4 replies to this topic

[nethy]

I have 2 ads withing an adgroup with totally different numbers.

Ad position/Avg. CPC/ Conversion Rate
Ad1: 7/$7/10%
Ad1: 1.5/$3.5/5%

Cost-per-conversion is similar because of the double conversion rate/ half CPC thing. CTR is about the same. Google is showing Ad1 4X more often. I could (sort of) understand the lower conversion rate being caused by the ad text but what's causing the lower CPC and higher ad position?

Anyone have any ideas?

[Alan Perkins]

Could be a number of things, but in summary it is ...

The positions and CPCs of the keywords the ads are shown in response to, which may vary according to the date and time at which those keywords were triggered and the ads were shown.

[nethy]

Thanks Alan,

Could Adwords be automatically selecting one ad over another for particular times (or perhaps particular queries). Those numbers are for a period when both ads are running.

BTW, these numbers stay pretty constant regardless of date so I don't think its just a statistical anomaly..

[Alan Perkins]

It's very difficult to figure out exactly what's going on with so little data. But Ad2 is shown at a very high position for a low CPC, whereas Ad1 is shown at a low position for a high CPC, so either they're being shown for completely different keywords (assuming all other things being equal) or they have completely different quality scores (with Ad2's quality score being way better than Ad1's).

From the data you've given us, I'd try pausing Ad1 for a while and seeing what happened ...

[nethy]

Ad1 is rated "non-family," Ad2 is rated normal. About half the ads in the campaign are rated family seemingly arbitrarily.The content of the site is, I suppose, borderline (btw, has three ratings: regular, non-family & adult). There are only 6 similar, exact match keywords in the group. Would probably all get picked up by the same broad match. Quality score are displayed at keyword level ranging between 5/10 - 7/10 . What other data do you need?

Being displayed for different keywords could be a cause, but it unlikely. The keywords themselves are very similar and all have similar stats.

Edited by nethy, 15 November 2011 - 10:16 AM.