the art of mastering adwords position preference

[cyberworkspace]

well, i have tried a lot of variants by now but i still have not figured out how to play adwords "position preference"-option in the way it would exactly deliver what i want.

naturally, i can pretty much control and finetune where my ad is positioned if i change my cpc step by step and watch the resulting positions closely. this is sometimes a lengthy process, as competitors readjust their bids as well, sometimes outbidding me so that i have to tweak the cpc a bit again.

i hoped, that all of this could be solved by activating "preferred positioning" by e.g. setting "position 4" with a cpc that previously brought me into position 3.

now things start to get fucked up.

without defining a "preferred position" my ad would jump e.g. between position 3 and 4 each time i refresh the search results.

however, once i activate "preferred positioning" for position 4, my ad is not showing up at all anymore.

if i set the range to position 3-4, the ad is showing up 50% of the times in position 3 or 4 and 50% of the time not at all.

if i set the position to 1-4 everything is just working fine again, only that the position is 50% position 3 and 50% position 4.

anyone experiencing the same erratic behavior? i don't want to get into the sponsored results box on top of the search results and i want to have an automatic bid to keep position 4. but i can't get it going reliably in adwords.

 

[indeliblemind]

I've been told by Google that Position Preference really only works to stop your ad from showing below a certain position, not above. They said due to the Quality Score algo, they can't effectively stop your ad from moving up.

So, when you set your position to 3-4, the half your losing is when your ad technically ranks in 1 or 2 (even if that's not what you see when you search). Likewise, the algo calculation doesn't end in a nice round rank number, so when you specify just 4, you don't technically match anything so your ad never shows.

 

[cyberworkspace]

I've been told by Google that Position Preference really only works to stop your ad from showing below a certain position, not above. They said due to the Quality Score algo, they can't effectively stop your ad from moving up.

So, when you set your position to 3-4, the half your losing is when your ad technically ranks in 1 or 2 (even if that's not what you see when you search). Likewise, the algo calculation doesn't end in a nice round rank number, so when you specify just 4, you don't technically match anything so your ad never shows.

that actually makes a lot of sense. at least it is a good explanation for the erratic behavior i experienced.

it is very frustrating though, as for me spot 4 would be the definite place to be in and yet there is so much trouble to get that position.

 

[indeliblemind]

Its probably tough because that position works well for a number of people. Can I ask why you don't want to be in the top 3? is it cost? branding? Conversion?

You might try setting the position preference at 1-4, and start bidding down until you see a dip in traffic. Then bid one step back up and you should have a lock on 4. That's worked for me in the past.

 

[cyberworkspace]

Its probably tough because that position works well for a number of people. Can I ask why you don't want to be in the top 3? is it cost? branding? Conversion?

the issue is the conversion rate.

for those particular keywords, i am receiveing for position 1-3 three times as much clicks as if i would be in position 4. my ctr goes up from 4% to 10%. however, conversions drop dramatically, as i almost even never get a conversion in spot 1-3 but some conversions in spot 4 to 5.

i couldn't believe it at first myself, but then i realized that it might be connected to the fact that i am promoting a product for people that are at least a little bit tech svvy and hence might clearly know that if they click an entry on the right side they click an ad. a click on one of the top 3 sponsored search results however happens almost by accident and would not necessarily mean that the customer intended to go into buy mode.

You might try setting the position preference at 1-4, and start bidding down until you see a dip in traffic. Then bid one step back up and you should have a lock on 4. That's worked for me in the past.

yeah, thats what i tried before, but i guess i was too impatient as i could not believe that the system is so unpredictable

i will do this now, but i see trouble coming up, as one of my main competitors seems to have dropped out and now there are only two other ads in the top spots so it seems pretty likely that i will rank in as third no matter what i do.

lol, i never imagined that i ever would get into the trouble of having a too high quality score

 

[indeliblemind]

You might be caught in a niche that has a bunch of shoppers. People like to click a few times, then buy. That said, I find it's the corner position (top of the right hand ads as you mentioned) that is valuable. So competitors leaving and reducing the number of listings at the top might be the best thing for your position problem.

Good luck!

 

[cyberworkspace]

40 cents, position 4.
41 cents position 2.

now this time i need position 3, as there are only 2 spots on the left side, position 1 and 2.

for 41 cents i get promoted to top results, for 40 cent my ad seems to be a bit to bad for spot 3

this is wicked.