The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

There are many ways to test ad variations in Google AdWords.  This post describes one of my favorite methods for getting the best ad possible. 
 
When creating text ads at the beginning of a campaign you should try out two very different ads. (To make sure you have a fair comparison, select “rotate evenly” in your ad group settings so that both ads will be displayed about the same number of times a day. The AdWords default is "Optimize," which displays ads more frequently if they have a higher CTR and Quality Score.) As we move along in the process we’ll test more precise variations, but, for now, we want to a very basic idea of what drives conversions.
           
Once you have a significant number of clicks on your ads, you will likely have two very different sets of statistics for those ads, on everything from CTR (Click-Through Rate) to Clicks, Conversions, etc.  If the difference in performance isn’t all that significant, you may want to try starting the process over: delete the poorer performing of the two ads and again try a completely different ad. On the other hand, if the performance difference between the two ads is significant, delete the poorer performing ad and create a new ad based off of the better performer.  However, instead of trying a completely different ad this time, just change one thing that you would like to test: the headline text, for instance, or a single word in one of the description fields. By limiting the number of changes in your ads, you can determine exactly what is working and what isn’t.
 
Our “Create Ad Variations” tool inside the Clickable solution helps you do this by generating up to 8 ads using different options that you give us for headline and description fields. Simply enter one or two headlines, and up to two variations for each description field (as well as your display and destination URLs) and the tool will generate as many as eight variations on your ad, using the fields you have entered.  We provide the best performing ad in your ad group for reference as a starting point. (The “Create Ad Variations” tool is available in the “Manage Ad Group” section of the “Manage” tab when logged into the product. You can also find more information about it in the “Product Guide” section of Clickable University.)
 
The process of improving ads should be a science, not a guessing game. By making sure you are systematically eliminating things which decrease the performance of your ad, you can know what is causing your success.
 
Hanny, Clickable SEM Guru
 
Note: Clickable employees volunteer several hours a week to helping other search marketers succeed. “Clickable Gurus” participate in numerous online search communities to provide straightforward answers to numerous questions, and, each week, one of the gurus posts a search marketing tip to the Clickable Blog.

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