Adwords position

[SpongeBob]

Here's another thing that's confusing me about my new AdWords campaign - the positioning of my ads. I'll give an example to explain what I mean.

I'm bidding on 'blue widgets'. I do a search for 'Blue Widgets' on my Firefox browser and I appear in 6th place. There are no ads at the top left, just the column on the right and I'm 6th.

I then do the same search from my IE browser and I'm now 3rd. There's also now one ad in the top left, so my ad appears 2nd in the column on the right.

I've just tried it on another search term - I'm 7th on Firefox with no ads shown in the top left. I'm 4th on IE with 2 ads shown at the top left.

Another one - I'm 8th in Firefox with no ads shown on the left. In IE I'm 5th, with 3 ads sown on the top left.

Any idea what's going on?!

[Bud]

SpongeBob - you're worring too much.

Google will place your ads at various positions, roughly alligned to your bid price. For some searches you will be 6th, the next one may be 2nd and then the next one 12th. Overall your average position will be shown in your admin area. ie. Avg Pos 4.7 (you can see you can't actually be placed at position 4.7)

The browser being used won't make any difference.

[SpongeBob]

Originally Posted by Bud SpongeBob - you're worring too much.

Yep! I'm just trying to understand how it all works in practice. So you have to go on what it says in the admin area even though you can't see it yourself?

No, I'd not have thought that the browser made any difference - it just seemed odd that all the searches I tried I appeared better in one than the other!

[kier]

The only real question is.... are you using the sponge bob traffic strategy ??

[Frostie]

Yeah Google tinkers with you add until it beds in properly. You also have to consider the following;

Bob bids on KEYWORD for £1 but has max spend of £10 per day spread evenly
Peter bids on KEYWORD for £0.90 but has max spend of £25 per day spread evenly.

Sometimes Peters advert will appear #1 because Google has decided not to show Bobs, as there isn't enough in his daily allowance to show for every KEYWORD search.

The next time, Peters advert shows as #2 because Google has decided to show Bobs advert.

Also, there is a relevancy factor built in, as to the landing page, CTR's etc etc. But there is nothing to worry about

[tbp]

As the others have said, try not to worry too much about the position, as unless you are paying massive amounts to be in the very first position, its not guaranteed.

Depending on which server you hit, which you have no control over, depends on how the ad's are shown.

Normally, you get 2 or 3 results above the natural listing, and then columns of ad's on the right hand side. However, every so often for the same search you`ll get no ad's at the top of the page, and the ones that were there are shown at the top of the right column, pushing other peoples ad's down. This is largely random really, as theres no way of consistently going to the same server (you could it specifically for yourself, but it wouldn't be any use as no one else would get the same result).

Although positions are obviously fairly important, the most important thing is the results ie sales, and you should move you ad up or down in relation to these, rather than just saying I want to be at position 2 all the time.

Google does have a feature where you can give your desired position, but its not set in stone and results will still deviate from this, over time though you should spend more time at that position, as long as you have paid enough.

[SpongeBob]

The only real question is.... are you using the sponge bob traffic strategy ??

Cool!

Yeah Google tinkers with you add until it beds in properly.

Yep, it is more complicated than when I used to do a bit of PPC years ago on Overture. However, the complexity's good news as it means if you get to know how to get it to work properly for you then you can do really well, whereas others will give it a try and fail or not be able to get such a good ROI. If it was like Overture, where it was simply a matter of how much you bid, it would be hard to compete with people with bigger pockets.

So I'm just trying to experiment and see what works, what I can do to improve the figures, etc. Luckily, I'm managing to do ok with my first attempt, but then I took my time reading up on it and preparing the first campaign before jumping in.

I'm also finding it quite interesting!

[Shane]

Originally Posted by SpongeBob Another one - I'm 8th in Firefox with no ads shown on the left. In IE I'm 5th, with 3 ads sown on the top left. Any idea what's going on?!

yup.. could be down to google's algo tweak that moves ads around the more you search for the same terms .. try using the search preview tool here spongebob - Google Search to see it how a first time searcher will see the ad positions..

the more you search the more google moves the ads around.. the idead being if you didn't click an ad then show you some different ones..