In early May, we’ll be retiring the position preference bidding feature in AdWords. If you’re using position preference, we recommend that you disable the feature in your campaigns prior to that date to ensure a smooth transition for your bids. For instructions on how to disable position preference, please see our Help Center.

More specifically, you can expect to see the following changes in your account:

Before you disable position preference, we recommend that you export your manual bids by downloading a keyword report to back up any bids you set before you turned on position preference. This report will include keyword-level maximum CPC bids.

If you’d like to target specific ad positions, we recommend that you first read this blog post from our Chief Economist, Hal Varian, on some of the pitfalls around targeting average position.

After reading the blog post, if you’d still like to target specific ad positions, we recommend that you try using automated rules. Using this feature, you can set an automated rule for your campaign that will change your bid if your average position differs from your target. For more information on how to use this feature, please see this article.

We appreciate your understanding and your continued support of AdWords.