Google have recently released eight new metrics within Google Ads, giving you a more advanced view of Auction Insights, Positional and Impression Share metrics. Check your accounts! This is currently in closed beta across a handful of accounts but should be rolled out further in the coming months.
New metrics and their definitions
Firstly, the top location is anywhere ads appear above the organic search results. The absolute (Abs.) top location is the very first ad above the organic search results.
- Impr. (Abs. Top) %: Search absolute top impression rate is the percentage of your impressions that are shown as the very first ad above the organic search results.
- Impr. (Top) %: Percentage of Impressions on the top of the SERP, similar to Top of page rate within Auction Insights. Top of page rate within Auction Insights now has an “Abs.” counterpart showing how often competitors are in position 1.
- Search Absolute Top IS: Search absolute top impression share is the impressions you’ve received in the absolute top location on the search result page divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
- Search Top IS: Search top impression share is the impressions you’ve received in the top location on the search result page divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
- Search Lost Abs. Top IS (Budget): Search lost absolute top impression share (budget) estimates how often your ad wasn’t the very first ad above the organic search results due to low budget.
- Search Lost Top IS (Budget): Search lost top impression share (budget) estimates how often your ad didn’t show anywhere above the organic search results due to low budget.
- Search Lost Abs. Top IS (Rank): Search lost absolute top impression share (rank) estimates how often your ad wasn’t the very first ad above the organic search results due to poor Ad Rank.
- Search Lost Top IS (Rank): Search lost top impression share (rank) estimates how often your ad didn’t show anywhere above the organic search results due to poor Ad Rank.
Whilst in Campaign view
Before
After
If, like me, you lost your Avg. Pos column, this is now under “Competitive Metrics”.
New Metrics in Practice
Avg Position is limited as it’s simply an average, there’s no such thing as a position 1.4. If you want to understand the location of ads on the page in further detail you can use Impr. (Abs. Top) % or Impr. (Top) % to see the percentage of time you’re in position 1 or simply above the organic listings.
This comes into great use for Auction Insights where “Abs. Top of page rate” indicates the percentage of time a competitor has been in position 1. The example below highlights why this would be useful, the competitor below has an average position of 3.7, but their “Abs. Top of page rate” is 22%. Previously we would have ignored this competitor; however, now we can tell they’re actually in position 1 22% of the time through aggressive audience or ad schedule bid adjustments.
If you want to bid on page location and are currently using avg. position, there’s the option to switch to the new bidding strategy to bid towards IS (selecting the Top or Abs Top option) or use Search Absolute Top IS or Search Top IS.
Missed opportunity insights can be seen using the ‘Search Lost Abs. Top IS’ and ‘Search Lost Top IS’ metrics (both budget and rank).
And finally not to mention the benefits the additional data will grant SEO and PPC teams when conducting tests on certain keywords.
To find out more about the eight new metrics and to be the first to test them, get in touch.
