Average Position Sunsetting

Ever since I started with Google Adwords back in 2003 we have had the simple metric which measures your average position on a search page.  Average Position (Ave. Pos.) has been a trusty friend able to explain to my clients exactly where they are on the page on average.  Its simple and it works.

Now Google in their infinite wisdom have decided to remove this metric and replace it with a few other catchy metrics that are sure to confuse everyone.

Impr.(Abs. Top) %: Search top impression rate = Impressions on top/Impressions

Impr. (Top) % Search absolute top impression rate = Impressions on the absolute top/Impressions

Well that’s clear I hear you say, well the diagram below explains what this means.

These are new metrics that you can bid on to improve the location of your ads if you want to either be at the ‘absolute top’ of just amongst the top ads on the page.

There are a few things to look out for now though if you are already running some Adwords campaigns. 

Firstly, if you are using the average position in any reporting tools, rules based bidding or saved filters, then you should revisit this as the data will disappear in the week beginning 30th September 2019.

Secondly, if you have saved column sets or scorecards that use average positions, again these will have to be modified.

Eventually we will get used to this new data set instead of Average position, but take this as a queue to go and check all your reports so you are not left with holes in reports or bidding strategy issues.