and recommend you select Rotate for ad serving.
We have
AdWords campaigns
for some of our clients that have been running for over three years, but we always maintain at least
two ad variations per ad group. Even if there's only a single word difference, one ad will ultimately
prove superior and deliver an improved ROI.
The Rotate option also gives you more granularity when testing ad variations. Say you want to do a
1/3-2/3 split; you simply create two copies of ad "A" and one of ad "B". Using the same principal
allows you to create 60/40 and 70/30 splits, which are very useful in some circumstances.
Network Options: Start your testing using Google's Search
network only. Uncheck both their Partner and Content networks. Once you have some
solid data from mainstream search traffic, you can add their Partners. Google's partners are a pretty
"mixed bag", and you may decide to exclude them altogether (we often do).
Finally, enable the Content network and Content Bids. Never run on the Content network with
the same bid as Search - you're just handing Google money. By default, we set Content Bids at 1/10 of
that on the Search network: so if your Search bid is 0.50p, set your
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Content bid to 0.05p for openers.
If you find your product or service has "traction" on the Content network (true in about 25% of
cases in our experience), it may be worth running separate campaigns for Content searches.
All these options can be set from the Campaign Management tab in your account. Select
a campaign and click the Edit Settings button.
A Stitch in Time...
It's important to optimise your ads (and separately your keywords and bids) to a fixed schedule.
By default, we run a three-month cycle:
Every three hours for the first day.
Every day for the first week.
Every week for the first month.
Every second week for the second month.
At the end of the third month.
You can adapt this schedule to suit your click volume, but make sure you have
a schedule and stick to it. You'll learn more about your target audience, and employ your time more
efficiently. Don't forget to take weekdays, weekends and seasonal trends into account.
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