Definition
Ad Rank is a metric search engines use to decide an ad’s eligibility and position. Some factors that go into Ad Rank include landing page quality, ad quality, and bid amount. The higher your rank, the more visibility the ad gets; a lower rank typically means your ad is less competitive compared to others targeting the same audience.
How Marketers Use Ad Rank
Ad Rank is important because each auction has a ranking threshold that must be met for an ad to even be eligible to serve. Marketers can use their Ad Rank to tweak their bidding strategies and ad content.
It’s important to note that Ad Rank is a moving target, since it’s calculated at the time of the ad auction. Instead of aiming for a specific Ad Rank, marketers should aim to optimize factors that go into an asset’s Ad Rank and maximize it for as many auctions as possible.
Having high-quality ads can improve Ad Rank independently of bids. If efficiency is a concern, look to improve ad quality first to increase traffic and mitigate the impact on cost-per-click (CPC).
