Increased number of ads displayed - how long has this been?

[francesca]

I have stopped using adwords for more than 2 weeks and when I activated my campaigns again, I noticed that there are more ads shown on the right. Has it always been showing 8 ads even before and I just haven't noticed it till now?

Im quite sure that there were fewer ads shown on my key terms before. Since I only bid the minimum amount, the increased ads for my terms will surely decrease my CTR.

[buckworks]

Adwords shows up to eight ads in the search results, and will even flow onto subsequent pages if enough people are bidding. If you were seeing fewer than that before, there probably were fewer bidders active at that time.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Even more info: any number of advertiser can advertise on the same keyword - and the ads are shown 8 per page.

For example, if 20 advertisers are using the keyword "slightly bent widget", ads 1 through 8 will be on the first page, 9 through 16 on the second page, and 17 through 20 on the third page.

Also, it is quite possible that the number of ads will not always every time you search. This is because some advertisers chose a daily budget lower than that required for their ad to show every time. As a result, there will be portions of the day in which their ads won't appear.