Google Changes Ad Rotation

This is *nuts*

[netmeg]

Starting next week, the “rotate” setting for ad rotation will change. Instead of rotating creatives for an indefinite period of time, this setting will only rotate for a period of 30 days. After that, the setting will then optimize to show the ads expected to generate the most clicks. Every time a creative is enabled or edited, the ads in that ad group will rotate more evenly for a new period of 30 days.

[adwords.blogspot.com...]

Every change they make that costs ME time will cost THEM spend. This is the silliest one yet.

[Erik_Jan]

This is ridiculous Google! This shows that CTR is still king at Google.

We are running almost all of our tens of millions of Adwords clicks with the "Rotate: Show ads more evenly" option to test WEBSITE CONVERSIONS. This will indeed cost lots of TIME to reset this options every 30 days.

What is the rationale behind this Google, besides making more money?

Here is the full article: [adwords.blogspot.com...]

[eWhisper]

I'm just dumbfounded by this change.

It makes it impossible to do long tail or small account testing.

This is the worst change since expanded broad match was introduced.

[netmeg]

Yea, me too. And everyone I talk to is hopping mad about it.

[Mel66]

I'm so mad about this I came back to WebmasterWorld after a really long absence! This is a pure money grab by Google. As eWhisper said, it'll now be impossible to do small account or long tail testing without a lot of extra work. We already have the option to choose "optimize for clicks" and "optimize for conversions" - there was no reason to force us into either of these options! We choose Rotate for a reason - please let us do it!

[jkwilson78]

If you have to change an ad every 30 days to keep it in "rotation" doesn't that in effect kill the "history" for that ad? Without the history wouldn't you lose any benefit (reduced CPC) an ad might have gained?

So in effect in order to keep ads rotating you will pretty much need to be constantly adding new ads with no history resulting in higher CPC or stick with the ads you have and don't test and potential pay to have an ad that shows more often becasue it gets more clicks not necessarily convert better.

[RhinoFish]

"This is the worst change since expanded broad match was introduced."
Perhaps, but it pales in comparison.
:-)

[Andy Langton]

I'm not an Adwords guy, but this makes no sense to me either. This note on the Adwords page looks like a pain (and totally unhelpful) for those of you managing many campaigns and adgroups:

Note that a campaign’s ‘Ad rotation’ setting will continue to say ‘Rotate evenly’ after the even rotation period has ended for any or all of the ad groups in the campaign.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

They are likely dumbing down adwords(automating) to 'level the playing field' except this is like dulling the screwdriver.

Personally I think they do not want to take or trust ANY signal given to them by a webmaster and even want to automate your ads for you. They just don't get it, nobody was asking for this.

[gyppo]

Just another change that'll make them more money, like extended broad match & the new changes to exact match keywords.

[francie brady]

We have checked with our shareholders, who are always pining for increased revenue so, starting next week, the “rotate” setting for ad rotation will cease to function properly as it has for years now. Instead of rotating creatives for an indefinite period of time, this setting will only rotate for a period of 30 days. After that, we will just choose the ad that makes US the most money, knowing thousands and thousands of you busy advertisers will not bother to keep dicking around trying to keep up with all our bloody changes. ;-)

[RhinoFish]

i think they have people looking so closely at things, they miss the bigger picture to some degree. they're not the only online biz prone to myopia.

[CainIV]

It makes it impossible to do long tail or small account testing.

surprise, surprise.

[digifresh]

Has AdWords "jumped the shark? As a small business Adwords advertiser since 2003 I've watched Adwords trend towards complexity and witnessed the saturation of advertisers. I'm now throttling back ad spend and rethinking/reshaping my PPC strategy since my results on Adwords over the past 2-3 years is much lower, the cost much higher, the time more wasted.

[LucidSW]

Well, you can't say that Adwords has always been simple. It may seem simple on the surface and of course, Google will advertise it as such. But every new feature or change will bring a different level of complexity. And since most of the little people will not be aware of those (or even understand it in many cases), it may mean that more people will get frustrated with diminishing results and quit. Or hopefully hire guys like me to manage it for them. In fact, I'm thinking of increasing my fees for just that reason.

But does it mean Adwords "jumped the shark"? I'd say no. Changes, improvements (at least in the eyes of Google), new features were all to be expected although changes that take away the advertiser's control over their own ads is a step backwards in my opinion. This qualifies. But they are not all bad and we have to adjust, take advantage even whenever possible.