Recently, Google started including ads in the bubble that appears when a searcher scrolls over a map marker on maps.google.com. This has caused a minor stirring among business owners so I wanted to give a few thoughts on how this can be viewed and how you can exclude your business from showing up in the bubble.
1) Ads placement on Google Maps is not new. Ads already appear on maps.google.com and directly on Place pages as part of the Search Partners Network. This is just an extension of an advertiser’s reach
2)In our experience, the likelihood of an ad on a business place page being clicked on is small. For tests we’ve run with managed placements on maps.google.com, the CTR is around .13%. If this trend holds true for the bubble ads, they will not have a large impact on a business’s traffic
3)As an advertiser, allowing your ad to run in Google Maps gives searchers the option of going directly to a website instead of a Place page. It also means you are providing the freshest ad copy in maps
4)Ads can only show in the bubble if a campaign contains broad match keywords and is opted into the Search Partners network
