Search Marketing Blog
A Skeptical View of AdWords Shift to the Left
Posted by Sean McMahon on 08.17.2009
We, as humans, have a tendency to seek-out a cause for every effect. This, of unfortunately, can lead to the logical fallacy of ‘correlation equals causation’. That is, just because a correlation exists between two phenomena, it must mean that one is the cause of the other. It’s important to keep this fallacy in mind when asking yourself if Google’s recent decision to move its AdWords sponsored listings (from the far right side of their search engine results page, to closer to the middle of the page) was in response to the recent successful introduction of Microsoft’s newly branded search engine, Bing.
Take a look at the following search engine results page (SERP) from Bing:
Now, compare this page above to the shift in the location of Google AdWords listings shown in the second SERP below, which is from a search performed today. The first SERP below was captured in May 2009.
Once again, I’m not purporting that ‘correlation equals causation’ in this instance. However, it is always important to be cognizant of factors, such as timing of events and actions, which could point to a specific cause for a given effect.
Stay skeptical.
