There are normally 8 sponsored links (Google Ads) but it can be up to 10 on any page of Gogle SERP's (search engine results pages)
There is no upper limit to he amount of bidders allowed for any keyword so in highly competitive markets most ads will not be seen by any significant number of searchers. This is another reason for ensuring your Google Adwords skills are honed to perfection
If there are less than 8 bidders then you are assured of being on page 1 so long as you are prepared to meet the minimum bid (can be as low as 1 US cent) ... but your challenge will normally to try hard to get into spots 2, 3 or 4 most of time, assuming you want traffic (ie clicks) without over-paying for the privilege. What you don't want to do is overpay and that's where we can help you a lot.
Which Position Will My Ad Occupy
Answer is ... It depends .... and it will also vary
However you can greatly influence through skill and experience not only your position but also dramatically reduce the amount you pay for a click
It is best to use an example to show relationship between CPC and CTR (click through rate) and position...
Let's assume you and your competitor both bid $1 for same keyword ... say pond pumps
Which of these 2 bids will rank higher? ...
Answer, the one with the higher CTR
The relationship between CTR and position is dependent upon the two variables multiplied together ie (your CTR x your bid)
Lets' put it another way ... I get a 1% CTR for my keyword pond pumps. This means of every 100 people who saw my add 1 person clicked through and that cost me $1.00. On the other hand my competitor who also bid $1 had a CTR of 2%. So my competitor can lower his bid to $0.50 to get the same position as me and if he bids $0.51 (only 1 cent more) he will get the position above me. Now that's a bargain
In effect this means I will pay twice as much as my competitor.
Google rewards high CTR reducing the amount I pay per click and also by increasing the position of my ad so more people see the ad and this means that there will probably be an even better CTR the next day.
