Google is testing a massive Product Ads listing at the top of their search results. The PLA test features an expandable arrow that expands the usual 5 PLA ad unit at the top of the search results into a massive 16 ad unit, pushing down the search results.
ChannelAdvisor spotted the test in the search results.
Here is how it looks before being expanded, note the arrow on the bottom right corner:
And once expanded, it pushes down the content below as well as the AdWords on the side.
If you advertise in Product Listing Ads, this is probably amazing. It means you still have a chance for your ad to be displayed, even if you aren’t in the top 4-10 results that are shown in regular PLA ad units.
But for those in the organic results as well as regular AdWords advertisers, this is not a good change. It pushes results much further down on the page, and below the fold on smaller monitors.
This seems to be a very limited test. I wasn’t able to trigger this new PLA unit. We could see this roll out more widely, or we may not see any more examples of this.
But wow, depending on which side of the fence you are on, the PLA side or the AdWords advertiser or organic results side, this is pretty significant news.
Jennifer Slegg
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