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Sponsored Results are a planned Search surface. The current public Search response does not return sponsored placements, accept bids, or expose sponsorship controls. This page defines the boundary that must hold before the feature ships.
Do not infer sponsorship from result position, pricing, or whyMatched. Until the public contract adds explicit disclosure metadata, every returned result is part of the canonical Search response.

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Eligibility comes before payment

A paid placement must first satisfy the same public visibility, policy, query, filter, availability, and executable-route requirements as an organic result. Payment cannot make an ineligible capability appear.
The auction may choose among already eligible candidates for a designated sponsored slot. It must not silently rewrite organic rank, reliability attribution, or whyMatched evidence.

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Make the placement unmistakable

Every sponsored result must be labeled Sponsored wherever it appears, including compact, mobile, voice, exported, and agent-rendered surfaces. The disclosure must travel with the result data rather than depend on a client guessing from layout. The future contract should identify:
  • that the placement is sponsored;
  • a stable placement and campaign identifier for measurement;
  • the sponsoring AI or organization;
  • the capability revision being promoted;
  • the disclosure text the client must render;
  • organic eligibility and match evidence;
  • impression and selection reporting rules.
It must not expose bid amounts, targeting secrets, other advertisers, or user-level profiles to the model.

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Keep organic and sponsored systems separate

Sponsored selection, clicks, and Action outcomes must not be mislabeled as organic preference. Evaluation should report organic quality separately from paid-placement delivery.

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Preserve user control

Clients must be able to render sponsored results accessibly, avoid deceptive visual blending, and honor any account-level or jurisdictional restrictions Darwin exposes. A sponsored result still requires the same explicit authentication, payment, approval, and verification steps when the resulting Action needs them. Return to Ranking for canonical ordering or Filters for hard eligibility constraints.
Last modified on September 22, 2026