Keyword position bid strategies not supported for Google Ads

On August 15, 2019, you won't be able to apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy that targets a keyword position range (also referred to as ad position or average position) to Google Ads campaigns. This change prepares Search Ads 360 for the sunset of the average position metric in Google Ads.

Instead, create and apply a Search Ads 360 impression share bid strategy to Google Ads campaigns to automate targeting a specific impression share at a selected ad location on the search results page.

Complete these steps before August 15

Before support ends, we recommend that you complete the following steps to specify your own targets at the outset and to avoid automatic migration of Google Ads campaigns from keyword position bid strategies to impression share bid strategies.

1. Analyze the performance of each Search Ads 360 keyword position bid strategy to identify the ad position targets of your Google Ads campaigns that are managed by the bid strategies.

2. Move your Google Ads campaigns from keyword position bid strategies to impression share bid strategies.

   Before applying an impression share bid strategy to Google Ads campaigns, you should verify that the campaign's ad groups and keywords are inheriting the bid strategy from the campaign.

   To see the bid strategy membership for campaigns, ad groups, or keywords, add the Bid Strategy column to a report. The icon will indicate the bid strategies that have been inherited from a higher level (for example, the icon will appear for a keyword if its bid strategy membership has been inherited from the ad group).

   If a different bid strategy is applied to the items, they will be removed from that bid strategy when the impression share bid strategy is applied to the campaign. That is, the ad groups and keywords will automatically inherit the impression share bid strategy that is applied to the campaign and the items will be removed from other bid strategies. Note that if a significant number of items are removed from a bid strategy, its performance could be impacted.

On August 15th, Search Ads 360 will begin migrating your Google Ads campaigns that are managed by keyword position bid strategies to impression share bid strategies, when possible. If the campaigns can't be migrated to an impression share bid strategy, Search Ads 360 will still remove the Google Ads campaigns from the keyword position bid strategy.

Analyze keyword position bid strategies to identify targets

1. Navigate to an advertiser.

   Steps for navigating to an advertiser

   1. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

   2. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

   3. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser.

   4. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the advertiser page, which contains data for all of the advertiser’s engine accounts.

2. In the left navigation panel, click Bid strategies.

3. Click the Bid strategies tab.

4. Select a date range that includes the past 14 days or more.
   Don't select the "Include today" check box.
5. Optional. Filter the bid strategy report to include only bid strategies that target keyword position.
   1. Above the performance summary graph, click Filter.
   2. Click + Attribute or metric.
   3. Select Goal from the list.
   4. Click the arrow next to "7 selected", and then clear the list.
   5. Select the Keyword position check box, and then click OK.
   6. Click Apply filters.
6. Select a keyword position bid strategy.
7. Click the Campaigns tab.
8. Filter the report to include only Google Ads campaigns.
   • In the filter, select the Engine attribute and then select the Google Ads check box.
9. Review the impression share columns in the report to determine targets for an impression share bid strategy and  which Google Ads campaigns to include in the bid strategy. 
   • Impr share (abs top) %
   • Impr share (top) %
   • Search impr share

   The next section provides more information about these columns and suggests how to map them to keyword position ranges.

Review impression share metrics in the bid strategy report

A bid strategy report now includes impression share metrics to help you better understand where your ads appear on a search results page.

Use the metrics to identify the impression share you should target. A Search Ads 360 impression share bid strategy will adjust bids to target a specified impression share. For example, if your ads have a 65% top of the page impression share, the bid strategy will bid to continue to achieve that ad prominence.

The following table lists the suggested correlation between keyword position targets and impression share targets. If a keyword position bid strategy targeted positions 1.0 to to 1.1, the recommendation is that you create a bid strategy to target an absolute top of page impression share.

Move Google Ads campaigns to an impression share bid strategy

There are several ways to apply a bid strategy to campaigns. The following steps list one of your options.

1. Navigate to a keyword position bid strategy that manages bidding in the Google Ads campaigns that you will move.
2. Click the Campaigns tab.
3. Select the check boxes of the Google Ads campaigns.
4. Click Edit, and then click Change bid strategy.
5. Click the arrow next to "Select a bid strategy" to display the list.
6. Select the impression share bid strategy.
7. Click Save to apply the change immediately or schedule the change to occur at a specific time.

Analyze performance of new impression share bid strategies

Like any other Search Ads 360 bid strategy, impression share bid strategies also need time to learn and adjust bids to achieve your goals. About seven days after you apply the bid strategy to Google Ads campaigns, evaluate the performance of each new impression share bid strategy and review the metrics in these impression share columns:

• Impr share (abs top) %  
• Impr share (top) %
• Search impr share

In the interim, you should also periodically check in to verify that the bid strategy is on target.