Increase CTR, or just jump to the top?

[wheel]

It's been a while since I've run adwords. I just turned on a campaign that's got reasonable but not yet over the top CTR's on it.

My normal approach is to tinker with the words and ads to slowly build my CTR and thus my placement. My intention this time is to dominate adwords in my niche going forward.

Here's my question. Would I be better served by using the newer feature in adwords that lets me set my position instead of my bid? i.e. should I just pin my ads to the top now and work my CTR maneouvering from there? Or do the old school way of building slowly?

[RhinoFish]

the time decay of the past is too quick to bid your way there and then stay there. further, personalization and other factors give everyone a chance to move up and down spots regularly. and from kw to kw, there's no way to outmaneuver the system. so you've gotta perform constantly to get there and stay there - no tactic will provide a shortcut.

"lets me set my position instead of my bid"
your bid and qs and competition still set your position, but you skip showing in positions you don't like to be shown in... not the same thing as "set my position".
adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=31788