According to this Survey 55% Searchers don't distinguish between the Organic & Paid Ads

According to a recent survey done by VARN, it came to light that almost 55% searchers don’t know which links are paid ads and which are organic.

The results are further divided into age, with the general trend being that the younger you are, the more likely it is that you’ll spot the ads. Surprisingly, almost 50% of 25 to 34's could not identify which links were ads.

A similar survey was done by VARN back in February this Year. This recent survey recorded 5% more people who are unable to recognize the paid ads. This rise is believed to be the recent changes made by Google as in the appearance of its ads. The first of the changes was the removal of right hand side ads, & then we had the change of labels to green ad labels which are, of course, the same color as the URLs thus making it look less like an ad.

Google has always been performing changes to its ad appearance. This visual illustrates how google ads have changed this whole time.

Although the earlier ads were used to be shaded to distinguish them from organic results, ads now look less like ads then ever.