Rules and Reports That Still Use Average Position

The week it goes

In February, Google Ads said average position would be retired in September. The removal starts this week, the week of September 30.

For an advertiser who only glanced at the column, very little happens. It stops appearing, and that is all.

Anything built on top of it is another matter. Google is switching off automated rules, custom columns and saved filters that use average position, and removing it from saved reports and column sets.

Most were set up once, by somebody who may have moved on, and have run untouched since. Which is why they deserve an hour this week.

What stops working

• Automated rules that use it are disabled, not rewritten.
• Custom columns that include it are disabled too.
• Saved filters and reports that filter on it stop working.
• Column sets and other reports simply lose the column.
• Dashboard scorecards that show it are affected.
• The {adposition} parameter in tracking links returns an empty value.
• Scripts that read it need checking by whoever wrote them.

The first is the one that fails quietly. A disabled rule produces no error in the campaigns; bids that used to move with position simply stop moving, and the account looks perfectly normal.

Rules: rebuild or delete

Open the list of automated rules and look for any marked as disabled, or any whose conditions mention average position.

The usual one raised bids whenever average position was worse than a set number. If the aim was staying near the top, rebuild it on top impression rate, with a ceiling on how far bids can rise.

Or hand the job to Google's bidding: target impression share aims for a chosen share of searches at the top of the page, or the very top, within a maximum bid you set.

And ask whether the rule should exist at all. A rule that chased position on general searches was buying placement, not enquiries, and may be better deleted than rebuilt.

Reports and column sets

Saved reports that only displayed average position keep working, one column short. Reports that filtered on it are disabled and have to be rebuilt.

In each, replace the column with four: search impression share, search lost impression share due to budget, top impression rate and absolute top impression rate.

Together they say how often the ad showed, why it missed, and where it sat. Save them as a column set so they open by default.

Custom columns and saved filters built on the old metric need the same treatment: rebuild the ones somebody uses, and delete the rest.

Dashboards and monthly summaries

Many owners never open Google Ads; they read a monthly summary, often a Data Studio dashboard or a PDF, with average position near the top.

Dashboards that pull figures automatically will show a blank, a zero or an error where position used to be, depending on the tool.

Ask your provider what will replace it, and for a line on the first report explaining the change, so nobody reads a missing number as a fall.

Month-to-month comparisons break here, so start the new series this month and note the date. Any history exported earlier in the year belongs beside it.

The parameter in tracking links

ValueTrack parameters are placeholders in an ad's tracking settings that Google fills in at the moment of the click. {adposition} recorded where the ad sat.

From this week it returns an empty value. Any call tracking setup, analytics field or spreadsheet that recorded it will start receiving nothing.

Nothing breaks for visitors. Removing it from tracking templates and final URL suffixes just stops reports filling with blanks.

A worked example

A carpet cleaning company with four vans had its search ads set up by a contractor who no longer manages them.

The owner read a monthly Data Studio report the contractor had built, with average position as the second figure on the page, beside cost.

Preparing for the change last week, a new provider went through the account.

It found two bid rules based on position, a custom column built on it, a report filtered to keywords below third place, and {adposition} feeding an analytics field nobody read.

Each had been reasonable once. None had been looked at in two years.

The rules were rebuilt on top impression rate, for searches on the company's own name and its two main cleaning services, with a bid ceiling. The custom column, the filtered report and the parameter were removed.

The monthly report kept its layout, with impression share and the two top rates where average position had been, and a dated note explaining the switch.

Scripts

Scripts are small programs inside the account, often pasted in from a website years ago, that pause keywords or adjust bids on a schedule.

Google advises reviewing any that use average position. A script cannot read a figure that no longer exists, so it will stop with an error or carry on acting on nothing.

If nobody can say what a script does, pause it, note what it seemed to be for, and ask before turning it back on.

Which figure answers which question

Most reports used average position to answer questions it never really answered. Each now has a better source.

Whether the ad shows for the searches that matter: search impression share. Why it misses when it does: the lost impression share columns, for budget and for rank.

Where it appears on the page: top impression rate and absolute top impression rate. How it compares with competitors: the auction insights report, which shows how often each rival's ad appeared above yours.

And whether any of it pays: conversions and cost per conversion, which average position was never a substitute for.

The counter-case

Plenty of accounts lose nothing but a column.

An account with no rules, no scripts and no custom reports, whose owner never relied on average position, can let this week pass.

Accounts on automated bidding towards conversions were never bidding on position, though their reports may need a new column.

But where anything was built on the old figure, it fails quietly rather than loudly. Find each one, and rebuild it on impression share and the top rates, or delete it.

This week

1. Open the rules list and find disabled rules.
2. Rebuild or delete each rule deliberately.
3. Replace the column in saved reports and sets.
4. Remove {adposition} from tracking templates.
5. Check every script that reads position.
6. Ask your provider what the summary will show.
7. Date the change in your reports.

Step two is the one worth slowing down for. A rule rebuilt mechanically on a new metric carries the old mistake forward, and this is the one week when deleting it instead costs nothing at all.

Why the old figure misled in the first place is covered in average position is going away.

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