Is Google Testing Less Ads?

When I was looking through some of my brands traffic I noticed a huge spike in SEO over the last few days for all brands. As I was still looking into it, @sugarrae tweeted the following:

That fits with what I’m seeing on some major brands. When I started doing some searches, I noticed an odd trend. This only happened when I was logged in (but these days who isn’t logged in to Google?)

I DIDN’T SEE ADS!!!!!1!!!11one!! – Sure, they were still there for terms like “credit cards” but for many terms that you’d think would show ads, there weren’t any. Could this be why Rae and I are both seeing brand increases? Check out the screen shots below. All of them are terms that should probably show ads – but there aren’t any – or if there are, there’s only 1.

Is anybody else seeing similar?

Note: in the screenshot with the Chyrsler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram ads – those are re-targeted ads directed to me as Chrysler is a client and I visit their site several times per day.

1 comment May 20th, 2015