Google Ads ditches campaign drafts in updated experiments page

The updated experiments workflow is currently rolling out to select advertisers.

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A new experiments workflow is rolling out to select Google Ads accounts, according to reports from numerous PPC professionals. Tip of the hat to Dario from the Marketing O’Clock Discord channel for first spotting this update. Google declined to provide a specific date for when this feature will roll out more widely.

UPDATE: Google Ads formally announced the updated Experiments page and experiment sync feature on January 19, 2022.

Why we care. Marketers that often use experiments to identify ways to optimize their campaigns may feel that it is “super annoying” to have to create a draft first. This new workflow eliminates that step, making the process less clunky, which can save advertisers time.

Likewise, being able to sync changes from the base campaign and receiving customized reporting based on experiment goals can also be a timesaver and make Google Ads experiments that much more useful for advertisers.

The new Google Ads experiments page. Advertisers that have access to the new experiments page may see the following notice: “The new experiments page allows you to create experiment campaigns without creating a draft, automatically sync changes from your base campaign to your trial campaign, and receive customized reporting based on experiment goals.” Tip of the hat to Brett Bodofsky for sharing the notice on Twitter.

Below are screen captures of the new workflow, courtesy of Greg Finn from Cypress North.

New Nav
Image: Greg Finn.

The left-hand navigation has been updated from “Drafts & experiments” to just “Experiments” to reflect the change. 

Google Ads Experiments Home 2021.12.03
Image: Greg Finn.

There are three options: Optimize text ads, video experiment and custom experiment.

Google Experiments 2021.12.03
A tour of the “optimize text ads” option. Image: Greg Finn.

Not just for advertisers in the U.S. Michele Senatore, a digital marketer based in Italy, also spotted the update. Google has not stated whether this update will roll out globally.

What Google said. “We do a lot of experiments and we’re always testing to find new ways to improve the experience for our advertisers, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land when asked about the new experiments workflow.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

George Nguyen
Contributor
George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix, where he manages the Wix SEO Learning Hub. His career is focused on disseminating best practices and reducing misinformation in search. George formerly served as an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic and paid search.

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