Why does Google do this?

It seems Google is testing the placement of Adwords

[Scarto]

Hello

has anybody noticed that Google is testing different places for the same keyword? A few months ago, my ad was always in the top 5 ads. A few weeks back, I noticed a suddenly decrease in visitors. It appears that my ad is shown less than before.

When I enter a keyword now, it's possible that my ad appears at the 3th or 4th page. Next time, it just shows up in the first page..

Is Google testing the placement of the ads, and does anybody know why they are doing this? I mean, a high CTR+bid defines the position of the ad..

Next to that, there are a couple of irrelevant ads. If you enter a keyword, it's possible that the ad of a large mail order company appears first, and it just leads to their homepage. Certainly no relevant landing page...

Has anybody noticed these things and what are your thoughts about it?

[poster_boy]

Is Google testing the placement of the ads, and does anybody know why they are doing this? I mean, a high CTR+bid defines the position of the ad..

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Scarto.

How does Google know what a "high" CTR is unless they constantly test different advertisers in different positions at different times?

If your ad proves itself to be a dominant performer, you can secure position 1.0 at a relatively low CPC. If you are not a dominant performer, you have to expect volatility as Google determines who is better than others...

[fordo23]

I have noticed a lot of similar behaviour. I logged onto Webmaster this morning with the specific intent of posting a comment about this myself. We've always had a solid 1.0 for the keywords that I myself have seen jumping positions down to as low as 7 and/or not showing at all (with plenty of budget in there) in the last week.
My adwords reports are still showing our solid position but I am not convinced. The ad behaviour had been noticed by other colleagues as well and these searches were from different locations to mine (so can’t all be down to IP related!). The line at the moment is that it may be a result of the 'personalised' search which is being discussed on this thread (that’s why I mention strange behaviour confirmed by different IP’s). [webmasterworld.com...]

[poster_boy]

Hi Fordo -

If you clear your cookies, it should rectify the strangeness you're seeing... which seems unlike the usual ad placement volatility.

I'd check this short thread - and the thread mentioned within this thread for more info:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Hopefully, it normalizes what you're seeing...