Google Ads to Remove Search Metrics Avg Position
And this is going to happen next month!
What Is Average Position?
But first, what is average position? And how is it differ from Ad Rank? When you’re competing in the Google Ads auction, you’re assigned an Ad Rank based on your bid and your Quality Score. Ad Rank, in turn determines your ad’s position.
It is essentially WHERE your ad is, in the stack of other ads. The ‘position’ of your ad.
Why is Google removing Average Position?
We are a little unsure but can only guess that Google doesn’t think it will be that useful anymore. They have replaced this metric with other metrics…
What now?
Google introduced new metrics that we can use to determine the auction performance of our campaigns:
- Top impression rate this is the percentage of your total impressions that are coming from the top of the SERP (above the organic results).
Top impression rate = Top impressions / Total impressions
- Absolute top impression rate is the percentage of your total impressions that are coming from the very top of the SERP.
Absolute top impression rate = Absolute top impressions / Total impressions
- Top impression share is the rate at which you’re turning opportunities to appear at the top of the SERP into actual impressions at the top of the SERP.
Top impression share = Top impressions / Eligible top impressions
- Absolute top impression share is the rate at which you’re turning opportunities to appear at the very top of the SERP into actual impressions at the very top of the SERP.
Absolute top impression share = Absolute top impressions / Eligible absolute top impressions
Google Ads product manager Pallavi Naresh gave the following rationale for this decision to remove average position:
“These new metrics give you a much clearer view of your prominence on the page than average position does.”
So what now?
“These new metrics give you a much clearer view of your prominence on the page than average position does.”
Firstly, no need to panic or even worry about this change as these new metrics will be more insightful than “average position”, and these new ones will be really helpful in assessing the performance of ad campaigns as it provides more relevant information about the competition.
With this, we need to be more familiarised with automated bidding strategies, like Target impression share.
Heads up, if you are using any kind of automatic rules or scripts, which are referencing ‘avg pos’ in the rule, you will need to update your rule or script.