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August 17, 2005

AdWords Preferred Listings Now Showing Three Ads

I call them preferred listings since they don't seem to have an official name, but I'm referring to those highlighted AdWords ads that appear at the top of the Google search results, as opposed to the ones that appear on the right sidebar.

Used to be two ads could appear in that coveted space, now we're beginning to see three ads for certain "highly commercial" searches, such as "dvd players" or "cell phone" (in a quasi post-modern event, a search for "sponsored links" also works).

First spotted by Silicon Beat.

And here's a bit of happenstance. Just today the AdWords blog released a bit on how to get your ad into those preferred listings:

The ads you’re referring to are automatically placed above the search results on Google.com by the AdWords system, depending on a number of variables and performance factors including: ad approval status (these ads must be approved), maximum cost-per-click (CPC), clickthrough rate (CTR), and ad text. This is to ensure that we can provide the most relevant advertising to our users. There is not a way to request one of these top spots since placement is automatically determined by the AdWords system. However, we can tell you that the ads that qualify for these spots also tend to rank first or second among AdWords ads in the regular spots on the right side of the page, and are evaluated with a stringent ranking formula that favors higher CTRs.

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