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PPC professionals and advertisers all over the world have been up in arms since Google announced the latest AdWords update. The change, meant to improve the performance of campaigns and prevent advertisers from serving less relevant ads, is putting a limited timeframe on how long one can evenly rotate their ads.
Instead of being able to evenly rotate your ads, regardless of performance, for as long as you’d like, Google is capping that period at 30 days. After the thirty days AdWords will display only the ads expected to generate the most clicks. Each time a new creative (text or otherwise) is enabled or edited, the ads within that ad group will rotate evenly again for a new period of 30 days.
You might be thinking, “Why is that so bad, isn’t it a good thing to only serve ads that are getting lots of clicks?”
Well, most advertisers are more focused on conversions, and just getting more clicks doesn’t necessarily mean more conversions. It’s also worth noting that depending on the volume of the particular ad group, 30 days may not be nearly enough time to complete an A/B test and determine which ads are best.
The idea behind the update likely has to do with the fact that if an ad drives more clicks, the CTR should be higher, which then plays a major role in raising your Quality Score. Again, that doesn’t necessarily equate to conversions for many advertisers. Another thing to consider is that Google makes money each time an ad is clicked, whether or not it turns into a conversion, so it makes sense for them to want your ads to get as many clicks as possible.
Is this the end of the world? Absolutely not. It just means that advertisers are going to have to be more creative when it comes to A/B testing your ad creative. For example, it might be a good idea to review your ads around the 27 day mark, and make a few edits, starting the 30 day period over again. It might not be ideal, but it’s a working solution in the meantime.
Do you like the update, or is it going to make your job harder?
The post Ad Rotation Update: A/B Testing In Jeopardy appeared first on Google AdWords Management Software - WordWatch.
