1) Adwords is not testing ads like they use to, meaning before I could post two ads and the one with the highest CTR would rise to the top. Recently (and according to other comments I heard) the ad that rises to the top seems to be the on that is the highest cost per click. None of the people I heard making comments had yet realized that this was the case, but their description of their problems caused me to look and looking at the ads I run and the ads that my clients run, I have seen this occuring. I honestly don't think this is a google out to gouge the fold, I think that if this occuring (and I am not just seeing strange anomilies in my ads) that this is an error, an unexpected error.
2) The few arbitrage ads I have running seem to be penalized for having testing ads running. I am seeing a much better performance from arbitrage ads that run with only a single ad rather than a couple of testing ads. I have also seen arbitrage ads that were performing badly that will boost after I delete all but one ad.
Has anyone else seen this or am I just seeing some oddities?
if you set up an apples to apples competition between the two ads you should be able to discover which is the superior one, and then delete the loser.
but doesnt this automatically happen when the two ads are in the same adgroup? the bids would be identical, so the only difference would be the CTR which is precisely what you are trying to isolate.
i am assuming that you are talking about ads in different campaigns that are targeted toward the same keywords. am i missing something?
Do you have auto optimization turned on? Do you mean several ads in one adgroup, or one ad in several groups, or several ads in several groups with some keywords overlapping?
I am seeing a much better performance from arbitrage ads that run with only a single ad rather than a couple of testing ads.
I don't think I'm seeing the same, but I will take a close look.
