens in AdWords it only gets 12 posts?

I'm speechless...

[inasisi]

shorebreak,

Google has been testing this on and off for the last 4 months and there have been so many different threads talking of this in this forum. So no surprises to most people here.

Also, there are more number of webmasters using AdSense then Advertisers using Adwords. Since this Webmasterworld, what do you expect?