Oneupweb : A Change in Bidding to Position in Google
Google Just announced yesterday that the position preference feature in AdWords is being discontinued.
Here is what Google stated on the AdWords Blog:
“As of today, April 5th, position preference can no longer be enabled for campaigns through either the AdWords web interface or the API. Campaigns already using position preference will still have it enabled, but if you turn position preference off in one of your campaigns, you won’t be able to turn it back on.
Starting in early May, we’ll begin disabling position preference for any campaigns still using it.
After you disable position preference (either manually or when the feature is retired starting in early May), the manual maximum CPC bids for those campaigns will be the bids position preference used most recently. Position preference tries to raise or lower your bids to target the positions you specify. So using the most recent position preference bid as your manual maximum CPC should minimize disruption to your traffic.”
If you have been affected by the retiring of this bidding preference, need not worry, there is another option out there for you. Back in mid-February, Google rolled AdWords Automated Rules out of beta and made them available for all advertisers.
This is how you set up a rule to focus on a position:
1. Click on the drop-down box for Automate
2. Select Create rule for keywords
3. Then select Change max CPC bids when…
You will be then taken to a page to create your rules.
The example here is if you wanted to show your ads above position 3 in the search engine results page.
Apply To: You may choose all keywords in the account or Selected Keywords in campaigns.
Automatic Action: Raise Bid, Choose a percentage you would like to increase your bid by. 5% is a safe test amount. (Note: you may also set a Max. bid to keep the rule from increasing your bids to much)
Requirements: Avg. position, worse than, 3.
Frequency: This can be daily, weekly, monthly or one time. (I selected weekly to allow for more data to accumulate before the rule running.)
Rule Name: Short and simple.
Email Results: Notification options.
To be safe, make sure you PREVIEW RESULTS before saving a rule.
In addition, if you wanted to zero in on position 3, you could create an additional rule that would lower bids 5% if the average position was above 3.
