Google announced in February of this year that average position was going to be removed from the interface. Well, the time is near as they’ve officially announced this metric will be removed starting the week of September 30th.
It’s important that each advertiser reviews current reporting and automated rules using this metric in preparation for its sunset. As a result of this change, the following will be disabled:
- Rules using average position
- Custom columns using average position
- Saved reports that filter on average position
- Saved filters with average position
If you are still using average position to evaluate performance, it’s time to start getting familiar with the metrics that can be used to improve ad placement: Search top impression rate and Search absolute top impression rate.
Search Top Impression Metrics
Search top impression share is the impressions you’ve received in the top location (anywhere above the organic search results) compared to the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
Search absolute top impression rate is the percent of your ad impressions that are shown as the very first ad above the organic search results.
To understand why you might be losing impression share, there are additional metrics you can add to your reports:
- Search lost top impression share (budget) helps you to understand how often your ad didn’t show anywhere above the organic search results due to a low budget.
- Search lost absolute top impression share (budget) estimates how often your ad wasn’t the very first ad above the organic search results due to a low budget.
- Search lost absolute top impression share (rank) estimates how often your ad wasn’t the very first ad above the organic search results due to poor Ad Rank.
- Search lost top impression share (rank) estimates how often your ad didn’t show anywhere above the organic search results due to poor Ad Rank.
You can also create bid strategies to target a specific top or absolute top impressions share percentage.
Have you made the switch from using average position to report on ad performance? Are you ready for that metric to be removed? Let us know in the comments below!
