How do you get your ads to display at the top of the search listing, as opposed to the left-side? Is it just a matter of higher bids and better quality score, or something else?
The top spots just count as normal placement spots at the top of the list, so if there are two spots at the top and eight on the right for example, the top two will be positions one & two, and the ones on the right will be positions three through to ten. Your ads only become eligible for placement in the top spots however once they have gone through the manual review process, which can take anything up to a week.
Not correct... I've had new ads "blue bannered" (or now, yellow bannered) within a few minutes of submitting the ads. The ads in the top banner are chosen based on bid, quality score, relevance, and click through rate compared with other advertisers. Not all keywords will have ads on the top banner if they don't meet the minimum bid or CTR (determined dynamically by Google, I believe).