A couple of weeks ago, Google announced some changes to how it defines its ‘top ads’ in Google Search results:
An FYI: To better reflect how ads can appear in Google Search today, we’ve updated the definition of top ads.
Note that this is a definitional change (as ads can appear above the organic result or below for certain queries) and doesn’t affect how performance metrics are…— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 27, 2024
Because ad placements have become more dynamic and can appear in different positions relative to organic search results, Google has changed the definition.
As Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison at Google says, they haven’t changed how the metrics are calculated, just updated the definition and the new definition of ‘top ads’ is:
“Top ads are adjacent to the top organic search results. Top ads are generally above the top organic results, although top ads may show below the top organic results on certain queries. Placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user’s search.”
Subsequently, this changes the definitions of many other things, for example:
- Absolute top ads = the very first of the top ads, so that could be above or below the first organic result(s)
- Prominence = an estimation of an ad’s visibility in the SERP (search engine results page) which is heavily impacted by the ad position and ad format (Text, Responsive, Image, App promotion ads, Video, Product Shopping ads or Call-only ads). For example, a higher placed ad (one placed in the absolute top spot or in one of the top ad positions) in the right ad format, will have more prominence, as it is more likely to be seen by the searcher.
- Top and absolute top metrics = a set of prominence metrics. As Google no longer provides “average position” data like it did back in 2019, we now have to use these prominence metrics to get a sense of where ads are appearing on the page. Metrics include:
- Search top impression rate (Impr. (Top) %) = Impressions on top/Impressions
- Search absolute top impression rate (Impr. (Abs. Top) %) = Impressions on absolute top/Impressions
To get a sense of how ads are appearing, in terms of number of impressions compared to the competition, these metrics are available:
- Search top impression share = Impressions on top/eligible impressions on top
- Search absolute top impression share = Impressions on the absolute top/eligible impressions on top
- Search lost absolute top impression share (budget) (Search lost abs. top IS (budget))
- Search lost top impression share (budget) (Search lost top IS (budget))
- Search lost absolute top impression share (rank) (Search lost abs. top IS (rank))
- Search lost top impression share (rank) (Search lost top IS (rank))
Please note that the last 4 (impression share lost metrics) show an estimate of the percentage of impressions being missed, due to low budget or poor rank.
How to ensure your ads appear in the top ad positions
Even though being among the ‘top ads’, or even the absolute top ad, doesn’t necessarily mean your ad will be at the very top of the SERP for any given search (as it could now appear below organic results), there are ways to optimise your ad campaigns for the best possible chance, and they are as follows:
- High ad rank – improving your ad’s ad rank will help increase its position, and ad rank is based on 6 factors (bid, ad quality and landing page quality (quality score), ad rank thresholds, competition, context, and ad assets and formats)
- High relevancy is very important – ensure ad groups are structured correctly so that keywords can be grouped into lists that are highly relevant to the ad copy they are associated with, which is then very relevant to the landing page used
- Bid competitively as possible (within your allocated budget)
- Test, review, optimise – allow your ads to run for a while and then review their performance and tweak accordingly – make changes to further improve the 3 things listed above
- Target impression share bidding – if being top or absolute top of the ads is the key objective for any given campaign and set of keywords, then you can use target impression share bid strategy to help you achieve that. But always remember that getting the things listed above right (ad rank and relevancy), will make that more achievable and at a cheaper cost.
