You may have noticed that Google Ads are now appearing not just on top and bottom search results, but also in the middle!
AI Summary: Google manipulates search results to prioritise ads, blending them with organic results to trick users into clicking, exploiting the “just Google it” generation’s trust. This erodes search quality, favouring revenue over user experience, with declining trust in results. Summary of the article on ChatGPT.
- Google has now decided that adding adverts in the middle of what was previously 10 organic search results is the way forward. It’s called Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), and it is here to stay
What is happening is that a generation of Google users who are used to seeing adverts clearly marked at the top and bottom of a search result’s page are now clicking on adverts placed in the middle of such results because of the scroll; they just assume this is another organic SEO-based result.
To quote Google “When you use Google Search to navigate the web, ads may appear with your search results. We think it’s important to be transparent about ads, which is why we make it easy to distinguish them from the rest of the results on the page by clearly labelling them. Read.“
There was even a not very well-known https://adstransparency.google.com section of Google, which championed transparency.
Whilst Google is labelling all its ads as “Sponsored” is incredibly misleading. Just as people are banner-blind to ads, they miss the Sponsored label as well.
It’s interesting that Google now refers to organic search results as free listings! See here.
Why it is such a shock?
It is a huge departure of what was once written in stone: Adverts and organic search results will never mix.
Older readers will remember pre-2016, when Google’s ads were always positioned on the right-hand side of organic listings. Google swore that this would always be the case and that organic listings would never be mixed.
However, post-2016, all sidebar adverts were removed, and the expanded top (ad section) appeared. Four years later, in 2000, adverts now appeared at the top and bottom. Google’s advertising was given a major makeover with the adoption of AdWords system (now called Google ads.) Google was firmly in the advertising game.
This insertion of adverts in what was previously always the remit of organic search is a major step forward for Google, which is seen as less credible, and its new home page of 10 blue link results is a work of spam.
Seamlessly reach viewers everywhere
Google is selling DAI as “Seamlessly reach viewers everywhere with Dynamic Ad Insertion” Google Featured Brief
Dynamic ad placement was rolled out in the US in late 24 and only arrived in the UK in mid-2025. Ginny Marvin, Google’s ads product liaison, confirmed this on Twitter.
@GinnyMarvin. She represents the bridge between businesses using Google ads on the Google Ad products team. A keen sailor, Ginny was previously a US digital marketing industry journalist and has been working full-time for Google as the product liaison for four and a half years.
- Vanilla Circus has reached out to Ginny via LinkedIn, but has heard nothing.
The UK SEO industry believes that these new changes are a result of increased banner blindness, where users have been desensitised to adverts and easily scroll past them.
Of course, a nontechnical solution would be to add adverts in places where users would not expect. However, the course has huge potential for confusion and possible reputation damage for Google.
What does it mean for SEO?
Traditional SEO is under a huge attack force from the well-documented rise in AI overviews, and because of the adoption of ChatGPT and its other bot friends. This is seen as another blow to the industry. Space on a Google results page has shrunk for SEO organic listings. Ten Down To Seven.
How Google Ads have impacted on Organic CTRs (AKA traffic)
Sidebar Ads (Before Feb 2016)
Impact on Organic SEO Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Organic results dominated the above-the-fold
Top Ads (After Feb 2016)
#1 organic CTR dropped to 18–25% for high-commercial-intent searches
For competitive keywords, pure SEO alone rarely dominates the above-the-fold
Post May 2024
Introduction of AI summaries
#1 organic CTR dropped to 12–15% (except local searches, which remain the same)
Post Nov 2024
New ads in the middle of search results.
Number of free/organic listings drops from 9 to 7
#1 organic CTR dropped to 9–12%
Is dynamic ad placement here to stay?
Yep. Google is trying to justify its decision by reaching out to companies that it can bribe.
“Google Ad Manager’s Dynamic Ad Insertion is the first server-side ad insertion (SSAI) solution to be accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for its client-initiated impression measurement of video ads on live and video on-demand content.” Google 2025
Reality check: From the horse’s mouth: Google AI summary
Is there a solution?
YES, and it is provided by Google. And no, it is not an ad blocker. Navigate to Google and make a search. Underneath the search box is a More dropdown. Select the WEB filter, and like magic, all of the Google product adverts and the top adverts disappear. Google could have called it Ad-Free, which would have been more accurate! Does anyone know about it? Google does!
a throwback to early-style search,
The Web filter, launched around May 2024, lets you view only classic “blue links”, filtering out images, videos, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, shopping modules, and other rich content according to ChatGPT.
“You’re a lifesaver, ’ Google fans cry as user reveals clever trick to hide ‘annoying’ new AI search results. Of course, it could only be the SUN”
So it’s official, more ads, less organic search. And people say that users are flocking to ChatGPT, I wonder why?
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