For two years, my team ran 54 Google Ads experiments in one lead gen (non-ecommerce) account, testing various features, including:
This article delves into those tests, explaining the rationale behind them, the outcomes achieved and the implications for your own Google Ads accounts.
TL;DR
We ran 54 experiments over two years covering a range of features for a lead generation business.
Key tests covered bid strategies, match types and ad copy.
Exact match keywords almost always perform better than phrase match keywords.
Maximize conversion strategy tended to underperform other bid strategies.
Target CPA bidding helped us hone in on an optimal CPA level for us.
What are Google Ads experiments?
Google Ads experiments allow advertisers to test changes within their campaigns before fully implementing them.
These experiments, conducted at the campaign level, provide a structured framework to easily set up these changes, test for significance and apply the changes to the whole campaign if they are effective.
For more detailed information, the official Google Ads support pages offer additional guidance.
Experiment setup overview
Across two years, we conducted 54 experiments, testing a variety of levers in Google Ads. Below are a few examples of the experiments.
Key test categories
Bidding: Testing different bidding methods against each other. For example, maximize conversions vs. target CPA or target CPA of $90 vs. target CPA of $120.
Ad copy: Pinning certain ad copies down, testing certain copies or new landing pages.
Keyword match: Testing exact match keywords vs. phrase match.
Timings
There was no set time for each experiment, but we tried to run each experiment for at least 30 days.
However, sometimes when the results were clear in less time, we made a decision. Many of the experiments ran for over three months, and most ran for over two months.
Evaluation
We evaluated all experiments based on conversion rate, conversion volume and cost per acquisition – balancing these metrics to make a decision. (For ad copy tests, we also used CTR.)
Experiment results
1. Exact match vs. phrase match
Exact match keywords performed better on all criteria when compared to phrase match. They had lower CPAs and higher conversion rates and maintained similar conversion volumes to phrase match keywords.
Insights