Google Ad position Metrics — Let’s Think Outside the Box

Is there a more misunderstood metric in paid advertising than ad position?

What seems like a straightforward concept actually throws a curveball that many novice marketers struggle to handle. Many are misled by it, often because they place too much importance on what they think it means, and then they end up making poor decisions on that supposed knowledge.

Being able to break the Google ad position metrics down gives marketers a much better understanding of what ad position really is. However, Google Ads only allows for so much analysis, limiting how far you can dive into the data.

PPCexpo has opened the door to new possibilities, showing marketers how to visualize google ad position metrics, and what they can learn about its impact on your campaign.

Let’s see how this can change the fortunes of your ads.

Understanding the Basics of Ad Position

Ad position is the order of your ad in the auction results as compared to other ads. For example, an ad position of “1” means an ad was the first ad shown, with no other ads ahead of it. An ad position of “2” was the second ad shown, and so on.

Google calculates Ad rank by considering factors like keyword bid, quality score and other undisclosed factors, ultimately rewarding higher-quality ads with a better ad position. The key thing to note is that ad position is weighted according to the ad’s impressions in each position.

A Higher Position is Typically Better

There is a relationship between a higher ad position and a higher click-through rate (CTR). Furthermore, a higher CTR tends to result in higher conversion rates. With that being the case, an ad that has an ad position in the top positions will most likely have a much higher conversion rate than an ad further down the page.

While you can spend more to get more clicks, this may be futile, especially if you have a low-quality score. In this case, the cost per click (CPC) would be higher, meaning you won’t be able to muscle your way to the top just by throwing money at the campaign.

A Higher Position isn’t Always Better

It is because of this correlation between ad position and your CPC that gaining the #1 spot should not always be a top priority for your campaign.

Many marketers have other goals besides being on top. Let’s say you are more focused on generating a good return on investment (ROI), or your aim is to acquire reasonably priced leads. In either case, spending more to hold the top spot may be detrimental to your overall goals.

The Problem with Analyzing Ad Position:

Top and absolute top metrics are a set of prominence metrics. Prominence metrics, give you a sense for your ads’ location on the page. You can use these metrics to understand changes in clickthrough rate (CTR) caused by a change in the location of your ads on the search result page.

• Search top impression percentage
• Search absolute top impression percentage

You can pull in other key metrics like SearchExactMatchImpressionshare, SearchRankLostImpressionShare, SearchRankLostTopImpresionShare, etc which will provide data on which position your ad was in throughout the segment period what percentage you received and what you lost

While this is useful information, it could always be better.

Ad Position Analysis in Google Ads

PPCexpo has managed top impression % in a very effective way. You can make an analysis on it with different measures especially in case of wasted spend you can get the idea of how much is being wasted even you getting the top positions or not.

After this analysis and calculation which provides marketers with deeper insights into what is really happening with their ad position.

It would be difficult to discover this pattern, you can have side by side current vs. previous analysis. You can get a better idea of how much your ads who are appearing on top positions still wasting your money. Google Ads ad position dimensionality analysis doesn’t just visualize the data, it also provides marketers with the information they need to make smarter decisions about their campaign.

Ad Position Bucketing w.r.t Top Imp.%

You can understand Top Imp% groups according to their ad position, with buckets 0% to 100% covering all SERP positions on the lower positions on-page to the higher position.

You can generate multiple reports on your account through PPCexpo Reporting Tool. These reports allow you to identify which buckets are performing well, and moreover, which buckets are underperforming. With these insights, you can decide how to adjust the ad position.

The Bottom Line on Ad Position Analysis with PPCexpo

You may just discover that you need to reduce your keyword bids to get to a lower ad position. Such a strategy may have seemed anathema to you before you knew how to visualize the ad position analysis.

Conversely, the more knowledge you gain from using Ad Position dimensionality analysis and the Ad Position Bucketing may make you see that you should focus on increasing your quality score so that your Ad position improves.

Wrap Up:

Every PPC advertising account will be uniquely different, but by developing a deeper understanding of ad position and how its data relates to other key metrics in your campaign, you can make better decisions. Google Ads position metrics are the key indicator that gives you an exact idea of how are your ads are performing on SERP.