Google has announced they will be retiring the Position Preference feature from AdWords.
As of April 5th all new campaigns no longer have the Position Preference feature, and on existing campaigns, once the feature is turned off it can no longer be used again.
Which One Was Position Preference?
The Position Preference (PP) feature was used to automatically raise or lower your max CPC bids to keep your ad in the space of your choosing. Not guaranteed.
It was theoretically useful in the following scenario: if your AdWords campaign was achieving better results in position 3 rather than position 1, you could set Position Preference, and the AdWords platform would automatically adjust your bids to aim for that position.
Will We Miss It?
We did a quick canvas around the office. Despite being experienced campaign manager who, collectively, have built and managed thousands of AdWords campaigns, the Position Preference feature was only used on a couple of occasions. It was always more valuable to exercise direct control over ad position through the good old analyzing data and manual bid adjustments method. This allowed (and continues to allow) greater influence to be brought to bear upon improving your quality scores.
So when Google announced it’s removal… we thought “eh”. We will just keep building and managing strong campaigns, with relevant keywords and manually adjusting the bids so the average position is optimal for conversions and results.
P.S.
Google has recommend deactivating the Position Preference before May to ensure a smooth transition into a post-PP world.
If you’re not sure how to go about this, or are concerned about the impact upon your campaign, feel free to give us a call anytime.