14 DAY TRIAL // Google Instant is certainly a radical revamp of the search interface and experience so those making a living from Google Search are worried and, perhaps, rightfully so. SEO experts and advertisers have no idea what to expect, despite reassurances from Google. Most likely, not even Google is sure about all of the repercussions.
"[W]e expect increased user engagement with our search services, including ads," Dan Friedman, from the Inside AdWords crew, wrote.
"Although Google Instant doesn’t change the way ads are served, ads and search results will now be shown based on the 'predicted search'," he said.
"For example, if someone types 'flow' into Google.com, our algorithms predict that the user is searching for 'flowers' (the predicted search) and therefore display both search results and ads for 'flowers'," he explained
"However, if that user then adds the letter 'c' to the query, our algorithms may predict that the user is searching for 'flowchart' and show the corresponding natural and paid results for flowchart," he continued.
The ads corresponding to those queries would still be shown. But Google can't bill for impressions if the ad stays there for only a few milliseconds. So the company has made some changes to the way it counts ad impressions.
Basically, the user has to actually engage with the search results page for the ad to count. This means that the user has to hit Enter to perform a query, clicking on the Search button also works, or click on one of the search results links or the ads.
Finally, if a user stops for at least three seconds, during which the same search results page is shown, the ad impressions are also counted. Google warns that the new interface will likely affect the impressions number, either negatively or positively.
Still, it's probably to early too tell what effect Google Instant will have for search ads on the long run. Users have to adapt to it first and this will imply a change in behavior which will likely result in a change they engage with ads.
