Why is google misrepresenting avg.pos. of content ad?

[Shepherd]

I targeting a specific page on a specific site with a content ad. Bidding an outrages number to get the top spot on the page.

Now, the top spot is one banner sized spot in the header of the page. There is only one ad in this spot.

What I consider the second spot is on the right site of the page, and again there is only one ad in this spot.

The last ad on the page is at the bottom of the page and there is only one ad here also.

Total of three ads on the page, all in different spots.

Now almost every time I check the page, from different computers and networks, throughout the day we are in the second or third spot on the page.

google however, is reporting that our avg. pos. is 1.0.

So somewhere google and I are not on the same page, are they considering each of the spots on this page a separate ad block and therefore reporting a number 1 spot no matter where on the page it is?

[lammert]

Your number one spot is at the top of the bidding list of advertisers :)

As an AdSense publisher who tracks all the ad locations on all pages independently, my experience is that the top banner is not always the highest paying position. Ads embedded in the text and at the bottom of a page have often better earnings.

One reason is visibility, as many visitors have developed a blind spot in their vision especially for top banners, but another is visitor quality and conversion rate. Those who load a page and then click one of the banners visible above the fold may at the end be not so interested in the content after all, and could be less converting for the advertiser than those who read a page carefully and at the end of the page decide to go to the advertised page as a follow up.

[eWhisper]

Average position is based upon the position for that single ad slot; not the position on the page if there are multiple ad slots.

So if a page has 3 ad slots and only shows image ads (so there's only 1 ad per ad slot); then 3 advertisers will be in position 1. No one will be in position 2-3.

If the ad slot were a skyscraper that showed 4 text ads and you see that you are in position 2; that's position 2 within that ad slot regardless if there are other text ads in other ad slots on that page.

[Shepherd]

Average position is based upon the position for that single ad slot; not the position on the page if there are multiple ad slots.

That's what I was thinking. Sure makes it hard to target the position you want, I mean, how do they determine which ad slot you end up in if each slot has it's own top position and your ranking is not relevant to the page?

[eWhisper]

This depends a lot on the publisher technology.

If the publisher is only using AdSense, then Google:

- Determines what advertisers are eligible for the page
- Determines who has the highest ad rank (this isn't like search as Google is also taking into account eCPM)
- If the highest ad rank is an image ad, then they get the slot
- If the highest ad rank is a text ad, then Google determines if only one ad or several should be placed in the slot
- Repeat for the other slots

It's a bit more complicated than that; but that's the overall basics.

[DenRein]

Why not establish a separate campaign? Supply only a single ad having the dimensions of a top banner. Now, at least, that will keep you out of the right hand position. The bottom position may be same dimensions as top ... a total bummer if so.

Like you, I see 1.0 avg. position for display ads that run. AFIK, the value is meaningless. I am in a very competitive publication and 1.0 is simply not believable.

[Shepherd]

Supply only a single ad having the dimensions of a top banner.

Interesting idea DenRein, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

[eWhisper]

If you only want to show for a single position within a site; then you can use placement targeting and pick a single ad slot (assuming the publisher allows for placement targeting) in your targeting options.