Id like to get some opinions of the topics below. What are other Adwords users doing with: 1. Edit Campaign Settings > Ad Serving > a. Optimize: Show better-performing ads more often (default) OR b. Rotate: Show ads more evenly My opinion- Optimize option would show better performing ads more often, thus lowering keyword prices and improving your overall Quality Score. BUT, the rotate option would show ads more evenly to where you can splittest your Adwords ad copy more proficiently. 2. Edit Campaign Settings > Search Network......on or off My opinion- I have heard from many users that the Search Network is better left off due to the lack of conversions from these clicks. NOTE: I think there should be a way to track this separately, like the Content Network (Adsense) 3. When split-testing your Adwords Ads and you find a clear winner what do you do next:a) Edit the "losing ad", change a variable and then save for the next split-test OR b) Edit the "losing ad", change a variable and then edit the "winning ad" BUT don't change anything as to reset both ads CTR and Clicks. My opinion- I would normally choose option "A", but have noticed that if you use option "A" - Optimize Show Better Performing Ads from question #1, then your "winner" ad would show ALOT more than its new competitor ad, thus not giving a fair split test between your two competiting ads. Thus choosing option "B" would result in a more accurate split-test between the two Adwords ads due to the CTR and Clicks being reset. What are your opinions??
I personally refrain from using the optimize settings as most of my campaigns are CPL or CPA based and the optimization is by CTR. a good CTR ad does not imply good ROI.
1) I would have to agree with ohadgliksman where optimized serving of ads is concerned. The lower CPC benefit does not necessarily equal to the loss in ROI that might happen. I also do wish that this option was an adgroup level option instead of a campaign level option. 2) I also agree that we should get stats on the search network like we do for content. Meaning we should have 3 different stats for - google, search network, content network. Havent tested just google + content so no idea of how well / badly the search network performs. Its usually opted in though. 3) I would not edit a performing ad just to reset the stats and do testing unless I was purely looking for the results of the testing. By editing the ad, I am actually killing the history it has had. While I dont know the impact of just editing and saving without making a major change, I am not willing to risk it.
Thank you Deep for the thorough answers to my questions posted above. I agree with point #2 and #3. I have been using the optimized setting for some time now with much success. Alot of Adwords gurus bring up the point of splittesting your Adwords Ads constantly to lower your CPC, but I don't see a sure-fire way of doing this with the system currently in place. I currently have my search network turned off because I have personally found that this network's visitors does not have the conversions that Google produces itself. Until Google has a way of testing it separately, I guess we'll never know for sure.