Articles in The 'ad-position' Tag

Is It Worth It To Pay Top Dollar For Your PPC Ads In Google AdWords?

by Anne Garcia

Not sure if the additional spend for your AdWords ad to be placed in a top position is worth it? Are you blindly bidding to be in position one without knowing your ROI? Google AdWords has created a new report called Top vs. side to answer these questions so that you know if it is indeed worth it for your ad to be seen in a top position.

The Top vs. side report can be used to gauge how your ads perform above and to the side of Google search results. You”ll be able see whether the majority of your clicks and conversions are coming from the top or the side positions, and therefore better optimize your ad positioning.

In the past, Google has said that there is a big difference between when your ad appears in position number one above the search results and when your ad appears in position number one on the side. On average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side.

In addition, positions are normally averaged in reports and there is no way to tell how top and side reporting impact the success of an ad. Now, you can see the different metrics from both the top and side ads. 

Note: The Top vs. side report is available under the “Segment” option of the Campaigns, Ad groups, Ads or Keywords tabs in your AdWords account.

What Ad Position Works Best in Search Engine Marketing?

by MoreVisibility

If you ask most companies who are doing search engine marketing what ad position works best, the overwhelming response would be number one.  Companies are always competing to be in top positions and most want to be number one.  However, you have to ask to yourself when doing search engine marketing if ad position one will work best for your company. The proper way to find out is to run some tests. How well do your campaigns perform when you’re at position one relative to positions 3 or 4?  The type of business you have can affect how well you do in certain ad positions as well. It affected a real life furniture company.

A furniture company which we’ll call “The Sofa Company” started out bidding for positions 1-2. They were doing okay, but somehow there was a feeling they could do better. When we targeted ad positions 3-4 their click thru rate increased. What’s the reasoning? Most people when shopping for furniture don’t buy the first piece they see, they do comparison shopping and then buy. “The Sofa Company” did well because by the time people got to them at position 3-4 they were more ready to buy and because the “The Sofa Company” had good prices, they were able to make the sale. This doesn’t work for every company. Other companies only do well when they’re in the top 2 ad positions. Ad positioning has to be explored on a case by case basis. The best way to know is to test. You may be surprised to find that for your particular company ad position 3 works best.