Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Adwords: Brand ads appear bottom of SERPs
-
Hello,
I'm running a sale promotion on a brand only Adwords campaign (I have the only account with trademark authorization) and have noticed that my ads are appearing at the bottom of the first page on Google.
This happened last week so I split the campaign into three Adgroups and that fixed the problem but today I'm running brand only and there is no way to separate them.
CPC has also increased dramatically. Normally it's less than 10 cents and now it's sitting at between $2-$4.
Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas/advice on how to stop this happening? It's playing havoc with my CTR and conversions.
Much thanks,
Davinia -
Great, thanks for that!
-
The person from Twitter is @LisaSanner. She says:
"My rep noticed AD status was Eligible, not Approved & won't run at top, even if pos=1 (Unlike kw status which is Eligible)."
So, take a look at the ad status, not just the keyword status.
-
That's my question, too: how did this Twitter person determine the "purgatory" status - from their dashboard somehow, or by grilling AdWords rep?
-
Hi Keri,
Status of ads is 'eligible' with quality scores of 10/10 for brand terms (trademarked) and related brand terms (not trademarked).
Any idea how the twitter person established "stuck in eligible status purgatory"?
Thanks,Davinia
-
Hi Stephen,
Have tested using the Adwords 'ad preview and diagnosis' tool as well as logged in and out, removing cache and on different computers - no change, always at the bottom.
-
Someone on Twitter had this same issue, and discovered (after much investigating and initial overlooking by the AdWords staff) that their ads were "stuck in eligible status purgatory" and wouldn't run on top unless fully approved. You might look to see the status of your ads and make sure that's OK.
-
Just a thought - have you tried as both logged in and out? Clearing cache etc?
Maybe querying your own brand causes the ads to display differently - like when you do the same query over and over, Google will hide or change the ads you see
Stephen
-
Wish I had something more to add here, but this is the best answer I've seen. To me it sounds like Google is testing something and it is probably just with a handful of brands. I would be interested if this continues through to next week. But it really does sound like a test to see if people searching for branded terms really don't want to see ads and how hard they will work to get to the ads.
At least no one is beating you?
-
Hi Don,
I don't know what to say.... I can't stop giggling. There is NO WAY you get a better CTR with ads appearing at the bottom of the page. Like you I also have plenty of data to back that up.
This issue continues to occur for one of my clients.
Perhaps consider testing on smartphones only - I'd imagine more people would see the whole first page of results on a smartphone than they would on a desktop. I'd also recommend getting your SEO up to scratch so you are placing top of page for organic listings and Google Places.
Will let you know if I find anything new......but am still scratching my head as well.
Davinia
-
Davinia,
I just finished an AdWords chat session regarding the same thing: ads with no competition appearing at the page bottom, below all organic SERPs. To my utter amazement, the AdWords rep claimed that Google researched and found that - get this - ads placed at the bottom will have a "higher" response due to the "flow" of viewers' browsing. So, my no-competition ads are appearing at the bottom. Not surprisingly, they've received zero clicks in over 150 impressions.
A nearly identical campaign for this client, run exactly one year ago, garnered a 4.4% CTR with the no-competition ads appearing ABOVE the organic SERPs. I tried to get the rep to agree with me that his description of this algo change was counter-intuitive and - based on my results so far - will yield abysmal clickthroughs and profit for Google. He was unmoved.
I also asked him why - if the results of bottom-scraping ads are so good - don't they charge advertisers MORE for the bottom position, rather than the #1 position? He didn't really respond to that.
I finally asked him to ask his supervisor to override the algo and let my ads run at the top of SERPs, as an experiment in performance/profitability. He said that's impossible - "out of our control."
If anyone has any insights regarding this unbelievably bizarre claim that bottom-scraping ads will perform better than those at the top of the page, I'd like to hear them.
-
I just realized checking from here probably won't work unless you're targeting the U.S.
-
I appreciate your time, thanks.
Ads only display in New Zealand so you won't be able to see them, but thanks for the offer of PM anyways.
-
If you haven't upgraded I don't think it would make a difference. If you want to PM me the search query I can check from here and see if I get the same thing. I'm not sure what else to tell you though. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
-
Am using legacy but didn't think this would cause any problems as enhanced is geared towards mobile. But it could very well be the cause?
Keywords are position 1 for all and have viewed placement by 'ad preview and diagnosis' and it still appears at the bottom.
So, I'm stumped!
-
The only major change going on right now that I'm aware of is the move to enhanced campaigns. Did you upgrade your campaigns from legacy to enhanced by any chance? Are you still in position 1 and just appearing at the bottom? Another thing to consider is that it may not be appearing at the bottom for everyone.
-
Hi Zach,
Thanks for your reply.
Quality scores on all keywords are 10/10.
I've been running these campaigns for a year and only seen this twice (both in last 7 days). So am wondering if maybe something has changed with Adwords?
Thanks,
Davinia -
Hi Davinia,
Maybe check the Quality Scores for your keywords and see if you can improve them. I think the quality score column is hidden by default so you might have to go to the keywords tab click on Columns->Customize Columns and it's under Attributes. That's quite a jump so I'm not sure this is the issue but quality scores do affect ad position and how much you pay per click. Better performing ads are more likely to appear at the top but there's no real way to absolutely control whether the ad appears at the top/side/bottom but generally better performing ads get better positioning.
Hope this helps!
Zach
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will pausing my AdWords PPC campaigns impact my organic rankings?
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search; less than 5% comes from AdWords PPC (all other sources account for about 1-2%). My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero. It's negative if you include opportunity costs. My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer? This is really two questions. First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings? Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
Paid Search Marketing | | ahirai2 -
What is the best way to update Adwords final URLs if I'm moving to a new CMS?
Hi there - One of my clients is redeveloping its website. That means, the domain is remaining the same, but the whole site is being rebuilt in wordpress so all the adwords final URLs need to change OR be redirected. There are 550 live adgroups and 3400 ads. We haven't set up tracking. I can't find anywhere what the best thing to do is in this case. The key issues seem to be: 1. 301 redirects - given we have to do these anyway as part of migration, this seems to be the easiest path as Google is ok about redirects as long as they don't go to a different domain. From what I'm hearing, you don't get adversely impacted in terms of quality score etc. This has the huge advantage that you don't have to edit the ad therefore no loss of statistical history or risk of downtime whilst you wait for approval. HOWEVER, there is some concern that if you then redirected again IN THE FUTURE, the redirect might not work (in some browsers) or cause a loop. I'm also concerned that it's messy to leave it like that (ie: with the wrong URLs throughout). 2. Buik updating ads - I don't think this is an option as if you bulk download and then reupload, Google will see this as a new ad, and delete all the statistical history - I'm also concerned that that WOULD impact quality score as you'd be starting from scratch! 3. Changing each ad individually - as far as I understand you'd have to create copies of all the ads (so that you keep the history of the old ones) and effectively create new ones with the correct URL - one by one. You end up with a messy account (a lot of paused ads) but you keep the history? This is obviously the most time consuming and I can't see a way of avoiding ads having to go in for approval again, given the urls are all different, so you'd have to do this a an ad level, not an adgroup/campaign level etc. People redevelop their websites (without changing domains) all the time. It seems strange that no one is mentioning this problem! Any ideas?! Many thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | catalystmdc0 -
Changing Domains - Will a 301 redirect be looked unfavourably for my Ads?
Hey All, So over the next few weeks we are switching over a clients domain to a new one. Each of the old pages on the old domain will have a 301 redirect to it's new contextual page (with the same content). My question is this, we currently have multiple PPC campaigns running for this client and the ads are pointed towards the old domain so the ads will redirect over to the new domain. My question is this, will Adwords look at this redirection unfavourably? If so, then I will have to duplicate each ad (100's of ads) with a new destination URL (since if I edit the current ads they will lose all past performance history). Obviously for branding I'm going to have to probably change the display URL eventually but for now I'm looking at the BIG issues that could occur. I would normally call Google and ask this question but I don't want them to flag anything in my account just in case this is looked unfavourably. Thanks! Jon
Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt0 -
Quick Question: Anchor links on Adwords main URL?
Is it OK to use anchor links on the main URL of an advert on Google Adwords? Example: www.example.com/#example Had a little Google, and not much was returned on the topic. Many Thanks, Alex
Paid Search Marketing | | Whittie0 -
AdWords quality score of landing pages and subdomains popularity
Hello, I have an AdWords account whose landing pages point to (i.e.) http://www.domain.com/landing01.php I've been using this account for ages, it has a good score and history, so I want to keep it. The first question is: may I use landing pages on different subdomains within the same AdWords account (and in the same root domain)? I.E. (http://cheese.domain.com/landing01.php and http://wine.domain.com/landing02.php) 2nd question: the www subdomain has good subdomain metrics (authority /trust and, generally, links) while the "cheese" subdomain has not (no backlinks at all). Do I get any benefit in Adwords (like quality score or other) if I publish my landing pages under a subdomain with better subdomain metrics (or number of links)? Or should I just go with http://cheese.domain.com even it has no authority at all? Thank you, DoMiSoL Rossini
Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL0 -
AdWords Sitelinks Disapproved
Hello,
Paid Search Marketing | | Instabill
I cannot find a justifiable reason as to why Google AdWords has disapproved my sitelinks. 1. My link text is descriptive of each page. For instance, I use the link text "Merchant Accounts" for the URL http://www.instabill.com/services/merchant-accounts/ 2. I have four extensions within one campaign. Each have 5 sitelinks with all the same link text and destination URLs. However, only two of the "Merchant Accounts" sitelinks were disapproved from two out of the four extensions. Two "High Risk Accounts" linking to our High Risk Merchant Accounts page were disapproved out of my four extensions, one "Industries We Serve" to our eCommerce Industries page was disapproved, and one "Offshore Accounts to our Offshore Merchant Accounts page was disapproved. Why are some disapproved and not all? 3. I use Daddy Analytics to generate my destination URLs for tracking purposes, but I do not see this as being an issue since the URL still begins with the URL in bullet point 1. After reading a few threads within the AdWords community and reading the AdWords Sitelinks Guidelines, I feel as if I have followed the guidelines. Any helpful advice would be appreciated.0 -
Is there any reason to add the word "buy" to our Adwords keywords?
Was having a discussion with someone so I am going to write this up as neutral as possible and let you guys decide. We have a large keyword list and they are all setup as phrase. Should we go back and add the word buy in front of all those keywords? Even though they are setup as phrase already. Example: "Widget" (as a phrase) Should we go back and add "Buy Widget" as a keyword?
Paid Search Marketing | | EcommerceSite0 -
Increasing Google Ad spend - is it worth it
Hi We are currently spending approx £500 pcm on google ad words however if I increased this spend to £4000 pcm what kind of results would this achieve? For example would it just be more visits per day as the budget is larger? Also what is the best way to track the success of an adwords campaign - the ultimate goal of the campaign would be to generate a lead whether this be a phone call, email or using our book an appointment form. Our service covers a geographical area (Scotland) and for organic search we are doing well 1st pages listings for searches such as pvc doors edinburgh etc so I am unsure whether it's worth increasing my PPC spend or put more resource into SEO, or even Facebook ads?
Paid Search Marketing | | ocelot0