adwords on top-center or top-right

[cartone]

Hi,
This must be my first post.

I'm in the touristic sector and I want to be competitive as an owner of 1 renting-house next to the big boys who rent 400 houses of other people.

My question: Some ads are shown on top of the Google-page in first position. Other searches only show ads on the right (8 ads in line) side of the page.

Does that make a difference in bussines: first (or second) place in centre or first (or second) place on the right.

[pmkpmk]

The top-center position is supposed to be the "premium" spot. However, from several discussions here, and in questions I asked "average" and even "laymen" web users, I came to the conclusion that the top-right is actually much better than the top-center, since top-center often seems to hit a "blind spot" in the web-surfers eye. Some even postulate, that #2-right is the best spot to be since visitors are reluctant to click on #1 results when ads are concerned.

No hard facts though, just distilled from discussions and personal experience.

So if I end up for one keyword in top-center, I reduce the PPC for that keyword so that I end up top-right. This often results in NOBODY being in top-center, which is just as well to me.

[edited by: pmkpmk at 11:32 am (utc) on Jan. 7, 2005]

[cartone]

Thank you, just what I needed to know.

I did a test on a popular search-word and found out that beeing on #3 cost me 0,7€ but beeing #1 top-center costs 3,05 €.

[pmkpmk]

Price - of course - is another issue. The lower you get, the cheaper it is. For some less competitive keywords I gladly leave #1 or even #2 position to my competition, knowing it will cost them.

Instead, I concentrate on good copy (= ad text) and rotating ads.

If I have understood the process right, your PPC is only ONE part of the equation, the CTR being equally important. So a low PPC and a high CTR can give you a better position even when paying less.

In the end, it's the money in Googles pockets that counts. And if you have a low PPC but a steady CTR they'll like you more than a high PPC with virtually no CTR.

btw: Welcome to Webmaster World!