Official: Google Experimenting With Four Ads Above Search Results, In Mortgage Searches

Historically, Google has shown a maximum of three ads above its unpaid “editorial” search results. But now, the company is experimenting with four. Below is an example from a search for [mortgage rates] in Google: As you can see, there are four separate ads being displayed, rather than the usual maximum of three. The first […]

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Historically, Google has shown a maximum of three ads above its unpaid “editorial” search results. But now, the company is experimenting with four.

Below is an example from a search for [mortgage rates] in Google:

4 Top Ads

As you can see, there are four separate ads being displayed, rather than the usual maximum of three.

The first one is one of the special Google mortgage ad units that rolled out last year. After that comes three normal AdWords ads.

Google’s said this is an experiment for the moment, related to when mortgage ads display. In those case, you might get up to four ads. Otherwise, the normal three ads maximum applies.

Hat tip to @RoDr1g0 for sending us this tip.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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