Important changes to Matched content

Starting March 1, 2022, Matched content units will only show ads and be renamed to "Multiplex ads".

We originally launched Matched content as a recommendation service to help you promote your content to your site's visitors. It also came with the option to show ads alongside the links to your content.

Due to decreasing usage of the content promotion service, and positive customer feedback and performance results from the ads-only Matched content ad format, we've decided to turn down the content promotion service and convert all existing Matched content units to only show ads. This also applies to Matched content units that have the "Monetize with Ads" option turned off.

What you need to do

You don't need to do anything if you're happy for all of your Matched content units to only show ads starting March 1, 2022. Otherwise, you need to remove the Matched content code from your pages before this change happens.

Other changes

Alongside the format change, we're making the following changes:

• Rebranding Matched content to "Multiplex ads", to align with the ad format that's available on Google Ad Manager.
• Removing the eligibility restrictions that currently apply to Matched content. The new format will be available to all AdSense publishers.
• Removing the Sites Matched content page from the AdSense interface.
• Updating the Matched content unit editor to show the new ads-only format.
• (Lab participants only) Turning off the ads-only Matched content AdSense Lab and marking it as retired.

Thank you for helping us improve Matched content.