Digital Advertising Operations
AdSense Retired Related Search: ‘No Action Required’ Still Deserves a Revenue Check
The August 6 removal changes page inventory, user journeys, and potentially the economics of former Related Search placements.
Related Search stopped serving and disappeared from the AdSense interface on August 6. Capture a before-and-after baseline for revenue, fill, layout, and engagement because replacement Auto ads may behave differently.
Google retired Related Search for Auto ads on August 6 and removed the option from the AdSense interface. The format generated contextual search terms that took readers to a Google-powered search experience containing ads and site results. Publishers did not need to change settings, but that does not mean the business impact is automatically zero.
Google says remaining Auto-ad formats continue operating and may replace the old slots. That can change what appears, how tall the placement becomes, what users click, and what the page earns. ‘No action required’ is platform language for configuration; it is not permission to send the analytics team for tea indefinitely.
Create a clean pre-change baseline by page template, device, geography, traffic source, and placement. Compare revenue per thousand sessions, viewability, click behavior, ad density, scroll depth, Core Web Vitals, and exits. Watch high-traffic pages separately because blended site averages can hide a painful local decline.
Inspect the rendered experience, not only AdSense reports. Replacement units might technically fill the space while creating awkward gaps, layout shifts, or repeated formats. Confirm consent behavior and test logged-out and low-bandwidth journeys. The slot may be automatic, but the reader’s annoyance is still remarkably manual.