How do you keep track of your changes/experiements?

I do appreciate that it's vital to keep track of any split-testing, bid increases/decreases, ad changes etc... but how do you track this all, personally?

After a few messages to and fro from a respected member of this board, I've found that my current method of making a print out of the AdGroup when making a change is not efficient at all .. it's time consuming and expensive on paper!

What do you advise is a very good way to have it so that each AdGroup can have it's own section and anything that I change can be noted with ease. It would also need to allow space for say weekly ad/keyword stats such as April 1 - April 7 ... CTR, CPC, CPA etc, before comparing it to say April 8 - April 15

I think I'm beginning to start organising my account in the correct way, but the next step is for me to be able to keep an easy track of what I've changed, so if I look at Ad Group 'Widgets' I know, that I only just started the split test say, 2 days ago and if there isn't enough data to yet make a decision, to give it a few more days and check back - or if I've upped a max bid on one of my keywords, easily noting how it's done so far in the month and how it goes, after the bid change has taken place .. comparing the 2.

Many thanks in advance. I'm very sure the way I'm doing things is taking 5 times longer than it actually should.

Someone has said to use Excel, but in what way does it help me keep track of when I've added a new ad, or changed a bid etc.

The solution is not on paper alone. Instead you need a permanent collection of log files for your website. These you can run through programs such as clicktracks and set up tracking (after the fact) to see how the visitors behaved. I manage the keywords, bids and ad variations in an excel spreadsheet and save that after each bid change. Changes in copy, bid, etc are noted in that log. I have a separate tab for each campaign.

The valuable information is often about what people did upon entering your site. The analytics can sort this for each of the keywords that you bid on and each of the landing pages tested.

Clicktracks occasionally has free online classes with great teachers to show you all about this.

Egol, thanks for your reply.

To help you understand my situation, I'm not involved in any buying/selling online business nor online affiliates, I deal with a business offline yet simply find these people (amongst many other ways) via Google Adwords. Each conversion to me I have a value for, which is always the same, so I'm simply wanting to get into a habit of knowing what to change and when, and keeping a log.

I see you mention that you log each campaigns stats in it's own Excel tab. I was thinking of doing that but now someone has seconded it, I think thats what I'll do. Do you also log things such as CTR, CPC and CPA in that spreadsheet?
So say you had a weeks worth of data along one excel row and decided to change a bid, you would then give it a week before adding a 2nd row of data and compare the 2 rows for that particular adgroup/keyword, so you can see at a glance whether the increased bid, helped or not?

With regards to visitor stats, I use StatCounter + Google Analytics, so always have the option of looking for a visitor's route through my site - Do you also track things such as bounce rate in your excel spreadsheet?

I use excel to manage the adwords data. Keywords, bid prices, ad text variants. This is saved as a dated file upon each update. We need excel because we bid on tens of thousands of keywords.

If we want to see the impact of an advertising change we open the adwords accounts. Set dates for the period of the test. Then use clicktracks tagging two visitor populations... those during time "A" of the test and those during time "B". Or those entering with keyword "A" or those with keyword "B".

We only do this to answer questions about campaign performance. Most of the time you can make decisions on your ads by simply looking at the conversion data that google provides in your adwords account - if you are using their tracking.

"Most of the time you can make decisions on your ads by simply looking at the conversion data that google provides in your adwords account

Very true, a decision such as which ad to drop, in a split test, can normally be seen just by looking at the 2 (or more) ads in question. It doesn't take graphs and charts to work that one out. Fortunately, I have each keyword to it's own adgroup so I don't have to think whether a certain ad is working for a certain keyword but not for another.


I use excel to manage the adwords data. Keywords, bid prices, ad text variants.

Don't you include things such as CTR, CPC, Ave Position?

The reason I ask is because I was thinking of creating a weekly report. Let's, for arguments sake, say 1st April through to 8th April (7 days worth of data). I export to excel and make each keyword have it's own weeks worth of data.

I then decide to make a change ... such as upping a bid for one of the keywords. Now at the end of the 2nd week I want to know what effect that change had, so I produce a weekly report for the 2nd week of April - export as an excel sheet, before copying and pasting the data into my original, existing master Excel file. Using Excel, I can then filter it so that only the data for that particular AdGroup/Keyword is visible, and can look at the 2 rows of data and see what effect that bid change has had. Eg, has the ave position changed? Has it resulted in more conversions? What about the CTR and the actual cost per conversion?
Over time I can keep doing that and hopefully see improvements. It also enables me to see at a glance whether a keyword is receiving 100s of impressions and no clicks ... which could be down to it's ave position being too low etc. 1 thing this would be lacking and that's the actual Ad itself - as when I export, all it says under ad preview is 'not available'.

Your thoughts on this method?

If you are only biding on three high volume keywords you might make a major study out of things.

And, if you report to a boss who wants useless data then you will have to make his report.

Neither of those apply to me.

Keeping track of your "position" is a waste of time. The number of other people bidding changes over time, their bids change over time, and other factors enter into it. You are not running the 100 yard dash against the clock. You are competing in a dynamic market where there are so many changes that make "position" based upon your factors meaningless.

The same things apply to CTR. Some ads are written to elicit enormous CTR some ads are written to limit CTR. Those go in and out every day.

I've said about all that I can on this topic. If you want to get an education search the forums for posts done by a member named seostew. In my opinion he knows more about PPC than anyone.

Good luck