Key Factors of Ad Rank in Google Ads: How to Optimise Your Ad Visibility

In Google Ads, Ad Rank is key to determining your ad's visibility. Why do some ads stand out while others get lost among the competition? What factors truly define that ranking position, and how can we effectively optimise them to maximise results? Let’s break down the most important factors that influence Ad Rank and how each contributes to the success of your campaigns.

Ad Rank is primarily determined by three crucial elements: bid, ad quality, and the expected impact of ad assets. Each of these elements has multiple layers worth understanding, such as keyword relevance, landing page quality, and the bidding strategy used.

1. Bid: This is the maximum price you’re willing to pay for a click, but it’s not just about bidding higher. Bids often need to be aligned with an automated strategy that takes into account signals like time of day or user device. These factors influence the likelihood of conversion, as certain times of day may perform better, and different devices can affect user behaviour. Efficiency is key; bidding higher without control can increase costs without necessarily improving results.

2. Ad quality: Here, keyword relevance, ad copy, and landing page experience come into play. To stand out, keywords must align with the user’s intent, not just their search terms. The ad content needs to demonstrate to the user that they’re in the right place, building trust from the outset. Landing pages should also be fast, secure, and clearly aligned with the ad message and page experience.

3. Expected impact of ad assets: Assets like call extensions, promotions, or even the website play an important role in enhancing user experience, simplifying access to relevant information, and increasing the likelihood of engagement. This can improve CTR, and some of these elements provide extra information without leaving the SERP. Including as many assets as possible, as long as they’re relevant, can have a positive impact.

One thing to bear in mind is that not everything affects Ad Rank equally. Elements like assets (extensions) may seem secondary but, in reality, help increase CTR and improve ad relevance across different contexts, ultimately adding value to your Ad Rank.

The most common mistake is focusing solely on increasing bids to improve position. Google also evaluates relevance and user experience.

In terms of the order of importance of Ad Rank elements, ad quality takes first place. Second is bid, which determines your competitiveness in auctions. Finally, the expected impact of ad assets is the third factor; while it plays an important role, it doesn’t weigh as heavily as quality and bid in determining Ad Rank.

The factors affecting Ad Rank complement each other, and good synergy among them is what allows you to stand out in auctions.

Occasions when it's better not to use Audience Network

Audience Network is a channel within the ad set section.

Our ad, if enabled, would be displayed on external websites and applications, i.e. outside of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.

There would be several locations where our ad would be displayed on these external sites, either in banner or video format, etc.

One of the problems with Audience Network is that it tends to deliver a lot of low quality clicks and traffic, where low quality clicks and traffic are understood as clicks that have been made by bots rather than real users, or even clicks from competitors.

All this does is waste the advertiser's money inefficiently.

However, the biggest problem with the Audience Network is that many of the clicks that are generated from the Audience Network are accidental. This is because Audience Network ads are going to appear on these types of web pages where there is an excess of ads everywhere, and therefore there is a high probability that these accidental clicks will be generated, especially if we are talking about mobile devices that have small screens.

If one chooses to make the decision not to show ads through the Audience Network, I don't see how that will cause any problems.

There are occasions where using the Audience Network may be acceptable, in general it will depend on the objective of the campaign, in campaigns with traffic, reach or engagement objectives, I would exclude Audience Network. However, with conversion campaigns I would see it valid, putting it in automatic locations, because if you generate low quality clicks that do not convert, Meta will automatically not put resources there (it is quite common for this to happen).

In short, if you want users to take an action beyond the ad in your campaign, it would be best to exclude the Audience Network.

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