adwords at top of page

i started adwords a couple weeks back and my ads now appear along the top of the page instead of on the right hand side. I though the top 2 banner bars were reserved for custom ads like ebays. i haven't done anything to be put there!?! can anyone explain this?

You don't need any special status to see your adwords appearing in the color bar above the SERPs. You just need to be high bidder and be relevant.

On some keywords I will be bidding five cents and my ads will be at the top of several on the right side of the SERPs (and the colorbar atop of the SERPs will be missing).... at other times my ad will be in the colorbar above the SERPs. In that situation it seems that a high relevance will get you above the SERPs - this happens for me when the top line of my adwords is the exact search term.

I would prefer that my ad stays on the right because I am usually topSERPs for these minor terms. However, I still run adwords on these terms because I know that many people are attracted to the colored ads.