Google campaign drafts and experiments, a powerful tool for your Ads strategies

In previous articles, we’ve covered a lot about Google ads, including how the ads work, how to optimize and improve your CTR, and keyword creation. Google ads are a popular marketing tool that can quickly improve performance. Most marketers love it. However, you may not know the powerful features of Google ads campaign drafts and experiments that can make your ads more effective.

Why you should use Google Ads Draft and Experiment

You can use Google Ads drafts and experiments to segment the advertising test and compare it with the performance of the original advertising campaign to determine some important factors. Then you may know how to improve the overall performance. Experiments can be used to test the performance of a part of changes for search and display campaigns on the website, especially when major changes are made. For example, you intend to change the bidding method from CPC to CPA. If you modified the original advertising campaigns directly, some of the data may become negatively. Thus, you should test before madding changes. Moreover, the Google Ads experiment can also be conducted to test the changing of interests and display place when you use Google display campaigns.

How to use Google campaign drafts and experiments

Create and set up a campaign draft

Step 1: Sign in to your Google Ads account

Step 2: From the page menu on the left, click Drafts & experiments, then click Campaign Drafts at the top of the page. Next, click the blue plus button to create a new draft.

Step 3: Use the Select a campaign drop-down to select the campaign you would like to test. Currently, drafts and experiments are only available for Search and Display Network campaigns.

Step 4: Enter a name for your draft that is related to testing items so that you can remember what you are testing and click Save. Then you can find the newly created drafts which show on the “Campaign Drafts” page under the corresponding campaign.

Step 5: Click the draft name to open it and make changes, any changes you make to the draft will automatically save. Once you’re satisfied with your draft, you can create an experiment.

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6250195?hl=en&ref_topic=6319800

Create and set up a campaign experiment

Step 1: Sign in to your Google Ads account

Step 2: From the page menu on the left, click Drafts & experiments, then click Campaign Experiments at the top of the page. Next, click the blue plus button. Enter the name of the experiment as same as the draft to distinguish the different contents.

Step 3: Select a start date and an end date for your experiment, such as 4 weeks. Set a date reminder a few days before the end of the experiment or stop the experiment before the end date if the performance is not.

Step 4: Enter the percentage of the original campaign’s budget. For example, you can the allocate half budget from the original ads to makes it easier to find whether the experiment performed better. In addition, you can decide whether you would like to count users or searches. You can click “Advanced options” and select Cookie-based or Search-based.

Step 5: Click Save and the experiment will be launched at the start date. During the period of the experiment, you can compare the data between the original one and the experiment. If you are testing CPA and CPC, you can check the data of clicks, conversions and cost, etc.

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6261395?hl=en&ref_topic=6319800

Data Analysis and Interpretation

1. The first line below each metric name displays the data of the experiment for the metric. As you can see from the figure, the number of “Clicks,” is 11.5K. It means the experiment has received 115,000 clicks from the start to the end date.

2. The number of second lines means an estimated performance difference between the experiment and the original campaign. In the figure, if you see +10% for Conversions, it’s estimated that your experiment received 10% more conversions than the original campaign. If there’s not enough data available yet for the original campaign and/or the experiment, it will be shown with “‑‑”.

3. The second value shows the 95% confidence interval. It means that the possible range for the performance difference that might exist between the experiment and the original campaign. For example, if you see [+6%, +15%], it means that there might be anywhere from a 6% to 15% increase in performance for the experiment when compared to the campaign. If there’s not enough data available yet for the original campaign and/or the experiment, it will be shown with “‑‑”.

4. If your result is statistically significant, you’ll also see a blue asterisk.

Statistically significant: p ≤ 5％, it shows that your data is likely not due to chance, and your experiment is more likely to continue performing with similar results if it’s converted to a campaign.

Not statistically significant: p＞5, the possible reasons may include:

• The experiment hasn’t had enough time to run.
• The campaign doesn’t receive enough traffic
• The traffic split was too small, and the experiment isn’t receiving enough traffic.
• The changes you’ve made haven’t resulted in a statistically significant performance difference.

 Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6318747?hl=en&ref_topic=6319800

Apply your campaign experiment

If you are satisfied with the results of your campaign experiment, you can apply your experiment to the original campaign or convert your experiment into a new campaign.

Click Apply In the top right corner of the experiment page. Then, select update your original campaign or convert to a new campaign.

Apply the experiment to your original campaign: the changes you were testing in your experiment will be applied to your original campaign. For example, the bidding method will change from CPC to CPA.

Convert your experiment into a new campaign: your original campaign will be paused and your experiment will show with your other campaigns as a regular campaign. It’ll have the same budget and dates as your original campaign.

P. S. Whether you apply your experiment to the original campaign or create a new campaign, performance data for both the original campaign and experiment will be preserved.

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7457118?hl=en&ref_topic=6319800

The tips of using campaign drafts and experiments

1. In the experimental period, try to keep the content of original ads unchanged to obtain accurate comparisons.
2. Experimental ads can take a while to be before launch. Hence, the best start date is within the next few days.
3. You can schedule up to 5 experiments for a campaign, but you can only run one experiment at a time.
4. If you select the cookie-based split option, and you use audience lists, you should have at least 10,000 users in the list to run an experiment to obtain an accurate result.

Marketers should use Google ADs campaign drafts and experiments smartly to identify the issues of ads performance or inspire new ideas for enhancing advertising strategies. If you’re using Google Ads drats and experiments but would like to obtain some deep insights based on the data or look for some optimized strategies. Please contact Webzilla, our digital marketing experts will provide professional advice or customized strategies.