Google Adwords releases version history for edited ads
Google Adwords now allows you to easily compare previously edited versions of your ads and their performance in the new Adwords experience. When you edit an ad in Adwords, it creates a new version of the ad. Instead of having to manually tie old versions of the ad together, you can now quickly see how those previous ads performed.
How does version history work?
If you edit an ad, such as the headline or final URL, you can now see the old version of the ad by looking at the new version history feature.
Essentially, version history allows you to see;
- The date that each ad was edited
- How long that version was in place for
- For example, this can show how long the ad was paused or active for
- What changed specifically with that ad
Credit: Google Adwords Twitter, 2018
Why has Google Adwords released ad version history?
Version history lets you see previous versions of your ads after they’ve been edited–and how they performed. Check it out by clicking the pencil icon next to an ad in the new AdWords experience: https://t.co/GXgctPc1hM pic.twitter.com/V7G587dmjV
— Google AdWords (@adwords) March 22, 2018
It’s all a focus on helping to make the new Adwords experience even more useful for you
This feature, although sounds small, can save you a lot of time trying to work out which ad rotations you’ve previously tested have worked best, and for what reason.
Personally, I don’t think that you should be editing ads
Yes it’s much quicker to just edit the ads, but for me the negatives of doing this outweigh the positives.
One reason for this is because if you edit an ad, you can’t reactivate it. So if you decided to edit a small element of an existing ad, and found that this new version didn’t work as well as the previous, you’d have to build a new ad rotation trying to replicate your previous ad rotation. A headache!
What do you need to do?
If you are one that edits ad copy, use version history
This will save you so much time, as well as giving you additional insight to help with more effective optimisations. However, i’d stress to rethink your practice moving forwards.
Use this to make smarter decisions with ad copy optimisations
Learn from your mistakes and constantly look to drive your ad copy forward. Understand the version history data by downloading into a CSV and look to find what you can do for your next test.
Rethink whether you need to edit ads at all
Trust me, it’s better to create new ad rotations. This way, you can simultaneously test new ads against each other to work out which rotation works best. This will give you a more definitive answer to your testing by removing elements such as seasonality etc.
LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/siondanielroberts
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