Have you heard about the most recent Google Ads update? Google has announced a major change that will affect your Google Ads, search results, and ad performance reporting. Today, we want to walk through what that means for your property management marketing campaigns.

Google Ad’s Update: The Average Position Metric

On September 30, 2019, Google will remove its average position metric. This metric has been widely used by advertisers when they’re optimizing their campaigns on Google Ads.

If you have been working hard to boost your visibility through Google Ads, you probably recognize the term average position metric. You might also recognize it from any results or reports that you receive from your property management marketing company. It is fairly common and most companies that use Google Ads have found it to be a reliable metric.

Understanding the Ad Campaign Metric

It’s on its way out, but it’s important to understand the average position metric and what it does. This metric shows where on the search results page your ads are showing up.

As you surely know, it’s best to be in the top one or two positions when you buy an ad, because it places you strongly ahead of the organic search results. There are a lot of metrics to look at when you’re evaluating your Google Ad campaigns, but this one has been especially effective because it tells you where you might want to increase your bids and where you should leave things as they are.

If your property management advertisement is showing up below the second ad position on the search results page, not as many people will see it, and you’ll lose out on a lot of those potential clicks.

Optimizing Google Ad Campaigns in 2020 and Beyond

So, without the average position metric, how can we optimize your property management ad campaigns going forward?

Google is replacing the average position metric with a top impression share metric and an absolute top impression share metric.

What does this mean?

Imagine total impressions as a cake. Top impressions are the slices of the cake that get the most icing. They’re the sweetest part of the cake, the top part, where all the goodness can be found.

Your top impression share represents the number of the best and most delicious cake slices that you get.

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So, now you’re going to see a top impression share metric popping up on your campaign reports when you’re reviewing your marketing results. If you’re wondering what to look for, we can tell you that a top impression share of 80 percent or greater overall is healthy.

But, these top impression share numbers are not everything. Think about the lifetime customer value you’re gaining from all of the owners who are visiting your property management company because of your Google Ads. There’s no need to get too caught up in the report numbers.

Top impression share gives us more information than average position ever did. We don’t need to bore you with the data-driven details right here and now, but you can be assured that this Google Ads update is a good one, and will allow us to help you get more from your property management marketing dollars.

If you have any questions or want more information, please contact us at Fourandhalf.

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