Google just announced the end of average positions. Should we panic or should we have expected this years ago?

Google clearly wants us to shift our focus from average position reporting to impression share. This is nothing new – with their rollout of four new ad position metrics centered on impression share in November of last year, we can’t claim to be caught off guard by their latest announcement. The good news is you have time and solid options to prepare for the demise of average position reporting.

There are three reasons not to panic….

#1

This change isn’t happening until September 2019. That’s six full months to develop a post-average position strategy and to prepare your accounts.

#2

By using Google’s recently released Target Impression Share bidding strategy, you can target absolute top of the page position, top of the page position, or positioning anywhere on the page of Google search results. Additionally, this strategy allows you to both determine how often (or what percent) we want to hold this position AND set a max. CPC. 

#3

No matter how much you optimise your ads to show at an ultra-specific position, you are still showing in a nice, whole-numbered position – be it #1 or #4. So, we never really had control anyway.

So, rest assured, our average position capabilities aren’t changing all that much. Hopefully, these simple reality checks can put your own minds at ease.

You can always get in touch with the team at Zigzag if you have any questions or are in need of some advice on your accounts.