Why on Earth does Adwords Mix the Content with Search CTR for ads?

[Rockgar]

I understand you can run reports to separate the two but is there any other way to separate the two from within the ad variations page?

It's just a pain to have to turn off the Content Network every time I have new ads running in order to test their true CTR without the Content CTR crap in the mix.

Aside from Separating Content Campaigns from Search are there any other options? And is that even still the recommended way to go?

I would appreciate some feedback from the pros on this.

Thanks.

[netmeg]

I always run separate campaigns for Content and Search. There's just no reason to do otherwise; complete apples and oranges.

[buckworks]

I agree with NetMeg.

Here's my biggest reason for keeping them separate: the negative keywords you'd use for a search campaign are often different from the negative keywords you'd use in a content ads campaign.

[RhinoFish]

ditto, split them.

[Rockgar]

Alright, I'm going to split everything up.

Should the cloned content only campaign be created as a placement targeted or just a normal campaign without the search and search partners checked?

Thanks for the feedback.

[netmeg]

I don't use the placement targeted all that much.

The AdWords Editor (when it's working) makes all this very easy - you can just copy and paste your entire campaign, then make one Search Only and the other Content Only.