This is the 5th post in the SEM Beginner Series, following last week's post on dynamic text. This series of posts is intended for new search engine marketing professionals that are looking for guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. Previous posts in this series discussed ad copy, click-through rate (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC).
What Is Position and Why Is It Important?
Position refers to the placement of your ad on a search engine results page (SERP). In the example below, the top 3 ad positions appear above the organic search results and are highlighted in light blue. The ads in positions 4 through 8 appear along the right hand side below the “Sponsored sites” header:
Position is determined by a mix of keyword-to-ad relevancy and your keyword bids; the highest bidder gets the highest position. In the example above, Target.com has the highest bid, KINDSnacks.com has the 2nd highest and so on. Not surprisingly, advertisers typically vie for the top 3 positions in an effort to capture the most traffic, but that strategy may not be feasible for your budget. While the top 3 spots are desirable, many advertisers find they get a much better return-on-investment (ROI) by maintaining a position in the 4th, 5th or even 6th position as the clicks are less expensive.
Position is an important metric to monitor simply because where your ad appears can make the difference of whether users see it (and click on it) or not. You may need to do some testing with different ads in different positions to determine where your optimal placement is for your goals and your budget, but a good rule of thumb is to keep your positioning competitive enough to maintain a spot on the first page of search results.
Position as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
Position is considered a key performance indicator because it can tell you how competitive your ad is in comparison to others. If you’re not bidding enough on your most important keywords, you’ll know it because your ad’s position will be lower. You can do a quick check on your position by monitoring keyword performance with adCenter reports.
Troubleshooting Tips
Now that you understand position, visit the below links for optimization tips and tricks:
Ad Position Best Practices for PPC
Paid Search Bid Concepts and Strategies (Part I)
Paid Search Bid Concepts and Strategies (Part II)
Paid Search Bid Concepts and Strategies (Part III)
Focus On Exact Match
Campaign Optimization Quick Reference Guide
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