I'm looking to get a new domain and thought I'd split test on adwords to see what gets the best CTR but adwords won't let me use a different domain in the display URL. Does anyone know any other way to test domain names?
What do you mean by AdWords won't let you use the domain in the display? Are you just trying to set up two ads with different display urls?
Yeah. Sorry, that's what I meant. Actually, I've just noticed it's allowing me to use different display URLs with a different ad group (which i set up before the one they disallowed). Strange.
Just buy the other domain you are considering for one year and try it in your ad variations. If the domain you are testing is not pointed to your website and you are using it as a display URL, Google will eventually deactive your ad.
Even if the two domains to point to the same website, expect to sometimes get disabled ads However, Google adwords support has always been quick to reenable my ads when I told them I owned both domains and that the one redirected to the other. I actually once ran a rather large experiment with domain names and adwords ctr across many campaigns and adgroups.