When Google Ads announced the demise of average position, a metric often used for bidding and reporting, it left many advertisers wondering how they could ensure their ads were reaching the top of the SERP. At Thruline, Brand campaigns have historically used position bidding. (Didn’t know average position was sunsetting? Check out our post.) Well, Google Ads has rolled out new bidding options and Thruline has started testing them.

As a replacement to average position, Google Ads has rolled out an option to bid to Target Impression Share. As a reminder, Impression Share measures how many impressions were received divided by the estimated number of eligible impressions (eligibility is based on current ad targeting, approval status, bids and quality).

Advertisers can select where they want ads to appear: anywhere on the results page, top of results page and absolute top of results page. Advertisers then select the percent impression share they’d like to target. Let’s look at examples of how each of these would target a 65% impression share.

• Anywhere on the results page – Ads can appear anywhere on the results page: absolute top, top or bottom.
  • Google Ads will automatically set CPC bids to help show ads at an overall impression share of 65%.
• Top of results page – Ads appear among the ads at the top of the first page of search results.
  • Google Ads will automatically set CPC bids to help show ads in the top positions 65% of the total possible amount of times they could show.
• Absolute top of results page – Ads appear in the first position at the top of the first page of search results.
  • Google Ads will automatically set CPC bids to help show ads in the absolute top position 65% of the total possible amount of times they could show.

Though average position doesn’t sunset until September, Thruline has already started testing target impression share bidding. Early results indicate strong performance either in line or better than position bidding.

If you have more questions about how impression share bidding may impact your brand, please reach out!

Courtney Hill, Digital Media Supervisor