Compare and track performance over time

Curious whether your ad is clicked more often on Fridays than Sundays? Want to easily compare ad group impressions by quarter? Search Ads 360 provides multiple ways to compare performance over time. This article will show you how to compare performance across 2 date ranges on any statistics page (for example, "Campaigns"). You’ll also learn how to use segments to drill down to specific data sets.

Instructions

Let's say you want to know how your campaigns did last week compared with the week before. Or maybe you want to view data for the current month compared with this month last year. You can view all this by using the "Compare to" option in the date range selector:

  1. Sign in to your Search Ads 360 experience.
  2. Click Campaigns in the page menu.
  3. Click the down arrow next to the date range in the upper right corner of your screen.
  4. Click the toggle next to "Compare" to activate a second date range field.
  5. In the top range, select the dates you’d like to measure.
  6. Next, choose the time period that you’d like to compare.
  7. Click Apply. You’ll view results for both date ranges in your performance chart.

To view the comparison metrics in your statistics table, you’ll need to click on the double arrows (< >) that have now appeared in each of your column headers. This will expand a column that will show the below mentioned 4 columns:

  • Current date range
  • Previous date range
  • Numerical change between the 2 date ranges
  • Percentage change

When you choose a date range, both alone and as part of a comparison, those dates apply across your account (until you change them).

The "compare to" feature lets you compare performance across 2 date ranges, but not more. For example, if you want to look at performance per day over the last month, it’s better to use segments, described below.

Segment your data by time

Segments can provide a more granular view of your data. For example, say you used the date range selector to look at overall performance for the last week, then decided you wanted to view that week broken out by day.

  1. Click the segment icon above your statistics table.
  2. Select Time from the drop-down. A sub-menu will appear containing the following options:
    • Hour of the day
    • Day (for example, Wednesday, December 21, 2011)
    • Week
    • Month
    • Quarter
    • Year
    • Day of the week (for example, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

This will result in a split of your statistics table into rows based on the date range you select. For example, when you create a "Day of the week" segment, your single row of data will become 8 rows of data: the original row plus one new row for every day of the week.

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