The problem is that we haven't once seen our ad in position 2, all day long. We have been reloading the SERP page (on Google, AOL, and Netscape) from multiple IP addresses (not in the same subnet). Furthermore, our average CPC is less than 1/7th of our max bid, and I'd expect that to be much higher if we were fighting a pitched battle for the top position.
Our average position has been constant at 1.4 all day, so it's not like there was a big burst of us in position 2 that we didn't see. Google support has asserted that we are in fact sometimes being bumped to the second position.. but we don't believe them!
Is anyone else seeing anything like this, or had this problem before?
Average Position statistic - we think it is lying to us!
Nerowolfe, the statistics you see in the Avg. Pos column are not estimates - they are an exact report of what actually happened for the date range you are viewing. The Average Position is literally the average of all the positions in which your ad has appeared for the specified date range.
So, if your ad has appeared, say, 1500 times, your position can easily have changed with each impression. It may have shown in literally dozens of postions.
One of our keywords today says it has an average position of 1.4. We have a very high max bid and relatively few competitors, so I am interpreting this as saying that 60% of the time we are in position 1 and 40% of the time we are in position 2.
This is not really a correct way to interpret the stats. You may have appeared in many different positions over the course of the day, which when added together, and then divided by the number of impressions = 1.4.
Also please note that the Average Position is given across all countries in which your ad is appearing. So if you are targeted to more than one country, your ads could appear in very different positions in each country, depending on the competitive landscape in each.
(There are only 4 advertisers including us, and 2 of them are somebody's cheap $0.10 broadmatch terms.)
This is probably not a safe assumption to make. You may have many competitors you have not yet seen, who may be budgeted to show only a few hours in the 24 hour day.
Hope that helps to interpret what you are seeing in your stats. ;)
AWA
It's good to hear that the average CPC is an actual computed value as opposed to just an estimate.
The country targeting was a good suggestion... We're just US targeted but maybe we have some sneaky competitor with a super high regional targeted bid. We'll take your word for it that we are actually in position 1.4 and will keep on looking to see if we can find out who it is that's beating us!
Sadly "averages" are something that everyone knows how to calculate but less understand the limitations of such numbers. At very least you would like to know the range of the numbers i.e. if you were showing up at 1 for some impressions and 10 for others the range is 10-1 = 9
To get an accurate picture you would need a data point for each impression of your ad - time and position. If you had that you could really begin to understand what's happening to your keyword and react accordingly.
Do you think anyone other than the ad sellers have access to this data - even historical data to analyse?
Also please note that the Average Position is given across all countries in which your ad is appearing. So if you are targeted to more than one country, your ads could appear in very different positions in each country, depending on the competitive landscape in each.
Also note that the Average Position is given across all local regions in which your ad is appearing, right?
AWA, would it also be correct to assume that since nerowolfe would not be able to actually view his/her position for local searches that they may in fact be lower in various and numerous regions?
In other words, while nerowolfe may see that his/her position is #1 for his local region, that there is a possibility that his/her position for as many as a dozen or so local regions could in fact be shown in lower positions, (e.g., 2nd in one region and 4th in another and then 3rd in yet another and so on and so on)?
I just want to know if my thoughts on this issue are correct.
Thank you.
In other words, while nerowolfe may see that his/her position is #1 for his local region, that there is a possibility that his/her position for as many as a dozen or so local regions could in fact be shown in lower positions, (e.g., 2nd in one region and 4th in another and then 3rd in yet another and so on and so on)?
Exactly correct.
There are many advertisers who only do geo targeting. Unless you can see every geo location, you don't know your position in every city, country, etc.
If you want to view the results for another country simply add this to the end of the search result url.
add &gl=us
you can change the "us" to and other country code (e.g. "de" for germany)
