Changes to the Google Adwords Even-Rotation Setting

Google recently implemented changes to the creative rotation of ads in ad groups. Creative Rotation is an option to evenly rotate which ads within ad group are displayed. This allows the advertiser to evenly test the performance of each ad. The other options are to optimise for clicks or optimise for conversions.

Advertisers used to have the option to allow ads to rotate evenly indefinitely. What changed was that Google decided that after the 30 days of being rotated evenly, the better-performing ads would begin to be shown more regularly. That meant that once a new ad was created or an ad was edited, it would only be rotated evenly for 30 days and then Google would automatically display the ads that they considered to be the highest quality for their users.
However, after complaints from advertisers who wanted more creative control in the form of a longer testing period for their ads, Google have decided to introduce changes to this new feature. One the 11thof June changes will come into effect that will mean that ads will now be evenly rotated for 90 days instead of 30.
This will mean advertisers a longer window to test their ads. However, if advertisers want to have their ads evenly rotated indefinitely, they will be able to request this manually by contacting Google via this form or by contacting their account rep.
If enough people apply for the above option, Google will introduce an option within Adwords to choose to have ads rotated evenly indefinitely.
However, Google believes that many advertisers will find this new auto ad-optimisation feature useful, because it will mean that the ads achieving high click-thru rates will be displayed more often and therefore it should then receive further clicks.
Google provide this example of how this works:
“Advertisement A has a 3% CTR, while Advertisement B has a 1% CTR. Under the original Rotate evenly setting, the ads would show roughly evenly, resulting in an average CTR of around 2%. Under the new setting, Advertisement A will show more frequently after the even rotation window has passed, bringing the average CTR closer to 3%, or a 50% increase in clicks. Our systems will also continue to run Advertisement B for a low fraction of traffic to continue to test how well it performs.”