Test and optimize creative messages

Well-written creative messages start out as great only in theory. It’s important to establish a robust process for testing Search ads.

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Use ad variations to test and iterate creative messages

You can learn about your users’ preferences and improve your performance by honing ad text, especially your headlines. Ad variations allow you to easily create and test variations of your ads across multiple campaigns or your entire account. For example, you can test how changing your call to action from "Buy now" to "Buy today" impacts your performance. Or you can test changing your headline to "Call Now for a Free Quote" across ads in multiple campaigns.

It’s important to prioritize your testing efforts on the places that matter most. Think about areas of your account that drive a lot of volume or value for you. You can also focus on ad groups that would benefit the most from a new set of creative messages.

Below are some tips to establish a testing framework that’s manageable and repeatable:

• Be organized. Something as simple as a calendar can help you to keep a schedule. Document start and end times. 
• Establish a testing threshold and stick to it. Wait until you have served enough impressions to be confident in your results.
• Limit how many elements you test within your ads. Make different variations similar enough that you learn from their differences.

To understand the impact of your changes before you apply them to a campaign, you can use campaign experiments to help you measure your testing results.

Learn what works for you, and keep track of the findings. Don’t repeat tests that you completed six months ago. Test with purpose. Like they taught you in science class in high school: establish a hypothesis; prove or disprove that hypothesis; document results; test again.

Evaluate the success of your ads based on incremental impressions, clicks, and conversions your ad groups and campaigns receive

Responsive search ads help you qualify for more auctions, so ad-level performance and metrics like clickthrough rate and conversion rate may not paint a full picture of your performance. With this in mind, focus on incremental impressions, clicks, and conversions that are garnered for entire ad groups and campaigns. There are many instances where you might end up serving impressions in a low clickthrough rate placement that you might not have qualified for before. A high clickthrough rate isn’t the end goal; it should be all about growing your business.

We recommend you use campaign experiments if you want to understand the impact of adding responsive search ads to your existing campaigns. You’ll be able to take a look at overall changes in clicks, cost per click, and conversions when adding responsive search ads to your campaigns.

Ultimately, when you’re deciding the outcome of ad tests, you can use a combination of performance stats. Looking at clickthrough rate or conversion rate alone can be misleading. If the system is showing an ad more often than another, it can mean that it’s better at winning impressions in the auction itself, which is often a strong reason to prefer that creative over others.

Conclusion

Your ad text represents your brand to consumers who search on Google.com. It’s important to get the messaging right. Write ads that connect with people as they search.