Ad Rank is the value used to determine whether and at what position an advertisement appears in the auction. It is not just about the bid amount – the calculation also factors in the quality of the ad and landing page, expected click-through rate, relevance to the search, the threshold values for the given position, the search context and the expected contribution of ad extensions. The practical consequence is significant: an advertiser with a lower bid but markedly better relevance can outrank a competitor who pays more. Improving quality therefore lowers the cost per click for the same position. Focus on a tight connection between the search query, the ad text and the landing page content, on using extensions, and on continuously removing irrelevant queries that needlessly drag down quality.
See also: Impression share, Keyword match types, Click-through rate optimisation.
