Google Tweaks Rotation Options (Again) And Impression Share In AdWords

Remember all that uproar over Google’s removing “Rotate indefinitely” as an option in AdWords? Well, after Google opened a form allowing people to ask for it back, fewer than 1% of AdWords users did so. But Google decided to bring back “Rotate Indefinitely” for everybody, anyway. The company has also made changes to impression share metrics in the AdWords interface.

From the company’s blog post about the rotation options:

If you select “Rotate indefinitely” option for your campaign, we will show lower-performing ads about as often as higher-performing ads. For most advertisers, this may result in fewer, more expensive clicks and your ad appearing in a lower position. So we generally don’t recommend “Rotate indefinitely.” But the choice is yours.

You can’t say they didn’t warn you.

And now that the option is back in the AdWords interface, Google is shutting down the opt-out form. If you previously requested to opt-out of the rotation changes, campaigns in your account that are set to “Rotate evenly” will be switched to “Rotate indefinitely” toward the end of October. For all new campaigns, you can select the option under Settings/Advanced settings.

The impression share changes will occur in early November and will introduce new columns so you can separate search and display impression share. Advertisers will also be able to segment by hour of day, to evaluate how ad coverage changes based on the time of day. Additionally, users will be able to apply filters, see charts and create automated rules using impression share data.

With these improvements will come changes in the availability of historical impression share data. The company will begin phasing out impression share data in the existing columns as of early November, and those columns will be retired completely in February.

If you want to hold onto your historical impression share data in the existing columns, you’ll need to download all the reports you need before November 1.