Accurate Adwords Ad Position Tool Question

Firefox, Chrome and IE show different ad positions

[rbarker]

In Firefox my competitors' ad is always above mine. In Chrome my ad is always above his. IE usually has me above him but not always.

Clicking on More Sponsored Links at the bottom of the ads show him just ahead of me.

Does anyone know of a way to accurately gauge the position of Adwords ads?

Thanks for any help.

[ekimmerce]

First of all make sure you're not logged into your Google account when you are searching. Go to the Google homepage and conduct your search.

then add &adtest=on to the end of the google search url in browser address bar and press enter. This should give you a more 'unbiased' view of the search results. However I'm not 100% sure of how 'unbiased' this is. Results will still vary to some degree.

What Google serves you in search results will be determined by many many factors including location, how many times you have searched for 'it' already in a day/hour and if logged in, your search history might be taken into consideration also.

[rbarker]

Thank you ekimmerce. The results were consistent in all three browsers this time.

Long time lurkers rock:)...

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Also consider the Ad Preview tool:

Can I preview how my ad appears on Google?
[adwords.google.com...]

Excerpting from that page:

The Ad Preview tool enables you to view your ads as they would appear on a regular Google search results page, without accruing extra impressions for your ad.

To perform a test search with the Ad Preview tool, follow these steps:

Go to [google.com...]
Enter a keyword.
Enter a Google domain, such as google.com or google.fr.
Select a display language.
Select a location. You can choose a location from the drop-down menus, or you can enter specific latitude and longitude coordinates.
Click Preview ads.

[...]

AWA

[rbarker]

That's an awesome tool AWA, thank you so much. And thank you again as well eKimmerce.

I've monitored ad positions in my field for over five years now and have an idea of just how high I can bid and remain profitable. The idea that my newly arrived competitor could bid so high above me has completely stymied me and caused more than one sleepless night. These tools say my model has been on track all along.

BTW, it was particularly frustrating to see/think this competitor was outbidding me in my own backyard. As it turns out he is not. In fact, I'm outbidding him in his backyard:)...

Thank you both again.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Glad you find it useful, rbarker - and thanks for the excellent lead-in ekimmerce!

Oddly enough, I think this tool is not well known and is under-used by advertisers - this despite a lot of Inside AdWords blog posts that mention it and repeated posts by me in this forum, and elsewhere.

So, tell your friends!

But maybe not that competitor you are outbidding, heheh. ;)

AWA