About a month ago, I spotted a new ad format in the Google Search results that had this local pack vibe. I shared it around, seeing if anyone else would notice it but I didn’t hear back. The new ad format looks like a local result but has a sponsored label.
Anthony Higman first posted a screenshot of this on Twitter, here is that screenshot:
Then Mike Blumenthal yesterday posted on Twitter a similar variant to that sponsored local pack ad:
Glenn Gabe replied that he thinks those are Google home service ads but it is hard to know for sure. Glenn said you can tell by looking at the click-through URL parameters.
Have you seen these ads before?
Update: Google’s Ginny Marvin said that these are Local Ads.
Update 2: Here is another weird local ad format from @coreyofthemtn:
