I'm considering a lower competition campaign where I would end up #1 for many keywords. My view is those upper-left positions get a lot of spontaneous clickers who haven't really read the copy and who end up backing out of the ad--fast. Other than the (generally) higher cost of #1-3, are there other reasons you wouldn't want to be in those spots?
I was just blogging about this earlier today in my post, things you shouldn't care about in PPC. From the post, relating to the top spot:
OK, how about this then. In terms of ROI and general desirability, is it possible to distinguish between the upper-left #1 position and the right-side #1 position? GFC: Great blog. I've put it in my faves.
Good blog GFC... I was going to write something similar for my next blog, but I guess I'll have to come up with something else now Regarding whether the number one position is more profitable when it's on the left or right (which is decided by the Quality Score etc), I don't think there's any way to find out. Google doesn't allow you to split your results out by where they appeared on the screen. That said, it seems likely to me that above the natural search results, you'll get more traffic, of slightly poorer quality, so there wouldn't be a single, clear answer even if you could tell the positions apart... Incidentally, my blog on Finding The Sweet Spot may be of use: http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/blog/ppc-advertising-where-is-the-sweet-spot.html This goes through the process of finding the best position FOR YOU. What everyone else does is irrelevant (as GFC says), you're trying to make your campaign as profitable as possible...