The Essential Google Ads Position Metrics You Need to Know

On this page, we’ll discuss the new Google Ads position metrics you can monitor for your campaign and how monitoring these metrics will benefit your business. If you need help monitoring your Google Ads campaign, call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist.

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Understanding how Google Ads work

When you run a Google Ads campaign, you must bid for your ad’s placement. Google calculates the ad rank for every ad in the auction. Your rank is based on five main factors:

• Bid amount
• Quality of ad
• Ad rank thresholds
• Context of search
• Expected impact of ad

These are all important factors that Google takes into consideration when ranking your ad. This will give you your ad position. When you get your ad position, you’re given a number for your ad.

The top performing ad will get a number “1,” which means it is the first ad shown on the page. Each ad after that will receive the corresponding number for their ad position. This is also known as your average position.

It’s important to note how Google’s ad position numbers work. If you get the number one position, it doesn’t always mean that your ad will appear at the top of the results. Sometimes ads will appear at the top of the search results, but the first ad can also fall at the bottom of the page.

Similarly, getting a number two position doesn’t guarantee you’ll appear at the top of the search results. There may only be one ad that appears at the top, so the second position will fall at the bottom of the search results.

This makes it challenging to understand where your business’s ad falls. Even though you know that you have the number two position, you don’t know whether it appears at the top of the search results or the bottom.

And, without knowing the placement of your ad, you’ll fail to see the true impact of your campaign. You may have a campaign that isn’t performing well because the ads are constantly falling below the search results.

With Google’s new metrics, however, you’ll get a better understanding of your campaign’s performance.

Google’s new metrics

There are eight new metrics Google released to help businesses understand their campaigns better. You can find these metrics in your Google Ad’s dashboard. Here are four impression-based metrics you can access for your Google Ad’s campaign.

• Impression (absolute top) percentage: This is the percent of impressions for a given ad that appears first above the organic search results. With this percentage, you will see how often your ad appears as the first ad in the search results. It calculates how many people see your ad as the top results, rather than the number of people that click on it.
• Impression (top) percentage: This is the percent of impressions for your ad that are shown at any point above the organic search results. Whether it’s the first position or the third position, this will count towards this percentage.
• Search (absolute top) impression share: With this impression share (IS) metric, you focus on the number of impressions you’ve received in the very top ad position compared to the number of impressions you could have received in that position. This boils down to the number of people that see your ad divided by the number of people who could have seen it.
• Search (top) impression share: This is the number of impressions you receive in a top location (can be any of the top ad positions) compared to the number of impressions you could receive from an ad.

In addition, there are new metrics that can help you understand why your campaign isn’t performing as well. Here are four metrics you can use to monitor loss on your campaign:

• Search lost top IS (budget): This is the number of missed top impressions due to budget restraints. With this metric, you see how many impressions you missed in any top position because you don’t have a big enough budget to obtain more. It’s helpful for you to see what would happen if you expanded your budget.
• Search lost top IS (rank): This is the number of missed impressions in any top ranking spot due to your Ad Rank. You can see how many impressions you miss because of your ad’s position. This helps you understand how your ad can perform differently in select positions.
• Search lost absolute top IS (budget): With this number, you’ll see the number of missed absolute top (first position) impressions due to your budget. This number helps you see how many top spot impressions you miss because of budget issues or restraints.
• Search lost absolute top IS (rank): This metric helps you see how many impressions you miss due to your Ad Rank. It’s especially helpful if you have the first ad position, but your ad appears as the first ad at the bottom.

These are all the new metrics your business can access to monitor your campaign more accurately. Instead of relying solely on your ad’s number position, you can break down your ad’s performance better by seeing how it actually performs based on the true position.

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How do these metrics help your business?

As you look at these new metrics, you may wonder how they will help your business. Here are three reasons why you’ll want to pay attention to these metrics.

1. You get better insight into your campaign

These metrics help you understand your campaign’s performance. They are extremely beneficial for helping you understand your average position better. You’ll have a more accurate understanding of your ad’s true average position and how it affects your campaign.

Impressions are a big part of running pay-per-click (PPC) ads. When you know how the different impressions affect how many people see your ad versus the number of people that click on, you can better optimize your campaign.

2. You see how well your ads perform on mobile

These metrics help you see how your ads perform on mobile. You’ll see how often your ads appear at the top. This is important to note because 52 percent of PPC clicks come from mobile users.

This is backed by the fact that 46 percent of people can’t tell the difference between PPC ads and organic search results, especially on mobile. Mobile users are more likely to click on the ads because they’re looking for answers fast and the first result seems the most relevant.

When you can monitor your ad position more accurately, you’ll have a better understanding of how you perform on mobile.

3. You can improve your ads

More insight into your campaign means more opportunities to make it better. When you have more accurate metrics to help you monitor your ad’s performance, you have more opportunities to improve your campaign.

These metrics help you see how your ad is performing in different positions. You can see how a number two position at the top of the results and number two position at the bottom of the results will impact your campaign. This information will help you understand how you can improve your campaign to drive better results.

This can be something as simple as changing your ad copy to make it more relevant. More relevant ad copy leads to a better quality score, which is one of the determining factors for your ad position. This leads to a better ad position, which leads to more positive results for your campaign.

These new metrics will help you measure your campaign more accurately, so you can drive more positive results and reach more leads with your Google Ads.

WebFX is a top PPC expert

PPC is a great method to help your business earn valuable leads. If you want to get the most out of your PPC campaign, you need to use the Google Ads position metrics to understand how your ad is performing. At WebFX, we have over 29 years of experience running PPC campaigns that drive results.

We’re a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in customized PPC campaigns. We have a team of 500+ experts that will bring their knowledge and expertise to your campaign. When you partner with us, you’ll get a dedicated team that will help you drive valuable results for your business.

If you want a PPC company that will help your campaign succeed, look no further than WebFX. In the past five years, we’ve driven over $10 billion in sales and over 24 million leads for our clients. You can count on our team of experts to help you create a campaign you’ll love.

Don’t believe us? Just ask our clients! Check out our 1,100+ client testimonials that attest to the great work we do.

Get started today

If you’re ready to start monitoring your Google Ad metrics to produce a better campaign, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist.

We look forward to helping your business reach new heights!