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How Prominent Are Your Google Ads?

Ever have a customer that has insisted on being number one in the search results? Yes, we’ve all had them – and seen their budget evaporate fast. We often use the Average Position metric to report back on performance.

But not anymore, Google Ads has just announced their intention to sunset Average Position later this Fall. How are we going to manage campaigns and report back to these customers?

Google Ads has the answer with a new set of metrics introduced in Fall 2018. The new Prominence Metrics help better explain how well campaigns are performing in the objective to be number one.

The four new metrics are:

  • (Absolute Top) % – the percentage of ad impressions where campaign ads were in the number one position.
  • (Top) % – the percentage of ad impressions where campaign ads were above the organic results.
  • Search (Absolute Top) IS – impressions of your ads in the number one position divided by the total number of eligible ad impressions in the top position.
  • Search (Top) IS – impressions of your ads above the organic results divided by the total number of eligible ad impressions above the organic results.

The Difference Between Absolute Top & Just Plain Top

screenshot of SERPs

The Absolute Top is what we really understand to be the number one position. It’s the first ad that you see above the organic search results.

Top, on the other hand, is any position above the organic reach results. Visually, you can see this difference in the image above.

The End of Average Position

As Campaign Managers, we’re really comfortable with Average Position. We’ve been talking about it for years and we’ve educated and explained it to our customers. So why would we want to change?

The new metrics give a more accurate view on what is happening. With Average Position, we can actually be in the number one place and have an ad at the bottom of the page if there are no ads shown above the organic! That’s not what our customer was expecting.

We can also now have a better more informed conversation with the customer. Rather than looking at a statistic that tells them their campaigns were in position 2.3; we can provide a number that tells them they were in the absolute number one position for 36% of ad impressions. Now doesn’t that tell a different story?

We can then explain how, with careful and judicious use of their budget, they are still in number one position for a significant amount of their impressions, making us look like a hero.

Coming Soon to the Acquisio Platform

Prominence Metrics may sound too good to be true, but they are coming. We want to make it possible for you to use them and provide their value as soon as we possibly can.

To that end, we’re busy working away to provide access to the new Prominence Metrics within the Acquisio platform. As soon as we have them, you’ll be able to take advantage and begin updating your ReportCenter reports and column selections in the ClientCenter and Workbench.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

 

Image Credits

Feature Image: Unsplash / Joshua Earle
Image 1: screenshot of Google SERPs taken by author, February 2019.

Richard Beck

Richard Beck

Acquisio's AdPlatform Product Manager, Richard has over 10 years experience in digital Product Management and Marketing across various industries in multiple countries. Prior to working at Acquisio he brought innovation to Yellow Pages Canada, Aptilon and StepStone SA.

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