Unlock Google Ads Success: 7 Simple Steps to Set Up Your First Experiment Like a Pro
You might have a great product, but your ad itself could… well, suck. With Google Ads Experiments, you can tweak your campaigns and get more traffic, better CPCs, more leads, and more sales. Here’s how you can test your hunches about what works into concrete evidence.
Step 1 – access Experiments
First things first, jump into your Google Ads account and log in. Once you’re in, find the campaign you want to test something new with. There’s a section called “Experiments” in those campaign settings. Editor’s note: we’ve got a screenshot of the old view below, but you’ll see the same thing in the new view of Google Ads. It might not be super obvious, but it should be somewhere in the sidebar.
Step 2 – Create a new experiment
To create a brand new experiment, look for a button with a plus sign and the words “New Experiment” next to it. Clicking that will open up the settings for your test.
Step 3 – Choose the experiment type
Google Ads might offer different experiment types depending on the features available in your account. Choose the type that tackles what you’re specifically trying to test or improve in your campaign.
Performance Max Experiment
This experiment type lets you see how your regular performance max campaign stacks up against another.
“Performance Max” campaigns use AI to show your ads across different platforms and formats (like Search, Display, and YouTube). You run a test to see if the AI approach can bring in better results. Basically, you’re letting Google’s AI manage your ads to see if it can outperform your work.
Step 4 – Define your experiment
Pick the original campaign that you want to use as your starting point. Think of it as the control group. Then, Google Ads will create a copy of that campaign, kind of like a test lab, where you can make all your tweaks. Go ahead and give it a catchy name and a short description so you can tell them apart easily.
Step 5 – Set up the variation
Navigate to the new campaign within the experiment settings. Essentially, you can go ahead and set up the variations between the original campaign and the test campaign.
Step 6 – Set up the experiment duration and budget
Next, you need to decide how long the experiment will run for. Think of it like a science experiment – you need to give it enough time to gather results. You can set the duration, maybe 2 weeks (14 days) for example.
Finally, you get to decide how much money to spend on this test group compared to the original campaign. A common approach is a 50/50 split, but you can adjust that. This way, you can see how each campaign performs with a similar budget.
Step 7 – Launch and monitor
Once you’ve configured the experiment details, click the “Create” button to launch the experiment. After letting it simmer for a while (usually a few weeks), it’s time to analyse and optimise. Head back to Google Ads and check out the performance data for each ad variation. You’ll see stuff like clicks, sales (conversions), and even how much it costs to get a new customer (cost-per-acquisition). Don’t just look for a random jump in performance. Look for statistically significant improvements.
Based on the data, you can pick the ad version that did the best and make it the main ad for your campaign. You can stop running the experiment to avoid wasting your budget on variations that might not be performing well.
- Go to your campaign settings and find the “Experiments” section.
- Click the “End Now” button to stop the variations from being served.
- Alternatively, you can let the campaign run until the end date that you initially set.
To improve Conversion Rate
- Offer experiments — test different promotions or discounts in your ads and landing pages to see which ones make people want to buy or sign up
- Call to Action tweaks — test different calls to action on your landing page (like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up”) to see which ones get the most people to do what you want
- Audience testing – Test showing your ads to different groups of people (by age, interests, etc.) to see who’s most likely to convert
To reduce Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
- Bid strategies – Experiment with different automatic bidding options Google Ads offers (like “Target CPA”) to see if they can lower your costs while still getting you sales
- Negative keywords – Add words or phrases people might search for that aren’t relevant to your business (negative keywords) to stop wasting money on clicks that won’t lead to sales
- Campaign budget – Test giving different amounts of money to different campaigns and see how it affects your overall results and cost efficiency