We’re big fans of split testing here at PPC Rescue and we believe that a strong adherence to trying new ad copy can pay dividends (quite literally) once you connect with your customers using the right messages. We enable this split testing to take place by switching the ad delivery method to ‘Rotate: show adverts more evenly’ and this allows us and our clients to collate data based on how Google’s users interact with the advert.

Google have taken the liberty of changing this to ‘Rotate evenly: Show ads more evenly for 30 days, then optimise for clicks’. Why is that an issue? Because clicks mean cash to Google, which does not often make for a strong ROI (return on investment) for advertisers.

How do we judge an advert to be good or bad when compared to its peers? By the click-through rate and conversions chalked up to its performance. Does this tally with optimisation for clicks? Rarely. Optimise for clicks is about driving volume and is wonderful as part of a branding or awareness exercise, but not so much when you’re driving conversions in line with a specific cost per acquisition.

One of our team had a conversation with a Google rep and transcribed part of the conversation for us to mull over (with disbelief, I might add):
“I would like to bring your attention to the fact that ‘optimise for clicks’ settings gives preference to your ads that are expected to get the most clicks, based on your past click-through rates. Google will try to show those ads more often than other ads in your ad group to help you gain more clicks and impressions. After all, who doesn’t more clicks and impressions? This setting will actually help you get more business!”

Read that last line again. More clicks and impressions lead to more business? That’s a bold statement and one that anyone who has haemorrhaged money on AdWords will tell you is predominantly untrue.

Let’s illustrate the point to put things beyond doubt. If you have an ad group that contains two adverts set to rotate, and one advert running a CTR of 10% with a 6% conversion rate that’s received 156 clicks and another advert that has a 4.5% CTR and 0.8% conversion rate that’s received 175 clicks, guess which advert Google is going to default to: the poorly-performing advert with the highest number of clicks.

We wonder: at which school of economics did our Google contact study? Answers on a postcard…

Google Analytics is a highly versatile tool that enables you to observe and measure data about your website traffic at a very granular level. One of the most fascinating elements of this is the observation of paths taken by visitors leading into a conversion. If you thought that it was simply a case of users clicking on an advert and then making a purchase or clicking away never to return, you couldn’t be more wrong.

If you explore Top Conversion Paths within the Multi-Channel Funnels section of Analytics Conversions tab, you’ll find an array of paths taken by users who have converted on your site. As you’ll find out, the majority of consumers visit your site at least twice before buying.
 “Check out this guy…”

Often, your SEO, social media and remarketing campaigns can have a huge influence on whether they come back to buy. If a user finds your site using AdWords, they will most often do a search on your brand, and re-visit to purchase through organic search, referral, or a direct link. As such, it is important to utilise all of the weapons within your marketing arsenal to gain the conversion.

Whilst days of one-click conversions aren’t strictly dead, we’re dealing with a far more savvy and knowledge-hungry consumer who’s armed with reviews and ratings galore. They know what they want and they won’t pay more than they have to for the privilege. Factoring an ROI based on users researching products is a prerequisite for the modern AdWords advertiser and we strongly recommend that you make allowances for the omnipresent research shoppers’ visits.

Here’s the message in full from AdWords headquarters:

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We’re writing to let you know about some upcoming changes to the types of ads we review.

What’s happening? Starting September 6th, we’ll begin reviewing paused ads the same way we review active ads. This means that your new and existing paused ads will be sent through the standard ad approval process. As a result, if your paused ads violate one or more of our AdWords advertising policies, they’ll likely get disapproved.

Why? We’re proactively reviewing paused ads to eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and to ultimately enhance your experience with Google AdWords.

When? Starting September 6th, we’ll begin reviewing new paused ads, followed in the coming weeks by the review of existing paused ads.

Click the image for the source information.

It’ll be beneficial to those advertisers who don’t want the usual delay in waiting for approval but there’s the possibility of issues with too many disapproved ads.What’s the verdict, AdWords users?

Just another newsflash from PPC Rescue. Over and out!