Adwords: Brand ads appear bottom of SERPs
-
Hello,
I'm running a sale promotion on a brand only Adwords campaign (I have the only account with trademark authorization) and have noticed that my ads are appearing at the bottom of the first page on Google.
This happened last week so I split the campaign into three Adgroups and that fixed the problem but today I'm running brand only and there is no way to separate them.
CPC has also increased dramatically. Normally it's less than 10 cents and now it's sitting at between $2-$4.
Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas/advice on how to stop this happening? It's playing havoc with my CTR and conversions.
Much thanks,
Davinia -
Great, thanks for that!
-
The person from Twitter is @LisaSanner. She says:
"My rep noticed AD status was Eligible, not Approved & won't run at top, even if pos=1 (Unlike kw status which is Eligible)."
So, take a look at the ad status, not just the keyword status.
-
That's my question, too: how did this Twitter person determine the "purgatory" status - from their dashboard somehow, or by grilling AdWords rep?
-
Hi Keri,
Status of ads is 'eligible' with quality scores of 10/10 for brand terms (trademarked) and related brand terms (not trademarked).
Any idea how the twitter person established "stuck in eligible status purgatory"?
Thanks,Davinia
-
Hi Stephen,
Have tested using the Adwords 'ad preview and diagnosis' tool as well as logged in and out, removing cache and on different computers - no change, always at the bottom.
-
Someone on Twitter had this same issue, and discovered (after much investigating and initial overlooking by the AdWords staff) that their ads were "stuck in eligible status purgatory" and wouldn't run on top unless fully approved. You might look to see the status of your ads and make sure that's OK.
-
Just a thought - have you tried as both logged in and out? Clearing cache etc?
Maybe querying your own brand causes the ads to display differently - like when you do the same query over and over, Google will hide or change the ads you see
Stephen
-
Wish I had something more to add here, but this is the best answer I've seen. To me it sounds like Google is testing something and it is probably just with a handful of brands. I would be interested if this continues through to next week. But it really does sound like a test to see if people searching for branded terms really don't want to see ads and how hard they will work to get to the ads.
At least no one is beating you?
-
Hi Don,
I don't know what to say.... I can't stop giggling. There is NO WAY you get a better CTR with ads appearing at the bottom of the page. Like you I also have plenty of data to back that up.
This issue continues to occur for one of my clients.
Perhaps consider testing on smartphones only - I'd imagine more people would see the whole first page of results on a smartphone than they would on a desktop. I'd also recommend getting your SEO up to scratch so you are placing top of page for organic listings and Google Places.
Will let you know if I find anything new......but am still scratching my head as well.
Davinia
-
Davinia,
I just finished an AdWords chat session regarding the same thing: ads with no competition appearing at the page bottom, below all organic SERPs. To my utter amazement, the AdWords rep claimed that Google researched and found that - get this - ads placed at the bottom will have a "higher" response due to the "flow" of viewers' browsing. So, my no-competition ads are appearing at the bottom. Not surprisingly, they've received zero clicks in over 150 impressions.
A nearly identical campaign for this client, run exactly one year ago, garnered a 4.4% CTR with the no-competition ads appearing ABOVE the organic SERPs. I tried to get the rep to agree with me that his description of this algo change was counter-intuitive and - based on my results so far - will yield abysmal clickthroughs and profit for Google. He was unmoved.
I also asked him why - if the results of bottom-scraping ads are so good - don't they charge advertisers MORE for the bottom position, rather than the #1 position? He didn't really respond to that.
I finally asked him to ask his supervisor to override the algo and let my ads run at the top of SERPs, as an experiment in performance/profitability. He said that's impossible - "out of our control."
If anyone has any insights regarding this unbelievably bizarre claim that bottom-scraping ads will perform better than those at the top of the page, I'd like to hear them.
-
I just realized checking from here probably won't work unless you're targeting the U.S.
-
I appreciate your time, thanks.
Ads only display in New Zealand so you won't be able to see them, but thanks for the offer of PM anyways.
-
If you haven't upgraded I don't think it would make a difference. If you want to PM me the search query I can check from here and see if I get the same thing. I'm not sure what else to tell you though. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
-
Am using legacy but didn't think this would cause any problems as enhanced is geared towards mobile. But it could very well be the cause?
Keywords are position 1 for all and have viewed placement by 'ad preview and diagnosis' and it still appears at the bottom.
So, I'm stumped!
-
The only major change going on right now that I'm aware of is the move to enhanced campaigns. Did you upgrade your campaigns from legacy to enhanced by any chance? Are you still in position 1 and just appearing at the bottom? Another thing to consider is that it may not be appearing at the bottom for everyone.
-
Hi Zach,
Thanks for your reply.
Quality scores on all keywords are 10/10.
I've been running these campaigns for a year and only seen this twice (both in last 7 days). So am wondering if maybe something has changed with Adwords?
Thanks,
Davinia -
Hi Davinia,
Maybe check the Quality Scores for your keywords and see if you can improve them. I think the quality score column is hidden by default so you might have to go to the keywords tab click on Columns->Customize Columns and it's under Attributes. That's quite a jump so I'm not sure this is the issue but quality scores do affect ad position and how much you pay per click. Better performing ads are more likely to appear at the top but there's no real way to absolutely control whether the ad appears at the top/side/bottom but generally better performing ads get better positioning.
Hope this helps!
Zach
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adword San Francisco Reach number
Hello, I have noticed in Adwords, when I select San Francisco or San Francisco county as a location for the campaign, it shows the reach as 7,220,000 Now I know that reach may be different from census data and depends largely on number of google signed-in users. But this number is waaay of. According to census there are only about 850,000 people in SF county, lets add as much that commute to SF for work, then we still have only 1,700,000 - not even close to 7,220,000 google is reporting. Also note that for the rest of the Bay Area counties the Adwords reach numbers match very closely census data. Any ideas?
Paid Search Marketing | | SirMax0 -
Broad Match Modifier - Adwords Experts
Hi All, Looking for a little feedback from anyone running/managing ppc campaigns. I'm trying to decide if Broad Match Modifier search terms are actually helping. I see many instances where they have a low quality score, high cpc and low CTR. This leads to me think that these terms are actually bringing all my other ads down due to these negative signs. I have most search terms as "Phrase Match" and [Exact Match] so i'm not sure why i need the Broad Match + Modifier terms as well. Looking for some advice from the experts ... Do you guys agree with my assessment and what is your overall opinion on the usefulness of Broad Match Modifier terms. Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Prime850 -
AdWords quality score of landing pages and subdomains popularity
Hello, I have an AdWords account whose landing pages point to (i.e.) http://www.domain.com/landing01.php I've been using this account for ages, it has a good score and history, so I want to keep it. The first question is: may I use landing pages on different subdomains within the same AdWords account (and in the same root domain)? I.E. (http://cheese.domain.com/landing01.php and http://wine.domain.com/landing02.php) 2nd question: the www subdomain has good subdomain metrics (authority /trust and, generally, links) while the "cheese" subdomain has not (no backlinks at all). Do I get any benefit in Adwords (like quality score or other) if I publish my landing pages under a subdomain with better subdomain metrics (or number of links)? Or should I just go with http://cheese.domain.com even it has no authority at all? Thank you, DoMiSoL Rossini
Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL0 -
Does anyone else get a crazy amount of misdials to your AdWords call extension?
Not sure how many people here also do PPC, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Since we added a call extension to one of our AdWords campaigns a few months ago, we have gotten a crazy amount of misdials/wrong numbers. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Here's what happens: We choose one of the numbers we own, say 888-123-4567, and set it up so it displays ADWORDS on the phone's screen when it rings. This way, our customer service and sales reps will know when they are taking an AdWords call. We type that number into the call extension settings. AdWords then assigns a different number to us, which will appear on our ads and forward to our number. Say it's 888-234-5678. Then for months, every "ADWORDS" call we get is someone trying to reach a different company at 888-234-5679 or 888-235-5678. In other words, the number they're trying to dial is one digit off from the number AdWords assigned to us. When we first reported this to AdWords before Christmas, they simply assigned us a new number. It did not help. Now we just get misdials for different companies. So are we alone in this wrong-number phenomenon?
Paid Search Marketing | | CMC-SD0 -
Best method to measure conversions (Adwords)
Hi, I am a new member and fairly new to PPC. I have a service based site (car detailing) and I have been using Adwords for quite sometime now. My primary question is about tracking conversions. I have dedicated landing pages for each one of my ad groups (and some kw specific landing pages). When a potential customer lands on one of my pages - lets say my "car wash" page, they have the option to: Call from that page to book a service (I have a trackable number on that pages) Book online (its a 3rd party booking app with no tracking functionality) Continue to my main site for find out about our other services (I have a few outbound links set up on the page) But, I am running into problems when it comes to conversion tracking. I am not doing any call tracking via Adwords, so what would be the most effective way for me to track conversions? A) Should I set up event tracking in order to count outbound clicks as conversions? B) Should I remove all outbound links from that landing page and use the custom phone number on that page? My fear with this option is that customers may want to see additional services that are on my primary site. Therefore, I don't want to limit them to that landing page only. C) Should I use Adwords call tracking? If I go this route, I would have to decrease my campaign budgets in order to offset the call tracking costs. Or maybe there is another option I should consider that someone with more experience could offer. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
Paid Search Marketing | | Headwurdz0 -
Best AdWords Training?
We want to give some adwords training to some of our internal staff with no prior SEO / PPC knowledge. We want to find: A good comprehensive Adwords reference book and A good beginner's Adwords online training course Any recommendations on some good options for the above?
Paid Search Marketing | | Czarto0