Google Ads To Show Ads In The Top Ads Position Also In The Bottom Ads Position

Google has made a significant change to its advertising platform that opens new opportunities for advertisers who consistently deliver high-quality ads. In April 2025, the company updated its long-standing "unfair advantage" policy to allow the same advertiser to show ads in both the top ad positions and the bottom ad positions on search results pages. This change represents a meaningful shift in how Google approaches ad diversity and quality-based ranking, and it has important implications for how businesses structure their paid search campaigns.

The announcement came as a surprise to many digital marketers who had long accepted the previous policy restriction as a permanent feature of the Google Ads auction system. Under the old rules, if an advertiser's ad showed in one of the top positions, they were effectively blocked from appearing in the bottom ad slots on the same search results page. This limitation was designed to prevent a single advertiser from dominating the entire ad inventory and to ensure that searchers would see multiple different advertisers' messages. However, the policy change signals that Google has reconsidered this approach, prioritizing advertiser quality and relevance over strict diversity requirements.

This development is particularly relevant for advertisers who have invested in building high-Quality Score campaigns with compelling ad copy and well-optimized landing pages. Rather than being penalized for their success by being restricted from bottom positions, these advertisers can now extend their visibility across multiple placements.

What Changed: Understanding The Policy Update

The fundamental change involves how Google interprets and enforces its "unfair advantage" policy within the Google Ads auction system. Previously, this policy was interpreted to mean that a single advertiser could not occupy multiple distinct ad positions on the same search results page. If your ad won a top position, you were excluded from the bottom position auction, effectively ensuring that at least some competitors would appear below. This restriction applied regardless of how relevant or high-quality your ads might be, and it created a ceiling on how much visibility a single advertiser could achieve on any given search query.

Google's updated policy now makes a clear distinction between legitimate competitive advantage and genuine relevance. Under the new framework, if an advertiser's ad is deemed highly relevant and valuable enough to qualify for top ad positions, that same advertiser is now permitted to also participate in the bottom ad auction. This means that searchers may now see the same advertiser's message twice on a results page--once among the top ads and once among the bottom ads--without this being considered an unfair advantage. Google has determined that when an ad is genuinely the most relevant result for a searcher's query, showing it in multiple positions serves the user's interests rather than diminishing them.

The Old Rules: What Advertisers Previously Faced

Before this policy change, Google Ads operated under what many advertisers referred to as a "one slot per advertiser" restriction within the search results page. When a user's search query triggered an ad auction, each advertiser could win at most one ad slot across the entire results page. If your ad was competitive enough to win a top position, you were automatically removed from consideration for bottom positions, even if your budget would have supported additional impressions and even if your ad was highly relevant to the query.

The practical effect of this policy was most noticeable for advertisers with strong campaigns and generous budgets. These advertisers would often find themselves in a situation where they were winning top positions but missing out on additional volume that they could have captured at the bottom of the page. For highly competitive keywords where top position CPCs are expensive, this meant that some of the most qualified traffic--searchers who have already scrolled past multiple results without converting--went to competitors rather than to the advertiser who had demonstrated the highest relevance in the auction.

The New Framework: How Dual Placement Works

Under Google's updated policy, the auction dynamics for top and bottom positions have become more sophisticated. When a search query triggers an ad auction, Google now evaluates each advertiser's eligibility for both position tiers independently, though with quality serving as a gatekeeper for both. An advertiser's ad can be considered for top positions based on its Ad Rank, which is calculated from the bid amount and various quality factors including expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. If the ad meets the threshold for top position inclusion, it is then also evaluated for bottom position eligibility.

The key insight is that meeting the top position threshold effectively grants an advertiser "access" to the bottom position auction as well. This does not guarantee that the same ad will appear in both positions--auction mechanics, budget constraints, and competition levels still influence actual delivery--but it removes the previous hard exclusion. Advertisers should review Google Ads benchmarks and performance metrics to understand typical CPC and CTR ranges for their industry.

Strategic Implications For Advertisers

The ability to appear in both top and bottom ad positions creates new strategic opportunities and considerations for paid search advertisers. Perhaps most immediately, advertisers with high-quality campaigns now have a path to expanded impression share that does not rely solely on increasing bids or expanding keyword lists. For campaigns that are already performing well in top positions, the potential to also capture bottom position impressions represents incremental reach that can translate into additional conversions, particularly for longer sales cycles where multiple exposures to an advertiser's message may be necessary before a user takes action.

This change also raises important questions about budget allocation and bidding strategy. Advertisers who become eligible for dual placement may find their campaigns consuming budget more quickly, as the same ad is now eligible for more impressions per auction. If an advertiser's daily budget was calibrated based on top position only delivery, the addition of bottom position impressions could cause the budget to deplete earlier in the day.

Quality Score Optimization Takes On New Importance

The policy update has elevated Quality Score optimization from a best practice to a strategic imperative. Quality Score has always influenced ad rank and position, but its impact was largely contained within the position auction. Now, Quality Score has an additional dimension of impact because it determines dual placement eligibility, which affects total impression opportunity rather than just position within a tier.

Advertisers looking to capitalize on dual placement should prioritize the three core components of Quality Score:

• Expected Click-Through Rate: Improve through ongoing ad copy testing, the use of relevant keywords in headlines and descriptions, and the implementation of ad extensions that provide additional reasons to click
• Ad Relevance: Ensure close alignment between keyword intent, ad copy messaging, and landing page content--each element should feel like a natural continuation of the previous one
• Landing Page Experience: Optimize for fast loading, relevant content, clear calls to action, and seamless user experience on your website

Budget And Bidding Considerations

The potential for expanded impression volume through dual placement creates important budget management considerations that advertisers should address proactively. Key metrics to watch include impression share at different positions, click-through rate by position, conversion rate by position, and cost per acquisition by position.

If you're looking to optimize your campaigns for better performance, consider reviewing our PPC budgeting strategies to ensure your budget allocation supports dual placement opportunities. For advertisers interested in AI-powered optimization, new tools can help automate bid adjustments and quality score monitoring across large campaign portfolios.

Common Misconceptions About The Policy Change

Despite clear communication from Google about the nature of this policy change, several misconceptions have circulated in the digital marketing community:

Myth 1: Any ad can now appear in both positions. Reality: Eligibility for dual placement is contingent on meeting the quality threshold for top position inclusion. Ads that do not qualify for top positions based on their Ad Rank will not appear in bottom positions either, because the same quality signals that determine top position eligibility apply to bottom position eligibility as well.

Myth 2: Advertisers can now run identical campaigns to dominate a results page. Reality: While dual placement allows one advertiser to appear in both position tiers, there are still practical limits on how many ad slots an advertiser can occupy. The search results page typically displays a maximum of four ads at the top and three ads at the bottom, and these slots are still competed for by multiple advertisers.

Myth 3: This applies equally to all campaign types. Reality: The policy change specifically addresses Search ads on Google Search results pages. It does not apply to Performance Max campaigns, which operate under different auction dynamics, nor does it apply to Display ads, Shopping ads, or other advertising formats. Our guide on PPC tactics for SaaS brands covers how different campaign types should be optimized.

Google has emphasized that this change does not constitute "double serving" in the sense that the policy was originally designed to prevent. The company defines double serving as the practice of showing substantially similar ads from the same advertiser to the same user in a way that manipulates the auction or degrades the user experience.

Sources

1. Search Engine Land - Google Ads to show ads in the top ads position, also in the bottom ads position
2. Search Engine Journal - Google Now Allows Top Ads To Appear At Bottom Of Search Results
3. Google Ads Help - Get your ads to show among top ads
4. PPC Geeks - Google Ads Introduces New Top and Bottom Ad Positions