• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 22, 2025

Google continues make updates and upgrades to its search auction system as the U.S. Department of Justice pushes its own agenda meant to stop the company's monopolistic practices in search. The DOJ's proposal aims to push Google to share data, shed its Chrome browser, and stop exclusionary contracts to curb its dominance.

While Google went back into court on Monday to plead its case, the company also released changes as to how it will allow an advertiser’s relevant search advertisements to serve up among the top ads on a search query page, and simultaneously participate in bottom ad auctions. 

The top ads are defined as those appearing above the organic results and below organic results for certain queries. The company said it doesn’t mean the ads will serve twice. 

“When someone searches on Google, we run different auctions for each ad location where we show Search ads,” the company wrote in a blog post. 

For example, top ads are selected by a different Search ad auction from ads that show in other ad locations, Google explains. 

Until now, Search ads from an advertiser were generally restricted to one ad location on a given page.  

Google made the change after analyzing the user experience with ads serving lower down the page. 

It found users would scroll past the top results to review content lower down the page, but then scroll back up if they found top results more relevant relative to content further below.

This change of serving an ad from the same advertiser aims to improve ad relevance lower down the page, but it doesn’t mean the viewer will see the same ad. 

Google tested the change for several months and found it allowed advertisers whose ads served at the top and bottom auctions increased rates of highly relevant ads by about 10%, and increased bottom ad conversions by about 14%.

The change does not relax query matching or ad load constraints, the company wrote in the post. They remain the same, as do its guidelines around the number of top ads served on the page. This change focuses on the bottom of the query page.

Google explained that the update will provide more opportunities for relevant search ads to serve and be seen. It aims to ensure keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are more relevant to users’ searches.

The expectation is advertisers will see higher conversion volumes. Google recommends using bid simulator tools to explore potential performance changes and adjust your bids or targets strategically.