What You Need to Know About Google’s Ad Rank

It can be frustrating when you’re investing money into your Google Ads Campaigns and your ad ranking is lower than you expect it to be. But how can you improve your Google Ad rank?

If you notice that any of your ads have a low Ad Rank, you may struggle to uncover exactly why it’s low and what can be done to improve it. Your Ad rank can really help or hinder the success of your campaigns. But what is your ad rank and how can you reach one of the top spots?

What is an Ad Rank?

Your Google Ad rank is a value that is used to determine your ad position on search results and whether your ads will appear at all.  Generally speaking, the ad that has the highest ad rank will achieve the top position in the paid search results.

Google Ad Rank

If your ad shows second in the paid section of search results, then your ad rank for that given search is number two. See the example below:

Every single user’s search is fundamentally different, so varying ad rank factors carry more weight in different scenarios. In some case, upping your bid amount might be the only way to improve your ad rank but that’s not always the case.

While a high bid amount does have an impact on your ad rank, relevancy and how well you solve the searcher’s problem plays a huge part too. Your ad rank is determined by a wide variety of factors, including:

  • – Bid amount
  • – Auction-time ad quality
  • – Expected click through rate
  • – Ad relevance
  • – Landing page experience
  • – Context of the search
  • – Other ads
  • – Expected impact of extensions

Fortunately your ad rank is not set in stone – it’s recalculated every time your ad is eligible to appear and competes in an auction – so your position on search results will likely go up and down depending on the competition, the context of the search and your current quality score.

Paid search results ultimately operate a lot like organic search results. Google’s number one goal is to provide searchers with the most relevant information related to their query.

Your Ad Position and Ad Rank

1. Consider Upping Your Bid

It’s not always the thing that advertisers want to hear when they’re on a tight budget but upping your bid amount to compete with the competition is a quick way to improve your ad rank.

While it’s not guaranteed, if you increase your bid there’s a good possibility that you’ll better your ad rank and move to one of the top spots.

If you can’t stretch your budget any further, there’s still something you can do. Choose to bid only on the keywords that give you the most value (like that ones that get clicked on the most) and remove the least valued keywords. This means you’ll be able to allocate your budget to the high performing keywords and achieve one of the top spots.

2. Work to Improve Your Quality Score

Quality for Google is all about the user experience. The advertisers that achieve the highest Quality Score are delivering the best possible service to their users.

A higher Quality Score can lead to lower prices and a better ad rank. Your quality score is factored into your ad position, so to achieve a higher ranking on search results you need to make amendments. The good thing about your quality score is that you can change it:

  1. 1. Improve the relevancy of your landing page
  2. 2. Esure your ad / keywords are relevant
  3. 3. Improve your expected CTR

For more information and in-depth detail about raising your quality score to improve your Google Ad rank, visit our blog post: How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

3. Be More Specific

While specificity in your ads (through your keyword and headline, for example) might mean you reach a smaller audience, it also means more accurate ad placements and more clicks from your niche audience. Both result in an increased ad ranking.

Go through your campaigns and do some refreshing. Remove irrelevant keywords and ensure your ad copy targets the specific ad groups you’re using.

Feature negative keywords to avoid appearing in irrelevant search results and to better your ad placements. As your ad placements improve, your ad rank will follow!

Improving Your Ad Rank with Different Gravy Digital

Running a high performing paid search campaign is an ongoing process that requires time, tools and expertise. Managing even the smallest of PPC campaigns requires the know-how for it to perform successfully. Different Gravy Digital are here to help your business success with paid search.

Different Gravy Digital are a professional, responsive PPC agency that are dedicated to improving ad ranks, achieving high Quality Scores, maximising targeted traffic and generating the greatest return on investment (ROI) for businesses.

To get a free PPC review and no obligation consultation, contact us:

Book a meeting: michaelgoldman.co.uk/

Telephone: 0161 706 0004

Email: contact@differentgravydigital.co.uk