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
-
Running Google Ad Grants? How Much Is Your Monthly Spend?
Hi all - here's a question for everyone running Google Ads through the Ad Grant. How much of the $10,000 available to your account per month do you actually end up spending? I'm trying to see if I am in line with others in the industry. Would you mind sharing with me the type of nonprofit and the amount you're able to spend of the grant per month, on average? Thank you!
Paid Search Marketing | | newwhy0 -
Finding Average Session Duration for AdWords Campaigns
Happy Holidays Mozzers! Does anyone know how to view 'Average Session Duration' for AdWords campaigns? I can't seem to be able to add it within the AdWords platform and when i try and view it on Analytics, the #/visits isn't matching the #/visits I see when I try and review the campaign via AdWords. Any help on this issue would be great! Thanks for reading!
Paid Search Marketing | | maxcarnage0 -
Adwords and Analytics Conversion Tracking within Adwords
I am trying to decide whether to setup conversion tracking in Adwords using the website/page as a source, or Analytics. I do understand the (basic) difference, however in tossing up the pro's and con's of each I would be grateful for some input. The advertiser is in the (offline) retail and service industry and so conversions being tracked include completing a form, making a booking etc - so it is no problem to implement the tracking snippet. My gut instinct is that Analytics is not as accurate as a reflection as the webpage (due to the way it records only the last conversion). Would it be a mistake to use both? (my concern is that double clicks will be recorded)
Paid Search Marketing | | E2E0 -
Session and conversion data missing from AdWords campaigns in Analytics
Hi all, For a client of ours, we're not seeing session & conversion data for AdWords campaigns in Analytics. We are seeing click & cost data. Adwords and Analytics are linked and autotagging is enabled. The site where we're experiencing this problem is www.maxifleur-plantes-artificielles.fr. It's a Magento-based store with the Web Cooking Universal Analytics extension installed. The bulk of AdWords traffic is landing on the page www.maxifleur-plantes-artificielles.fr/plantes-artificielles, which has no active redirects that could remove the ?gclid parameter for as far as I can tell. Yet, click IDs that I manually tested won't show up in the reports either. Mid April, all traffic aside from direct traffic just disappeared from the reports. Google's Tag Assistant gives a lot of errors, but in the source code the snippet looks just fine and we don't have problems with other web shops that use the aforementioned extension. Suggestions as to what could be the problem are most welcome. Thanks! Bas
Paid Search Marketing | | Evoworks0 -
Changing Domains - Will a 301 redirect be looked unfavourably for my Ads?
Hey All, So over the next few weeks we are switching over a clients domain to a new one. Each of the old pages on the old domain will have a 301 redirect to it's new contextual page (with the same content). My question is this, we currently have multiple PPC campaigns running for this client and the ads are pointed towards the old domain so the ads will redirect over to the new domain. My question is this, will Adwords look at this redirection unfavourably? If so, then I will have to duplicate each ad (100's of ads) with a new destination URL (since if I edit the current ads they will lose all past performance history). Obviously for branding I'm going to have to probably change the display URL eventually but for now I'm looking at the BIG issues that could occur. I would normally call Google and ask this question but I don't want them to flag anything in my account just in case this is looked unfavourably. Thanks! Jon
Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt0 -
Will Google penalize a text ad if the display URL goes nowhere?
Today I had a colleague ask me if Google Adwords will penalize text ads that have display URLs that land on 404 pages. I fully understand the policy that the domains in display URLs and destination URLs have to match up or Google will disapprove the text ad. However if the display url contains the proper domain (and a target keyword phrase for a file folder) will Google penalize the text ad quality score if the display URL lands on a 404? I had trouble finding specific evidence for this.
Paid Search Marketing | | VanguardCommunications0 -
Anyone Think AdWords Campaigns Hurt Organic CTRs, Decreasing Organic Rankings?
Hi All, It seems like just about everyone agrees that AdWords campaigns and SEO campaigns bring additional value when used in conjunction (increasing Impressions, Clicks, Conversions, etc.), but has anyone considered AdWords performance harming organic rankings by decreasing engagement metrics? I've been searching for studies, blog posts, investigations, etc. this morning and haven't been able to find anyone discussing this specific idea. Personally, I think decreased engagement for organic results would be relatively evenly distributed among those results, making engagement drops relative and thus nullifying their impact on rankings. Any other ideas out there? Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | mac22330 -
Social Ad Extensions
Hello everyone. I was recently reviewing the potential of social extensions for PPC ads. Can this extension include a snapshot of Google places reviews? Have your found that using social extensions increase click through rate? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | PeteW0