How does average position correlate with Google’s new ad metrics?

In November, Google rolled out four new competitive metrics based on impression share. It came as no huge surprise then when they later announced that they will be retiring average position indefinitely in September, with the reason being that average position doesn’t give a true representation of where the ad appears on the search page.

While an average position of 1.0 might suggest that the ad is the first thing a searcher sees, this is not necessarily the case; it simply means it will appear on average before all other ads in the auction, not that it will appear as the first result in the search listing. Some searches do not return paid results until after organic results – in this scenario, ad position 1 would be at the bottom of the page, and it’s likely that impressions and click-through rate would be low.

The first two metrics indicate the specific ad location, while the two latter show what share of all eligible top impressions (with eligibility being calculated based on your current ads’ target settings, approval statuses, bids and quality).

Both of the search impression share metrics indicate the impressions your ads could be getting if you were to increase your ad position.

Google’s launch of target impression share bidding last year means that the metrics can also be used to inform your smart bidding strategy; Impression. (Absolute Top) % and Impression (Top) % replace the need for average, while Search (Absolute Top) Impression Share and Search (Top) Impression Share can be used instead of average position to bid to a page location.

With the metrics came the launch of a new Smart Bidding strategy from Google – Target Impression Share, meaning Search (Absolute Top) Impression Share and Search (Top) Impression Share can be used instead of average position to bid to a page location.