Goodbye to Google black “Ads” label, say Hello to Google Sponsored label

With Google having a 90% share of the search engine market, it’s no surprise that the company is now making some changes to ensure that users are getting authentic and reliable search results. One of the major changes in this regard is the addition of the “Sponsored” label. 

Today, Google has officially updated the look of its Ads label, making it a bold black text “Sponsored” label instead of the previous black “Ad” label. This will ensure that users are made aware that they are seeing an ad, and not necessarily an appropriate search result.

It’s important to label sponsored content, as most top search results are full of ads. The new update will let users know what they’re clicking on, so they can make informed decisions. 

Keep reading to see how this update changed and why they have to change it.

Why did Google change the previous ad label?

In an announcement, Google stated:

“Part of helping you make sense of the information you see is ensuring that ads are clearly labeled, which is why our label will now be featured on its own line in the top-left corner of Search ads. We also want the label to be prominent and clear across different types of paid content. That’s why when ads show on mobile search results, they will now be labeled with the word “Sponsored” in bold black text. This new label and its prominent position continues to meet our high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on our existing efforts to make information about paid content clear.”

To put it simply: 

Google is extending these changes to Search ads to help advertisers understand what they’re seeing and promote transparency.

One part of this is making sure ads are labeled clearly, which is why the Google Ads label will be in the top-left corner of the ad on its own line. 

Besides, Google also wants the label to be obvious on different types of paid content, so when ads appear in mobile search results, they will be labeled with the word “Sponsored” in bold black text

The Google ad label history

In January 2020, Google decided to start showing favicons and labels for ads on desktop devices as well. This change caused a lot of uproars because it made it difficult to distinguish between ads and organic search results. Then, Google backtracked on this decision pretty quickly and is now experimenting with different ways to show ads on desktop devices.

• In 2007, Google changed the background color of its ads section from blue to yellow. 
• In 2008, it briefly tried a green background before reverting to yellow. Google continued to test variations of background colors, including bright blue and light violet. 
• In 2010, violet officially replaced yellow but it only lasted about a year before yellow reappeared in 2011. 
• In 2013, Google tweaked the yellow to a paler shade, which ended the era of background shading.
• In 2013, Google removed the background shading from ads and began testing a yellow ad label next to each text ad. 
•  In 2014, the yellow “Ad” label rolled out globally in a much smaller size than what was first seen in the initial testing. 
• In 2016, a new green label appeared, marking the first time the color of an ad demarcation matched the color of an element in both the ads and organic listings: the display URL.
• In 2017, Google made some changes to the black label. They inverted the treatments so that the font was green with a thin green border on a white background. 
• In 2021, Google updated its label to the black label doing away with the border altogether. The display URL is now black to match the “Ad” label.

Final words

Google’s new, more distinguishable ad label is designed to meet their high standards for being clearly separate from search results. 

This change could potentially affect your click-through rates, so it’s essential to keep an eye on your metrics to see if there is a change over time. We hope this blog post was helpful, if you have any questions or comments please let us know, we would love to hear from you!

EverRanks has compiled the necessary information about Google Sponsored labels above. Hopefully, you will be able to use them to implement methods that are truly suitable for bringing good results to your website.