Tips For Improving Adwords' Avg. Position

[sn0rt]

As we all know, our Ads' goal in AdWords is to take the first slot. Share some tricks and tips on how to rank as high as possible in AdWords' Avg. Position in our ad campaign.

Reps and Thanks Given for each share..

 

[NikoRoberg]

Hey Sn0rt,

It's pretty simple...
First of all the most immediate change you can make in order to improve your avg. position is to raise the bids on your keywords. But raise it significantly.
It's usually depends on the amount of competitors on that specific keyword, so try and double your bids and check your position again.

Furthermore, improve your general CTR, write better ads, improve your QS. That will also help your position.

Start by raising the bids, it's easy and fast...
Good luck.

 

[sn0rt]

Thanks and Reps given Niko,

I don't actually mind if the Ads get clicked on, I'd actually prefer if they didn't because that way, i'd be able to run the ads for a longer period of time = increasing exposure.

 

[ben10023]

is the avg. position given in the adwords tool anywhere near reliable? I have some ads with literally 10% CTR and QS of 7-8/10 but showing as position 4. On the other hand I have ads with 0.3% CTR showing up as position 1. It seems just as unreliable as WMT average positions..

 

[rick0121]

There's some good guides in the download section on this sort of stuff.

 

[éireóg]

Anyone know of a good free guide for ad words?

 

[LucidMarketing]

I don't actually mind if the Ads get clicked on, I'd actually prefer if they didn't because that way, i'd be able to run the ads for a longer period of time = increasing exposure.

The goal is not exposure, unless you are talking about the content network and not search. Even then, you don't want purely exposure, you want clicks. First because clicks improve your QS which reduces your CPC. Second, because the purpose of advertising is to get people to your store. In the case of PPC, to your site. If they don't click, it means they are not interested and exposure is not going to change that and improve your bottom line. It would be like putting an ad in a newspaper and nobody called or came to your business. You'd get exposure but what did that get you? It means nothing if you can't generate revenues.

 

[LucidMarketing]

I have some ads with literally 10% CTR and QS of 7-8/10 but showing as position 4. On the other hand I have ads with 0.3% CTR showing up as position 1.

This is entirely possible and I've seen it too. Your ad's position is calculated by multiplying QS and bid. QS is a relative measure of how good your CTR is compared to competitors, adjusted for position.

So your 0.3% ad (you don't say the QS) could be very good because other advertisers have done worse. Or it could be because you are bidding so high you get the first position. Maybe there isn't that many competitors because in that particular niche, few were able to get reasonable CTRs and they just quit.

 

[sn0rt]

The goal is not exposure, unless you are talking about the content network and not search. Even then, you don't want purely exposure, you want clicks. First because clicks improve your QS which reduces your CPC. Second, because the purpose of advertising is to get people to your store. In the case of PPC, to your site. If they don't click, it means they are not interested and exposure is not going to change that and improve your bottom line. It would be like putting an ad in a newspaper and nobody called or came to your business. You'd get exposure but what did that get you? It means nothing if you can't generate revenues.

The goal was originally exposure on the search network. I say that because I'm not necessarily selling a product that needs someone to go to my actual site. Exposure was more or less enough; think in terms of coupon codes. If the person used the coupon code, whether or not they actually visited your site, you'd get your money. That is why I was focused on exposure>clicks.

Thank you for the input, thanks and reps given.

BTW, going over your lwm adwords faq now..

 

[daveguy]

Check out Perry Marshel's guide. The best Adwords guide you'll ever read.

Pro tip - put your phone number in your ad. Increases CTR -> higher QS and sometimes ppl just call the number without clicking the ad. It's a win on all fronts.

 

[eazy333]

Increase bids, watch them closely, watch your analytics, put in negative keywords, add keywords, etc, etc. Once you've spent enough time tweaking it you can get amazing results.

 

[LucidMarketing]

Pro tip - put your phone number in your ad. Increases CTR -> higher QS and sometimes ppl just call the number without clicking the ad. It's a win on all fronts.

Instead of putting your phone number in the ad and use up your precious 95 characters of ad space, use the ad extension. That's what it's for.

There's no data really to support people would call just because they see a phone number in the ad. Again the idea is to get people to your site by clicking your ad. Rare is the one that would not be interested and simply call in my opinion just by three little lines.

If the phone number in the ad trick works, it does two things that are bad in my opinion. First is that by not clicking, this affect QS negatively. This makes your ad ranking lower for the same bid. So you'd have to constantly increase bids to maintain position. And you'll get some clicking the ad so your CPC goes up when that happens. The second is that your site is supposed to provide information, virtually free. If they call, you take up some employee's time thus costing you for every call. The employee would likely repeat pretty much what is on the site. If it's a toll-free call, more expenses for the business. I'd rather them click the ad than call me. This way, I can sell/pre-sell them on my service and if they call, it makes it much easier. In fact, most calls convert in my case as they've already made up their mind.