New to Adwords - Ad Position?

[someone788]

Ok, I am thinking about using adwords to help generate a little extra traffic to my site, and I have a fairly small budget.

On the traffic estimator, it shows one of my keywords as 3.2 for Avg. Position. Does this mean that it will be shown as the 3rd advertisment on the first page, the second advertisement on the third page, or something different...? I've looked around the google help links, but didn't find anything useful, help would be appreciated as to where a 3.2 positioned ad would occur.

[jtara]

Between the 3'rd and 4'th positions on the first page.
Obviously, it has to be one or the other, but this is just a synthetic number based on an estimation formula, so they display the decimal point and fraction to help you determine if you are getting better or worse. I think it's useless for that purpose, though, because there is apparently some randomness thrown in either to simulate reality or just to frustrate us (or, most likely, as with most Google oddities - because some techie who has no idea of the real world thought it would be neat, but didn't realize that it's useless...)

[AdWordsAdvisor]

someone788, it's worth mentioning that what the traffic estimator is giving you are rough estimates of your potential position, per keyword, intended to give you a place to start.

On the other hand, if you should decide to start advertising with AdWords, the statistics you'll see in your account are not estimates. Rather, they are a factual accounting of your actual average position, per keyword.

So, once you start advertising, your actual account statistics should always take precedence over what you see in the traffic estimator.

Just to further explain average position, here's how it works:

Let's say your ad has appeared three times, and it's shown once in 3rd position, once in 2nd position, and once in 5th position. Your average position, therefore, is 3.3

(3+2+5=10, and 10 divided by 3 = 3.3)

Makes sense?

AWA

[someone788]

Ah I see, thanks, it does make sense. I understand that they are just estimates, but to someone new to adwords and still experimenting with it, it's better than nothing ;)

[inbound]

Ah I see, thanks, it does make sense. I understand that they are just estimates, but to someone new to adwords and still experimenting with it, it's better than nothing ;)

I wouldn't guarantee that the estimates are better than nothing. Many AdWords veterans will tell you that the 'estimates' are next to useless. Take them with a BIG pinch of salt.

Your best bet is to do a test campaign, that gives (as AWA said) real data to go on.