If you came up in paid search before 2019, Average Position was the number you watched. It was the first thing clients asked about and the easiest way to feel like a campaign was winning. Then Google quietly killed it. Understanding why is one of the most useful lessons in how to read paid search metrics today — because the reason it died says a lot about the metrics that replaced it.
What Average Position measured
Average Position was a Google Ads metric that told you the typical rank your ad held among the other ads shown for a given keyword. A value of 1 meant your ad generally appeared above all other ads; a value of 4 meant it usually sat fourth in the lineup. It was calculated as the average of the ad’s position across all the auctions it competed in.
Crucially, it described order relative to other ads — not where the ad sat on the page. That distinction is the whole reason the metric eventually got retired.
Why a low number didn’t mean what people thought
Here’s the trap that fooled a lot of advertisers. Ads can appear at the top of the results page or at the bottom, below the organic listings. An ad with an Average Position of 1 was simply the first ad shown — but if all the ads for that query ran at the bottom of the page, “position 1” still meant the bottom. People read the number as “top of the page” when it really only meant “first among ads, wherever those ads happened to be.”
So a metric that looked like it measured visibility didn’t reliably measure visibility at all. Advertisers were optimizing toward a number that could mislead them about whether their ads were actually being seen in a prominent spot.
Why Google retired it
Google officially removed Average Position from Google Ads on September 30, 2019. The reasoning was straightforward: the company had introduced a set of metrics that described an ad’s actual prominence on the page, and those made Average Position redundant and, frankly, less honest. The four replacement metrics are:
- Impression (Top) % — the share of your impressions that showed anywhere above the organic results.
- Impression (Absolute Top) % — the share that showed in the very first ad slot, the most prominent position on the page.
- Search Top IS — the top impression share, meaning the top impressions you got versus the top impressions you were eligible for.
- Search Absolute Top IS — the same idea for that coveted first slot.
The shift moved the question from “where do I rank against other ads?” to “how often am I actually showing up in a prominent place, and how much of the available prominence am I capturing?” From our agency experience, that’s a far more actionable way to think about it — these metrics tell you whether to push bids or budget to claim more of the top of the page, which the old number never really could.
What to track instead today
When we run paid search for clients now, the prominence metrics above are what we watch for visibility, paired with the metrics that actually tie to results: click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per conversion. What we consistently see is that chasing the top slot is only worth it when the math works — sometimes the second or third position converts nearly as well at a meaningfully lower cost per click. Position is a means to an end, not the goal.
One note for SEO, where the term still lives: Google Search Console reports an “average position” for organic results, and that metric is alive and well. It measures your typical organic ranking for queries. Don’t confuse it with the retired paid-search metric — same words, different context, and still useful.
Frequently asked questions
Does Average Position still exist in Google Ads?
No. It was removed on September 30, 2019, and replaced by the four prominence metrics: Impression (Top) %, Impression (Absolute Top) %, Search Top IS, and Search Absolute Top IS.
So why do I still see “average position” in reports?
Almost certainly because you’re looking at Google Search Console, which reports an average position for organic search results. That’s a different, still-active metric for SEO, not the old paid-search one.
What’s the best replacement to watch?
For prominence, Impression (Absolute Top) % is the closest in spirit to “am I at the very top?” Pair it with Search Absolute Top IS to see how much of that top-slot opportunity you’re actually capturing, then judge it all against conversion and cost data.
Is the top ad slot always worth paying for?
Not always. The top position usually costs more per click, and a lower spot can sometimes deliver a better cost per conversion. Test it rather than assuming higher is automatically better.
Related terms
- Impression Share — The portion of available impressions your ads actually received; the family of metrics that replaced Average Position.
- Ad Rank — The score Google uses to decide ad order and placement in the auction.
- Quality Score — Google’s rating of ad and landing-page relevance, a key input to Ad Rank.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) — The share of impressions that earn a click; a better health signal than raw position.
- Cost Per Click (CPC) — What you pay per click, which usually rises as you push for more prominent placement.
- Search Engine Results Page (SERP) — The page where ads and organic results compete for attention.
