Average position varies throughout day

Possibly caused by new broad match

[seasalt]

I have primarily used exact match and enjoyed pretty stable ad positions, until recently.

Like many here, my specific, targeted keywords are being infiltrated by ads created by the new broad match.

One phenomenom I have noticed is that in the earlier part of the day, my ads are generally in positions 5 - 7. But in the afternoon, some ads drop out and I move to positions 2 - 4 (where I was before broad match, btw).

I'm guessing the new broad match is burning through some advertiser's budgets rather quickly in the day, so their ads are not served for the rest of the day, and everyone moves up.

If this is the case, it's kind of annoying to have the average position change so drastically over one day.

My basic concern is how this affects the CTR X CPC formula. In the morning, my CTR is low because of the lower postion. Anyone see a problem with pausing certain AdGroups earlier in the day and then resuming them around noon to maintain a higher CTR?

seasalt

[eWhisper]

If you play this right, you might really come out ahead. If you can pause your campaign when you're ads are low, then resume them when they are higher, and overtime get a higher CTR than all your competitors, you can bid a lot less and still have the number one position.

The one problem with AdWords, is if you can get into the number one position (and have a good ad) your CTR will be higher than your competitors, and if you can maintain this CTR, you'll keep the number one position or force people to ajust their bids significantly to try to topple you, which will cause them to lose money (assuming everyone is working with about the same profit/sale).

Conversely, if you ad is low, you'll get such a low CTR that trying to move up the ranks to the number one position can be almost impossible, even with good ad copy, as it's displayed too low on the screen.

This causes a cyclical nature in some ad categories of number one's stay number one and the others shuffle around based on bid prices.

[ferfer]

It seems that CTR ranking is at least partially reset overnight, this meakes me loose traffic in the morning until I get back to top. In tennis the ranking is partially reset every year (not sure), In Adwords they seem to do tis every day, may be would be better to reset every week.

Fer

[eWhisper]

From what I understand, CTR is never 'reset', its always based on the last 1000 views on G itself (partner sites don't count for CTR formula in determining position).

[vibgyor79]

Is there a big difference in the CTR of your keywords while your avg position keeps varying through the day?

>>> Anyone see a problem with pausing certain AdGroups earlier in the day and then resuming them around noon to maintain a higher CTR?

Would recommend this ONLY if you are only a tight daily budget. If Google is not delivering your daily budget clicks, then leave it alone.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Just noticed this thread, and in particular the posts from ferfer and eWhisper regarding CTR being 'reset'.

I've just posted some info on this same topic in another thread, which is right here:

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