Question on an experiment I'm running

[johninbrooklyn]

Hello -

I have run the same ad on Google for over 6 years now. Yes, that's right. 6 years. I've had the top spot for my keyword match for 6 years. Recently, I decided to experiment with placement on AdWords to see if the #1 placement worked that much better than the #2 or #3. So I lowered my CPC about 25 cents and then went into Placements and set AdWords to show my Ad no higher than the #3 spot. Here's where it gets weird.

My CTR stayed almost the same. My conversion rate stayed almost the same. And my CPC went way down. So that's the good news. The bad news is that my # impressions for this keyword was cut 50% by Google. Before they would show my ad 1000 times a day. Now they only show it 500 times a day for the same keyword. Traffic on this keyword has held steady for many years now.

I cannot figure out why AdWords has decided to only show my ad 50% of the available time. I know my bid is much higher than some of the garbage bids that take up the #7 and #8 spots. My Quality Score is "Great" so that shouldn't be the problem.

Thanks.

John in Brooklyn

[AussieWebmaster]

are you using conversion tracker? was iy broaf matched? possibly they have dropped some of that non converting expanded matches... there ys code you can use in GA that tells the actual terms that are matched... great for negatives

[johninbrooklyn]

It's actually an [exact] match. The ad has a high CTR and the quality score on the keyword is 8/10. If I bump up the bid to $1.00 then Google reports about 1000 impressions for this keyword. If I drop it to 50 cents, then it only reports 500 impressions. I know for certain that some of the ads being shown in #7 or #8 are only bidding 10-15 cents so it doesn't make sense they would just quit showing my ad as many times.

[AussieWebmaster]

once you drop the bids Google shares impressions to maximize income so some have to be bidding well

[searchengineman]

Sounds like you're having an Ad Coverage problem. Look up Richard Stokes of ADGOOROO. His new book talks about the problem in depth. They studied the problem with brute force, looking at 1000's of Ads and activity on Google, and were able show how only a few players were getting 100% coverage, the rest were getting 50% or less.

If I would make a request to Google that AD coverage be included as an indicator along with quality score (Hint Hint Adwordsrep!)

Searchengineman

[MarketingMind]

My take as you have imposed position preference to show ads not higher than #3, one need to account into fact that Google impression share constitutes of all search and content network. Presuming this only search targeted campaign, then we need to consider these ads would be shown on various search entities having varied layout (search result arrangement) and those could significantly reduce your impressions.

Though I would be in agreement it shouldnt have resulted in slash of 50%.

[johninbrooklyn]

I'm running the ad only on the Google Search network - not content and not partners. I'm going to adjust my bid in $0.10 increments per week and see what happens. Fortunately my ROI is very good on this ad group so I can easily afford it.

[Show Me Cables]

This is very interesting because this is very similar to something I did today.

In your post you say that you are only curious about the placement:

I decided to experiment with placement on AdWords to see if the #1 placement worked that much better than the #2 or #3. So I lowered my CPC about 25 cents and then went into Placements and set AdWords to show my Ad no higher than the #3 spot.

Why, then, did you not just adjust the placement to #2 or #3 and leave the bid alone? Your experiment has two variables not one, so it might be hard to determine which is causing the drop in impressions.

If you had left the bid the same but reduced the position preference, do you think Google would have automatically reduced the CPC without the reduction in impressions?

My guess would be that the answer is yes, but I'm quite new to this.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by johninbrooklyn

...So I lowered my CPC about 25 cents and then went into Placements and set AdWords to show my Ad no higher than the #3 spot....

Take the Placement setting off and let the ad float. See if that fixes the impression problem. Also, remember that you have no real way of knowing how your ad competes *over the entire geography* in which it's targeted. It could easily be dropping of the first page for some searches. That would zing the impressions.