Google testing purple “Ad” label in Maps

Update 5/16/16: The purple “Ad” label in Maps appears to now official. The Google support page has been updated with new screenshots and states, “If someone clicks the purple icon or your ad in the search box, your ad will expand to show details about your business.”

Google is testing a purple “Ad” label in Maps that matches the purple pin noting the location of the advertiser on the map itself. The purple pin distinguishes it from the red organic pins.

Ross at Paid Insights noticed the change on Maps searches on mobile and desktop in the Denver area.

@rustybrick Hey Barry just saw this, thought I would give you a heads up: purple ad label on maps pic.twitter.com/wgswEgxW9C

— Ross @ Paid Insights (@paidinsights) April 23, 2016

It’s not clear how long this test has been running, but I realized that I had actually seen this last week but hadn’t noticed the color change. Here’s a screen shot I captured on April 20 while looking into the news that Google is now placing ads in the Local Finder, as well as Maps.

I’m consistently seeing the purple label in Maps on desktop and Android, but not on iOS. Google also began testing green “Ad” labels in the main search results a couple of weeks ago. That test appears to be running in most major markets at this point.