Google To Sunset Average Position Metric

As announced by Google earlier this year, average position will soon no longer be part of Google Ads. Google will begin sunsetting the average position metric the week of September 30. Instead of average position, Google says advertisers should transition to using the position metrics introduced last year. These four new search ad position metrics focus on search top impression rate and search absolute top rate to indicate the percentage of impressions and impression share your ads received in the “absolute top” and “top” of page ad slots. Google’s reasoning behind the decision to eliminate average position is that it feels the metric is no longer useful.

The New Metrics

Google’s next chapter for metrics will focus on clarity. Google feels it has introduced newer metrics that better inform advertisers about what they primarily care about: that their ads are shown in places where they will drive more business. The following are four new metrics introduced by Google: [su_list icon=”icon: chevron-right” icon_color=”#41bf60″]

Impression absolute top %
Impression top %
Search absolute top impression share
Search top IS

[/su_list] The metrics tell advertisers two things: how often their ads are at the top of the page when they get an impression, and what share of all the top of page impressions they’re getting.

In the announcement post, Google Ads product manager Pallavi Naresh gave the following rationale for the decision: “These new metrics give you a much clearer view of your prominence on the page than average position does.” Having a clear idea of your prominence on the SERP is essential to making informed bidding decisions. Evidently, Google feels the four new metrics are more insightful as far as bidding strategy is concerned.

What Can We Expect to Change

Starting from the beginning of the week of September 30, functions like rules using average position, custom columns using average position, saved reports that filter on average position and saved filters with average position will be permanently disabled. Average position will also be removed from any saved column sets, saved reports that use the average position column but don’t filter on it, and scorecards that use average position in dashboards. We will also see the return of ValueTrack parameter for easier information tracking about ads.

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