Google is making some adjustments to their AdWords system. Specifically how they’ll rank your ad in the search engine listings. The idea is that they want to take out the influence of the ad position on the click rate. They haven’t been explicit about what that means, surprise surprise. Most blogs note that the same ad in the 6th position tends to get a better click thru rate if moved to the 4th position.
However, I believe they might have missed the negative effect that Google might be including. By that I mean just the reverse of the above example: that the 4th position ad would probably not do as well in the 6th position despite being the exact same ad.
Search engine marketing, and search engine optimization, does have a lot to do with positioning. However, it’s quality that (usually) gets you to those positions. That’s what most people forget when chasing Google success.
That brings us to the next change ing Google’s search advertising system. Google is now using something they call a ‘Quality Threshold’ test for top position ads. According to their new search ad ranking, a lower positioned ad can actually leapfrog to the top search ad postion(s) if it passes the ‘Quality Threshold’ and the top ads do not.
What exactly is included in this ‘Quality Threshold’ standard? Google isn’t talking, except in very general terms. What you can rely on is that a targeted ad, sent to a targeted landing page will help your search engine fortunes. Keep writing good AdWords ads that convert, that are on subject and you’ll be on the right path. That’s search engine marketing.