Chapter 9 : Creating Effective Ad Groups part 5

One possibility to remember as you strive for the perfect keyword is counterintuitive.
Namely, being lower on the page can deliver better results than top
placement. The point of bidding up a keyword is to attain a higher position.
But there’s some question as to whether a high position necessarily means
better visibility, and there’s even more question about correlated advertising
results. Consider these factors, based on anecdotal experience shared by the
Google advertising community:
 Top-placed ads suffer from drone clickthroughs. Tire-kickers, it’s widely
supposed, veer straight for the top ad and click through it with no intent
to do business. Those determined to find useful information and products
are just as likely to click further down the AdWords column of ads.
Also, determined searchers — who are often the best leads and most
likely future customers — comparison-shop in the AdWords column,
clicking several in succession and examining each landing page.
 Competitive ad-bashing normally targets the top-placed ad. It isn’t particularly
ethical, but when competitors want to drive top-placed ads out
of their lofty position, they click through the ads, driving up costs (and
driving down ROI) for the advertiser. Such hostility is usually not
directed at lower-placed ads. (Google is alert to such ad-bashing and
penalizes those who are caught.)
 Top-of-page ads might not be as visible as ads in the AdWords column.
AdWords ads roll up to the top of the page when 9 or 10 ads qualify for
placement on the page, as shown in Figure 9-7. In those cases, only 8 ads
are placed in the AdWords column. While reaching the top of the page
(where Google used to sell cost-per-impression sponsored links) is an
accomplishment and an honor, there’s some doubt about the effectiveness
of that perch. Google users are accustomed to glancing over to the
right when checking out the ad portion of search results. And “ad blindness,”
in which the viewer disregards top-of-page, horizontal ads, is also
common. (For more on ad blindness, see Chapter 13.)
Here’s an example of a lower placement beating a higher placement. The report
in Figure 9-8 shows the Ad Groups of a campaign. Notice the performance of
the Josh Turner Ad Group. Although its average page position is the secondlowest
of the group, its CTR is the highest, by far.
Notwithstanding everything I say about low positions having certain advantages
over high positions, one aspect of high placement gives it undeniable
value. Google’s extended advertising networks present ads differently from
Google, in ways that dramatically reward the top spot. On AOL Search,
for example, often only a single ad is presented on the results page (see
Figure 9-9), and I have experienced outstanding clickthrough rates on ads
claiming that spot.