no ads at the top for hotel terms in the UK

Google is not displaying ads at the top of the results for high traffic hot

[Pimpernel]

Hi. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same problems that we are. Our client is in the hotels business in the UK market. They bid on all the terms and usually are in the top 2 results for generic terms like london hotels. Since last Friday there are no listings at the top, they have all been shifted over to the right hand side, and nobody at Google UK seems to be able to explain why. This is not happening with other top searches like car hire. Clearly this is devastating the client's business - 2-3% clickthrough instead of 15-20%.

has anyone else experienced this problem and do they know it is a short term problem that is going to be fixed or will it extend to other categories?

[PCInk]

If the top bidder does not satisfy enough tick boxes to warrant a 'premium listing' spot, then all bidders will be shifted to the right. Maybe the top player is bidding very high but has a low clickthrough rate, disqualifying them from a 'premium spot'.

[Pimpernel]

No way - not on "london hotels". It is one of the biggest search terms out there!

[PCInk]

Maybe it is one of the biggest, but there is no problem with word 'hotels' - try other towns and they have top spots.

I have knocked people onto the right hand side by putting bids up and changing the advert text. This resets your advert clickthrough back to 0% but because of the price, it can push whoever was in the second top spot to the right also. It does not take long to see adverts begin to jump back to the top.

Just because a search is very popular and has a lot of adverts does not mean that there will be premium adverts. If the top advert does not qualify, but the second advert does qualify - there will be no premium adverts at all - everyone will be pushed to the right.

[Pimpernel]

Thanks very much for that advice PCInk

We have contacted the top bidder and yesterday they reduced their bid dramatically from GBP 1.30 to GBP 0.50. Our clients bid is GBP 0.85. The competitor remains in the top spot and all ads remain on the right hand side. Both our client and the competitor have very similiar propositions in their ads so we do not believe that there can be a large difference in click through rate. Is there anything else our client should do to try to get the Premium Spots back or do they simply need to wait for Google to reassess?