As an Advertiser, it’s important to understand where your ads appear on the search results page. Hence, Google Ads announced that they are rolling out four new Search Ad Position metrics over the next several weeks, which support advertisers, marketers, WebMasters, and businesses with clear Search Ad Position analysis on where their ads are appearing on the search results page. The company confirmed on its official blog that these four new Search Ad Position metrics are completely different from average position. Average position (Avg. Pos.) is considered to be one of Google Ads products that is a statistic that describes how your ad typically ranks against other ads. This rank determines in which order ads appear on the page. This means that Average position (Avg. Pos.) is not meant to describe where the ad appears on the page; it only reflects the order that ad appears versus the other ads in the ad auction.

As explained by Google Ads, four new Search Ad Position Metrics are introduced:

• Impr. (Absolute Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown as the very first ad above the organic search results.
• Impr. (Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown anywhere above the organic search results.
• Search (Absolute Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the absolute top location (the very first ad above the organic search results) divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
• Search (Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the top location (anywhere above the organic search results) compared to the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.

The company also added in the official announcement that the first two metrics -Impr. (Absolute Top) % and Impr. (Top) %- are considered to be a specific guide of page location. Advertisers, marketers, WebMasters, and businesses can depend on these metrics to identify when and where their impressions are showing above the organic search results. While the other two metrics -Search (Absolute Top) IS and Search (Top) IS-, are considered to be the best indicators of the available opportunity to show your ads in more prominent positions. Accordingly, advertisers, marketers, WebMasters, and businesses can use these metrics to bid on page location, as they convey their share of eligible top impressions.

As confirmed by Google Ads:

“To summarize, if you are using average position to understand the location of your ads on the page, it’s better to use Impression (Absolute Top) % and Impression (Top) %. If you are using average position to bid to a page location, it’s better to use Search (Abs Top) IS and Search (Top) IS.”