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Does the 1st position ad on google search results mean more clicks and leads?
Hello,
I’ve heard from several sources that ranking on the top position in google search ads does not necessarily mean more clicks and sales. I have also heard that even google has mentioned this officially…
… but I can’t seem to find any info on this. Neither on google nor on any third-party site.
So, is this true? If yes, can you point me to any article?
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3 Replies
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Assuming you’re bidding on the right keywords, ranking #1 is definitely better than not ranking at the top. Top rank rotates anyway, so it’s impossible to rank first all the time.
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Sure, ranking higher is always better, in general. But that does not mean that using top position should be a primary metric. Depending upon your budget, there may be other things to prioritize.
The primary metric, in almost all cases, should be return on investment for the end client. Depending on the bids, if you can make more ROI by bidding less (even if that means you appear more often in the second place) then that is the right decision. If you lose out on ROI by bidding higher for the first place, that’s the wrong decision. Vice versa.
Many clients come to us with a “North Star” metric in their head of appearing first for all queries. Very seldom is this *actually* the most important metric to them…they just *think* it is. In reality clients want to make more profit.
If ranking higher is worth the higher cost…and the higher cost does result in higher profits…then it’s worth ranking #1.
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Higher positions in search (paid and organic) generate higher click-through-rates than the same content would in a lower position. This is proven in many studies and is a basic fact.
Therefore if you run your ad for the same number of impressions but it appears in a higher position you can expect to generate more clicks. At the same time, you will pay a higher average CPC.
All things being equal, your conversion rate shouldn’t change, therefore more clicks equals more conversions, should be proportional. However, you can also expect to pay a higher average cost/conv. which is related back to the higher average CPCs.
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/02/22/click-through-rate-by-ad-position
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