from my experience yes it does. Even changing one parameter (if you track this way) can and did affect us until we built up enough clicks to reach close to where we were prior to the change. 15 days later it is still not fully recovered. The amount that we were hit was not catastrophic, but definitely saw a little blip.
What am I missing here?That any time google can reset your stats, they will? :-\
I have only one thought why G would reset based on a changed destination URL. That is, if your destination page has already been reviewed and approved (i guess to run on partner sites) then you change the URL, they must review it again. Personally, wish they would just pause the ad until they have had a chance to look at the landing page rather than reset it completly. It's rediculous.
Also, if they're so worried that someone would get one page reviewed, then later change, then that can be done simply by changing the content of the page rather than the url. But then again, I see frequent scans from google on the same destination urls so it's possible they get a checksum of the page to be sure it hasn't changed.
-Dr.X
They are not THAT retarded.I object. 'retarded' implies at least some brain matter. None has been introduced into evidence.
-Dr.X
But then again, I see frequent scans from google on the same destination urls so it's possible they get a checksum of the page to be sure it hasn't changed.
But what action would/do they take based on a change in the checksum? I know my ads aren't taken down for review based on content change.
Would the checksum be calculated against the source, scraping the page contents or what?
I can't see how they could use that for much. So many pages are dynamic. Bestseller lists change, RSS feeds change, guestbooks change if they are monitoring the page content itself.
An ad or content rotator in the source that never changes but reads from a data source could produce significantly different pages for different users.
Besides all of us who constantly tweak our pages.
I think you're giving them too much credit. They'd have a never ending job trying to keep up with changed content however they were calculating a checksum, don't you think?
Only the Supreme Being knows when we change our page content and that ain't Google!
patient2all
I made the change and CTR was reset to zero - all I did was add?kw={keyword} to the end. The original ad was deleted and a new one created in it's place. G just dodged the issue when I complained.
dont edit your detination url. use the tried and trusted method of creating a new ad and lettingit build CTR, and then delete the old one.
I think you're giving them too much credit.Probably :-)
Only the Supreme Being knows when we change our page content and that ain't Google!Shh, don't give G any ideas.
When I said "it's possible they get a checksum", I should have phrased that differently. More like, "I'm only guessing 'cuz I can't think of any reson for the freaquent scans."
Nor can I think of any good reason for google to reset the ad just because you change the destination url when all it would take to avoid that is to change the landing page's content.
Yep, I use dynamicly generated pages too. Based on the {keyword} element and the refering url. So the only thing a google scan will turn up is the generic results for when the cgi program fails to detect what the user was intending to find. Also, since I always think I must be doing something wrong, I'm constantly changing my content in hopes of getting more clickers to be buyers. So if the checksum would be detrimental to googles ability to deliver, I guess I would have noticed it by now. Or not. :-D
-Dr.X
I don't realy keep an eye on how often they check those pages, but I think I'll start monitoring that one.
Did you change the URL for the Ad or for the Keyword. If it is for the Ad, I have definitely seen the CTR being reset to zero. If it is for the Keyword, then you are correct. It does not reset the CTR for the Ad.
In my opinion, it's good practice to never mess around with an ad that's been approved, but others may disagree. It's been discussed here many times and AdwordsAdvisor has said you can't have premium position after ANY change to an ad since it will be reviewed (2-5 daysish).
The destination URL definitely makes a difference.
In my experimentation, I made an ad for 'Advertising Platforms'.
The destination URLs included:
Google.com
Yahoo.com
AdWords.com
Google.com/AdWords
AdWords.Google.com
Overture.com
searchmarketing.yahoo.com
etc (think you get the theme).
There was a large difference in pricing for the exact same keywords and ad text.
Initially, for 'advertising platform' Google was the most expensive, Yahoo the least, and Overture in the middle.
What became more interesting was Google seemed to have a few issues determine google.com/adwords and adwords.com (think that has todo with the redirect).
The next part that was interesting is that adwords.google.com and google.com/adwords (which both end up at the same page) actually gave different pricing; however, adwords.com and google.com/adwords had the exact same pricing (seems that might be due to the redirect).
It's now pretty common for us to check various URLs, redirect pages, etc in ad writing. If you come up with a URL that has min CPCs, then just create that directory and move a landing page to that location.
There is quite a bit of experimentation than can be done with the new system and URLs - I suggest you check a few different ways of writing URLs these days when creating new ads.
Were you only changing the destination url at keyword level? Was display and destination urls always different and if so what was display url set to? and any opinions you care to share on the minimum bid or price discrepancy?
nice test by the way...good choice of subjects
When I said "it's possible they get a checksum", I should have phrased that differently. More like, "I'm only guessing 'cuz I can't think of any reson for the freaquent scans."
Dr X,
I would say perhaps the scans are to make sure the page is online. I have had ads suspended with the reason "site offline" or similar wording probably because of some 'net glitch or the hosting company was rebooting at 3 in the morning.
On the other hand, I had an ad where the destination URL contained an upper case letter for a folder that the Linux host of course took for a different name.
I found this on my own after noticing it had never gotten an impression and always it alwaysresolved to a 404.
Does that suggest the ad was never reviewed by a human when placed?
patient2all
I would say perhaps the scans are to make sure the page is online.
Does that suggest the ad was never reviewed by a human when placed?
If I ran a search engine, and offered an adwords style program, I would definatly include the content of the landing page as one of those mysterious quality score things. I would call it "other relevancy factors" or something clever like that.
But that's just me. I'll go stay at a Holliday Inn tonight and see if I get any better ideas. :-)
-Dr.X
