Most of the big search engines follow the same layout for their search engine results page – sponsored advertisements at the top, followed by organic links below.

However, it appears Bing is experimenting with a new format that mixes paid links with organic results. Most consumers expect the first few entries to be sponsored ads, so they often scroll straight to the organic results. By mixing paid ads in with organic links, marketers may be able to garner more clicks and impressions from their B2B online marketing efforts.

"We’re constantly testing and experimenting on Bing, and with that, we carefully measure user engagement and reaction to these changes. We have nothing further to share at this time," a Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Land.

As the website notes, integrating paid ads with organic results has generally been taboo among search engines. For example, Yahoo launched a similar effort in 2009 but later dropped it because of the criticism it received.

According to comScore, Bing powers more than one-quarter of the searches conducted by Americans, so if the embedded paid ads end up coming to fruition, they could effect a tremendous number of consumers. 

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