Google has come up with a new metric for their display ads, called “The Mouse Over Rate”. The Mouse over rate is defined by Google in the below snapshot which we have captured from one of our running accounts, where we could find a column of this new metric.

In a way, the mouse over rate is a measure of how interesting your ad is to the viewers.

Though this cannot be a sure shot means to derive at a conclusion regarding the quality of your ad (as people do not track where they are looking with their mouse), it would certainly give some insight into how people react to your ads. The ads which they find more interesting, & might want to click have the likelihood of showing a higher mouseover rate.

It may or may not have a value because it isn’t a perfect window into the searcher’s mind. However, we cannot even consider it useless as it might give advertisers some useful data about the interestingness of their ads.

The decision to retain or scrap this metric, will have to await certain case studies from advertisers who do or do not derive benefits from it in future. We shall have to wait & watch!