How Does the Google 4-Pack
Impact Organic Search?
By Harrison DeSantis, SEO Account Manager
Last month, Google announced the 4-Pack search ads on desktop for
“highly commercial queries.”
was impacted, we launched an investigation to evaluate changes in
user behavior.
OUR METHODOLOGY
To test out the effects of the new “4-Pack” (as we’ll refer to it for the
rest of this article), we gathered organic query data from 6 clients to
see whether their listings were influenced. These clients vary from
strictly online ecommerce services to brick & mortar retail chains.
To see how 4-Packs changed user behavior, we compared two equal
time ranges: one range representing the SERP before the 4-Pack
rollout, and the other representing the SERP with the 4-Packs. Since
the announcement and official rollout of the 4-Pack didn’t happen until
February 19th, we picked the following ranges:
• BEFORE: FEBRUARY 1-14
• AFTER: MARCH 1 – 14
We split all queries for these two ranges into 10 groups based on their
average Google ranking (Positions 1-10). We removed all branded
searches and compared total click-through rate per ranking to see how
each position’s performance changed. Note: These results are
desktop only.
Although this update has nothing to do with Google’s organic algorithm,
we suspected that organic queries would lose visibility whenever
that paid 4-Pack appeared. To find out just how much organic search
Here’s what we found.
Google 4-Pack Impact
2
RANKINGS WERE UNAFFECTED
We thought this would be the case, but we wanted to make it official:
Organic rankings were hardly affected by the paid ad 4-Packs. To
confirm our suspicion, we pulled rankings performance on 85 queries
we verified were serving 4-Packs. When aggregating these queries per
client, we found that none of the positions fluctuated greater than 0.7
between the two time periods. Better yet, three clients actually saw
between a 0.1 and 0.4 position improvement from February to March.
POSITION 1 CTR IMPROVED BY 2%
When we examined changes against the whole search query report,
their deltas generally trended in the same direction. Aside from one
client, all other domains saw less than a 0.2 position difference across
the two time periods.
This was the biggest surprise of all. Across these six clients, there were
about ~900 queries per time period where the domain had an average
position of 1.49 or better. When comparing the month-over-month CTR
for those 900 or so queries, we found that CTR increased by +2.06%
points after the 4-Pack was rolled out.
Google 4-Pack Impact
3
When we separated these CTRs by client, we found this trend was also
consistent on an individual basis. Five of the six accounts we looked at
saw a Position 1 CTR improvement from February.
FIRST-RANKED LISTINGS WITH GOOGLE INFO GRAPHS BENEFIT MOST
Two of the examined clients have a proclivity to attract both 4-Packs
and another interactive field such as Google Maps and form-fills. These
fields push the first organic listing well below the fold. For example, see
the screenshot of the query “cheap flights to vegas” to the right. After
the 4-Pack, Google Flights populates:
Since the user now has to scroll down even farther just to see the
first organic result, we expected a drop in CTR for both of these
clients. However, they actually saw some of the biggest improvements
with Position 1 CTRs increasing by +5.98% and +1.70%.
Google 4-Pack Impact
4
CTR FOR POSITIONS 2-6 MARGINALLY DECREASED
BOTTOM PAGE RESULTS IMPROVED MINIMALLY
While Position 1 reaped some benefits from the 4-Pack, Positions
2-6 saw slight but consistent CTR decreases. Listings that averaged
between position 2 and 6 lost -0.63% CTR from February. Strangely
enough, the individual positions that saw the biggest declines were
Position 2 (-1.01%) and Position 5 (-1.37%). In this range, most
positions saw a drop in CTR except for Position 3, which gained just
+0.43% points. Overall, we’re seeing decreased activity in middlepage
positions, even though they are now free of side ads that would
normally compete for those clicks.
You heard right, folks. Listings that ranked 7-10 saw an overall +0.16%
point CTR improvement. As a matter of fact, every single individual
ranking between 7 and 10 saw a CTR improvement with the exception
of position 9, which saw a slight -0.10% point decrease.
Google 4-Pack Impact
5
CONCLUSION
Although this is just a small sample between a few clients, our
evidence points to the following conclusions:
1. Organic rankings are mostly unaffected by the 4-pack
2. 1st-ranked listings have higher click-through odds despite more
competition from paid ads above the fold
3. 2nd-ranked and middle-page listings have lower click-through
odds despite having less competition from paid ads
¡ For this portion of the study, we compared searches with at least 500 impressions to
capture the largest-impact rankings.
¡¡ Any query averaging higher than a 1.50 ranking actually appears in position 2 more often
than position 1. To account for this, we assigned any query averaging between 1.50 and
2.49 as position 2, between 2.50 and 3.49 as position 3, and so on.
¡¡¡ Above-the-fold line as seen on a 1366 x 768 resolution screen with a maximized browser
window.
4. Bottom page listings have slightly higher click-through odds
THE OUTCOME FOR SEO
We expected a drop in CTR on Position 1 queries, but instead the
opposite happened. The changes in SERP user behavior have been
interesting but not game-changing. We’ll want to continue monitoring
our monthly CTRs as well as our year-over-year organic traffic, but the
4-Pack hasn’t eroded organic click volume as much as we expected. At
least not yet.
Google 4-Pack Impact
6
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Harrison DeSantis is an SEO Account Manager at 3Q Digital. He
joined 3Q in February 2015 with an eclectic background in content
writing, law, and teaching. Harrison graduated from the University
of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in English. In his spare
time, Harrison enjoys nerding out on music and traveling.
ABOUT 3Q DIGITAL
3Q Digital, a Harte Hanks company, provides strategic growth
consulting and execution across six growth drivers: customer
journey, user experience, device strategy, analytics, technology,
and growth platforms. The company offers best-in-class services
in SEM, SEO, display, social advertising, mobile, video, creative,
and analytics. 3Q Digital works with some of today’s fastestgrowing
clients, including Square, RelaxTheBack, SurveyMonkey,
The RealReal, and Eventbrite.
3Q Digital is based in Silicon Valley and has offices in San
Francisco, Chicago, New York, San Diego, Oakland, Austin, and
Burlington, VT.
Google 4-Pack Impact
7
GET MORE WHITEPAPERS
AT 3QDIGITAL.COM
For more information on how 3Q Digital, A Harte Hanks
Company can help your marketing campaigns:
CALL US @
650.539.4124
EMAIL US AT
INFO@3QDIGITAL.COM
REACH OUT ON
3QDIGITAL.COM/CONTACT/
FOLLOW US
@3QDIGITAL
Change language