How's your CTR?

CTR for ads showing beyond third place

[Syzygy]

Interested in any comments or figures that any of you may be willing to share with regards the ctr of ads showing beyond the first three (as an average position).

Whilst, as one would expect, the ctr for some of my ads which are languising at the bottom of the page is pretty poor, the ctr for others appears to be quite respectable indeed.

For the month just ending some figures show as:

Avge Pos/CTR

4.7/1.2
6.1/1.2
6.8/1
7.3/1.2
7.6/1.3
9/1
10/0.8

In many situations a ctr of 1.2% could be acceptable for first, second or third slot (one would always want to improve upon that of course). So to be getting that for sixth, seventh or eight position appears to be quite remarkable to me.

In some respects I get the feeling that there is a trend developing where some people are looking more closely at ads further down the page, possibly feeling that there is greater relevancy here. As I say, just a feeling thus would be interested to receive any feedback on ctr's for ads showing in similar slots and comments all round...

Syzygy

[Gammon]

Actually, I think you may be right.

I obviously can't speak for others, but I do find myself scanning the middle of the column of ads.

I think there are two reasons for this, including the one you mentioned. For some reason, and I don't do it consciously, it just seems that more relevant links would be towards the middle. I don't really know why.

Second, when I search on Google, I'm looking for a page on something particular. Often I find the link I'm looking for towards the middle of the results page. Only after finding what I'm looking for do I ever glance at the AdWords. So while I'm searching, the ads that I actually see first tend to be towards the middle of the column. And if there are only a few ads, I often actually see the bottom ad first.

[Syzygy]

As far as I can see once you go below the top three spots it really doesn't matter where your ad is just as long as it's on the first page of results.

There appears to be no noticeable difference statistically whether you're fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth.

Disclaimer: of course many factors will affect the performance of your ads and the returns on your investments may go up or down over time; it is difficult to substantiate such broad generalisations in the first place without sufficient volumes of data garnered in a professional manner and with strict criteria for measurement in place. And anyway, if your ad copy is crap you haven't got a chance..;-)

Gammon, a warm welcome to WebmasterWorld!