Letting Google Retire Your Ads without Testing
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Written by Atila on October 7, 2008 – 10:26 am
Another campaign setting that you need to override is the Ad Serving option in the Advanced Options section. From your campaign management console, click into a campaign and then click the Edit Campaign Settings link near the top. On the next page, Campaign Settings, find Ad Serving under Advanced Options (on the left). Do not optimize ad serving. Do not let Google show better performing ads more often. Instead, select the radio button next to Rotate: Show Ads More Evenly.
If you’re split testing, you have two goals: You want to identify the winner as quickly as possible, and you want to learn something from the test that will help you connect better with your market in the future.
When you let Google take control behind the scenes and quietly retire your low-CTR ads, you allow tests to drag on unnecessarily. It’s like holding a race, not specifying its length, and running it until the winner is miles away and the losers are gasping for breath at the side of the road.
A much more efficient method is to establish a finish line and identify the winner as soon as the tape is broken. When Google retires your ads behind your back, you lose the market intelligence that your split tests often provide.
Finally, the ad with the best CTR is often the least profitable. Yet Google chooses winners based on CTR, not conversion.
