Google Ads experiments
Also called Campaign experiments, Custom experiments.
A Google Ads feature that runs a changed copy of a campaign next to the original, splitting traffic between them, so the change can be measured against what would have happened without it.
Why it matters
It is the cleanest way to test value-based bidding on part of an account before switching all of it. Both arms run at the same time, in the same market, so a good month cannot pass for a good strategy.
What goes wrong
The split does not have to be half and half. A smaller share on the trial arm costs less if it goes badly, and takes longer to reach an answer. The limit is volume: each arm needs enough conversions of its own to learn from, so an account that barely clears the threshold as one campaign will struggle to run two.
Judge it on what the leads became, not on the conversions Google reports. A value-based arm will report higher value because that is what it is told to chase; the question is whether its leads closed into more revenue.
How to check it on your own account
In Google Ads, Campaigns, then Experiments. Check each arm would have at least thirty conversions a month on its own before starting.
Next to this
- Control groupIn this context, the leads that never came from the channel you changed.
- Conversion volume thresholdThe rough number of conversions a month a bid strategy needs before it has enough examples to learn from.
- IncrementalityWhether the conversions credited to a channel would have happened anyway.
Where this comes up
How it applies in your trade
The same method, worked through for each kind of business: what a lead is worth, what is known on arrival and what to prepare.
The rest of this step
Measure this on your own data
The diagnostic reads a CRM export in your browser and reports your volume, your match rate and the spread between your leads against the thresholds in this glossary. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.