Microsoft Advertising to deprecate average position after all

After Google Ads announced it would be sunsetting average position, Microsoft Advertising introduced impression share reporting metrics but said it would continue showing average poistion as well. That always felt a bit half-hearted, though, particularly when most advertisers mostly shrugged off the change.

Deprecating starting in April. Microsoft Advertising announced Wednesday that it will deprecate average position beginning in April. It introduced the slate of position metrics ( Microsoft refers to them as “prominence metrics.”)

• Top impression share
• Top impression share lost to rank
• Top impression share lost to budget
• Absolute top impression share
• Absolute top impression share lost to rank
• Absolute top impression share lost to budget

Why we care. It makes sense to let go of average position. After the removal of right-rail ads, the metric indicated very little about where on the page your ads actually appeared. Now in both Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads, advertisers can shift their focus to the newer position metrics that focus on impression share of positions above the organic results.

Be prepared to make changes prior to April if you’re using average metric in your current Microsoft Advertising reporting, scripts or bidding rules.