Google AdWords have announced a change to the “rotate” setting for ad rotation. Ads will rotate evenly only for 30 days then will automatically be optimised to show the ad that generates the most clicks.

Whilst rotating ads evenly is useful to test the performance of new ad creatives, it is not advantageous to continue indefinitely as it will keep showing all ads equally whether they are the best performers or not. This update is good for searchers as they will see relevant ads more often, good for advertisers to maximise their traffic volumes and good for Google as I’m sure receiving more clicks won’t do any harm to their bank balance!

However, Blueclaw’s recommendation is to optimise for conversions as this will display the ads that are of most benefit to your business goals rather than just simply increasing visitors. I would like to hope that most (if not all) advertisers have conversion tracking set up so that the real impact from your PPC advertising is being measured. It is not very often that I see websites that do not have goals that can be tracked online in some form or other.

The ad rotation change is due to take effect next week and will immediately apply to any ad groups where ads have already been running on rotate for over 30 days (or wait until 30 days after the last change to an ad was made). It is also worth noting that the even rotation period starts (and resets) for an ad group whenever the ads in the ad group change, meaning whenever you create a new ad, edit an existing ad, or enable a paused or deleted ad.

Click here for further help choosing an ad rotation setting for your campaign