More and more keywords not getting a top sponsored placement

[bostonseo]

Anyone else noticing that it seems more and more keywords are not being displayed in the top sponsored results section, but only on the right hand side sponsored ads.

I know this is typically tied to how many impressions and how many advertisers are bidding on the term. But I have expensive and fairly high impression terms only displayed on the right hand side and not the top ads. Ads on the right hand side never get clicks.

Just curious if anyone noticed happening more frequently.

[Murdoch]

I know this is typically tied to how many impressions and how many advertisers are bidding on the term

If this is the case it would make sense as there seems to be a glitch in Adwords right now that is severely reducing the amount of impressions throughout several advertisers campaigns. For example for us the Ad Diagnostic tool is telling us that a majority of our ads are not being shown because there is a duplicate keyword somewhere in our account. Then it points to the ad group in question, where that keyword is of course nowhere to be found. I have heard from others on here of multiple other instances and differing examples of why their ads are "supposedly" not being shown.

[toddb]

I have noticed this too. beofer if you broke the 10% CTR you got a premium spot. But now it is higher. I have a couple of ads running 10-12% on the right side in number one that do not get the premium spot for some reason.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I know this is typically tied to how many impressions and how many advertisers are bidding on the term.

Actually, these are not factors so far as I am aware. Ads that go to the top primarily go there because they're judged as being particularly relevant by an algo that more heavily weights CTR for top placement, as compared to right hand side placement.

Also the algo considers actual CPC as opposed to Max CPC. So bidding higher will not directly put one in the top spots. Lastly, the Ads must have been reviewed and approved to get 'promoted'.

AWA

[Murdoch]

Ads that go to the top primarily go there because they're judged as being particularly relevant by an algo that more heavily weights CTR for top placement

Ah, this would make much more sense in our case then. We happened to just do a major redesign of most of our ads (using insight from one of your excellent reps during our appointment at SES) so maybe this is a trickle-down effect of that. Once again, thanks for the clarification AWA. Maybe we just need to wait a few days to let the dust settle.