Seems to be a few gems ITT where we touch upon some potential issues.
Of course this could all be cyclical, election year, pre-holiday, etc and people can claim that the MFA's are not a big part of G's earnings. Fine.
But what is a PPC ad whether in the content network or SERP? It's supposed to give the customer what they are looking for right? To distract from Organic and pull a customer by giving them exactly what they want.
User wants Big Brand solution but does not thin about Big Brand in search. User clicks on Organic result, which is something mediocre or bad, user clicks on Big Brand Ad on that site. In this same vein, if you are a decent marketer you are delivering to that Big Brand or you are compelling the user to find a solution with your lesser known brand. Or a few other scenarios, but basically you are bouncing them via an ad.
Therefore by definition, as G gets better at giving people what they want in Organic, people will not need to bounce. i.e., click an ad. Therefore the better g gets at search, the fewer ads that will be clicked. Sounds like they need to go to charging per impression in the organic.
In other words if Big Brand shows in the top organic, no need to pay PPC. It's what SEO's have always said and its a dream come true for Big Brands.
Of course there has been a lot of talk on capitalizing on mobile. That nut has not been cracked yet, at least not openly, I am certain there are people doing well staying very tight lipped.
