It’s well known among experienced pay per click advertisers that the No. 1 position is not the most desirable. You’ll get more clicks than you will at No. 2, but your traffic won’t be 100% targeted traffic. There are people who will click on the ad out of curiosity just because it’s No. 1. Then there are people who will click the ad by accident, not knowing it’s an ad. Let’s face it: There are still people online who are new to the Internet and do not have ten years of knowledge to help them navigate the sea of search confusion. That’s why the No. 1 ad position is not necessarily the best.
If you want a bigger ROI on your pay per click advertising then you might shoot for No. 2 or No. 3. That way you get fewer clicks, but the clicks are from people really interested in what you have to offer. But how do you find the No. 2 or No. 3 position?
It’s largely a matter of guessing and second guessing, but you can find the No. 1 position pretty quickly. When you launch you campaign initially, bid enormously high on your keyword. I like to bid $10. Very few advertisers are paying that much for their keywords. If the highest bidder for your keyword is under that amount then you will pay 1 cent higher for the No. 1 position. For example, if the highest bidder for you keyword is paying $1.29 for the No. 1 position and you bid $10 then when someone clicks on your ad you will pay $1.30.
Set your bid for $10 for one day and see how many clicks you get at that price. The next day, you can go in and lower your bid. You know the highest bidder is at $1.29. Lower your bid to $1.28 and you’ll pay 1 cent more than the second highest bidder. If that bidder is paying $1.18 for the keyword then you’ll know that when you fall in at the $1.19 rate. If you want position No. 3 then lower your bid to $1.17. You’ll still just pay 1 cent more than the current No. 3 bidder.
