Earlier this week, AdWords announced a new metric within the AdWords system that will help in managing PPC campaigns. The new metric is called ‘top of page bid estimates’, and effectively approximates the cost-per-click bid price required for our ads to show in the banner positions (as below), above the organic search results.

This feature complements the new “Top vs. side” report segment, which allows us to see how our ads perform above and to the side of Google search results. This information helps us to better optimise our search campaigns by more deeply examining the relationship between the ads’ locations and their clicks and conversions. On average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the side. Using this information in conjunction with the new top of page bid estimates can give us greater insight with which to plan our bidding strategy.

It is worth noting though, that whilst the top of page bid estimates can help guide our bid planning, bidding higher than the top of page bid estimate will not guarantee a top ad position. Ad position still depends on Quality Score, our CPC bids, our budget and account settings, and user and competing advertiser behavior.

Here’s how you can view your top of page bid estimates:

1. Go to the Keywords tab.
2. Click the Columns button.
3. Select Customize columns from the drop-down menu.
4. Check the Est. top of page bid box and click Save.

Et voila! Now to up some bids…