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.

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.

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About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.