Do people trust Google Ads? What research says about paid and organic search

A click on a Google ad does not tell you whether the person recognised it as advertising or how much they trusted the business. Research shows that people differ in their understanding of paid results, and that clearer advertising labels can change what they click.

For a business owner, the useful question is how customers understand and assess the choices in front of them.

Recognising an advert is a separate question

Ofcom's Adults' Media Use and Attitudes 2026 report tested whether UK search engine users understood sponsored results. Participants saw a Google search for walking boots and were asked why the top four results appeared first.

Among the 6,731 search engine users answering this test, 52% correctly identified the results as paid placements. Others attributed their position to relevance (25%) or popularity (24%), alongside or instead of recognising them as advertising. Those responses can overlap; they are not separate groups that should be added together.

The report was published in 2026, using fieldwork conducted from 29 September to 28 November 2025. It shows that a visible advertising label does not ensure everyone understands why a result is there. It does not mean the remaining 48% fail to recognise every advert, and the test did not measure whether they trusted or clicked those businesses.

Clearer labels can change clicks

An online experiment by Benjamin Edelman and Duncan Gilchrist, published in 2012, changed the labels identifying search advertising. Participants were randomly assigned to see different wording.

Compared with “Sponsored links”, the clearer “Paid Advertisements” label produced 25% fewer advertising clicks. Compared with “Ads”, it produced 27% fewer advertising clicks. These are relative reductions in the number of ad clicks, not falls of 25 or 27 percentage points in clickthrough rate.

The experiment provides evidence that making the commercial nature of a result clearer can affect selection. It does not establish why each person changed their behaviour. It also used older search interfaces and specified tasks, so those percentages should not become predictions for today's Google Ads campaigns or Australian customers.

Understanding advertising is associated with selection

A 2021 study by Sebastian Schultheiß and Dirk Lewandowski examined advertising knowledge, viewing and selection behaviour among 100 German-speaking participants in Hamburg. The research combined interviews with eye tracking and clickable search-result screenshots, using fieldwork conducted in 2018 and 2019.

Participants with less knowledge about search advertising tended to click more ads. That association supports a useful caution: some advertising clicks may occur without a clear understanding of the distinction between paid and organic results.

The study did not randomly assign people different levels of knowledge. It therefore cannot establish that teaching someone about advertising would cause a particular change in clicks. Its small German sample also cannot supply an Australian market average.

Trust needs its own evidence

Recognising advertising, trusting a result and choosing it are different things. Someone may understand that a placement is paid and still consider the offer useful. A person who selects an organic result may be responding to its description, familiarity or position. Neither click reveals the whole judgement.

A separate study, Misplaced trust?, used a representative online survey of 2,012 German internet users aged 16–69, conducted in 2020. It found that participants with less knowledge of search-result types were more likely to trust and prefer Google. This was an association about trust in Google; it did not compare trust in paid and organic results or establish that knowledge caused trust to change.

The research above does not establish that people trust organic results more than paid results, or that visitors from one channel become better enquiries or more profitable customers.

When reading a claim about search behaviour, check what the research actually recorded: recognition in a screenshot test, an answer about trust, a click during a task or a completed purchase. Each answers a different question. For help reading campaign percentages, see our related article, “Google Ads metrics: what CTR, conversion rate and Quality Score tell you”.

Make your business easier to assess

These findings suggest reviewing what a potential customer can understand before and after a click. Check whether the business identity, service and offer are clear, whether the destination matches the message, and whether customers can find genuine evidence supporting the claims.

Consider a hypothetical Sydney screen installer. A searcher might encounter its sponsored result and an organic service page while looking for installation options. The owner should check whether both routes make the service area, type of work and next step understandable, with accurate examples of completed work where permission allows.

That is a review exercise, not a claim that the two placements will produce equal results or that those details guarantee trust. It helps the business identify unanswered customer questions without guessing what every searcher thinks about advertising.

Use research to improve the questions you ask

Before shifting a budget because “people ignore ads” or “organic visitors trust us more”, identify the evidence behind that explanation. Research about advertising labels can inform how you interpret clicks; your own customer outcomes are needed to assess whether marketing produces suitable work.

For that next stage, our related article, “Clicks, enquiries and customers: what should your marketing report measure?”, explains how to connect reporting with meaningful business outcomes.

Start with one important customer search. Review the results and your destination page, record anything that could make the business or offer difficult to assess, and choose one specific improvement. Keep the observation separate from any later claim about its effect.