Google has confirmed that they will now be incorporating an ad within their local pack. The local search results which previously shrunk from 6-3 may now only have 2 natural organic placements left. The exact time and placement of this ad has has yet to be determined but the fact is, an impact is to be made.
During the conference in which Google made the announced, Google employee Joy Hawkins tweeted out a picture of the possible new local pack. This ad looks to be one advertisement followed by two organic local pack listings.
Google is still very much doing some testing on this layout and at the end of the day, the layout could be different from what is shown above. The importance of being in the local pack may become even more important if in fact only two organic local listings show.
Moving forward we will track Googles announcements on this topic and affect businesses may face.