{"id":550,"date":"2020-06-10T05:25:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T05:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/?p=550"},"modified":"2024-02-01T17:20:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T11:50:45","slug":"how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Google Ads Explanations to Understand Performance Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Ads is testing \u201cExplanations\u201d in the interface to help advertisers diagnose potential reasons behind changes in conversion volume.<\/p>\n

Announced\u00a0this week<\/a>, Explanations are available at the campaign and ad group levels when there is a significant change in performance of clicks, cost, impressions or conversions.<\/p>\n

Before you read further, if you\u2019re all in on Smart bidding, you won\u2019t see Explanations. They\u2019re only available \u2014 at this point \u2014 for Search campaigns using manual bidding or enhanced CPC.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How It works?<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To see Explanations, you\u2019ll need to compare contiguous time periods of the same length \u2014 7 days vs. the previous period, for example \u2014 and have sufficient volume activity.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll know an Explanation is available if the percent change in a column is blue, as you can see in the screenshot example above. If the percentage change is gray, that means an Explanation isn\u2019t available. Explanations are also only available for the past 90 days.<\/p>\n

When you hover over a blue percentage change, you\u2019ll see the option to View Explanations. Once you click on the window, Google Ads starts process the Explanations report, looking for a number of common reasons. The report displays on the right side of your screen.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the list of things the tool checks:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Search interest<\/li>\n
  • Auction activity<\/li>\n
  • Status changes<\/li>\n
  • Campaign settings<\/li>\n
  • Budget<\/li>\n
  • Bid adjustments<\/li>\n
  • Negative keywords<\/li>\n
  • Targeting changes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    What you\u2019ll see<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    If you run Explanations at the campaign level, Google will also highlight potential reasons for change at the ad group and keyword levels in the report. For example, below is an explanation about Search top impression rate changes in an ad group.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    At the bottom of the report, you\u2019ll see a checklist of what Google scans for and what it did and didn\u2019t find explanations for. Note the mention at the bottom that Google does not scan changes on your websites or to your ads as possible factors affecting performance.<\/p>\n

    Why we care<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

    If you\u2019re running Search campaigns with manual or eCPC bidding, this could be a helpful diagnostic tool. If you\u2019re newer to working in paid search, the tool also offers a helpful rundown to help you understand the levers that can affect performance and to understand the impact of shifts in metrics like top impression rate.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    You\u2019ll also want to reference the Change History report to see if there were changes to ads as well as understand if there were changes made to the site (your company might use Annotations in Google Analytics, for example, to track these) that may also have had an effect on performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Google Ads is testing \u201cExplanations\u201d in the interface to help advertisers diagnose potential reasons behind changes in conversion volume. Announced\u00a0this week, Explanations are available at the campaign and ad group levels when there is a significant change in performance of clicks, cost, impressions or conversions. Before you read further, if you\u2019re all in on Smart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUse 'Google Ads Explanation' For Performance Changes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google Ads is making updates for the business to keep track on the paid performance campaign, understand the new 'Explanation' feature in our blog, do read!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Use 'Google Ads Explanation' For Performance Changes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google Ads is making updates for the business to keep track on the paid performance campaign, understand the new 'Explanation' feature in our blog, do read!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Being Digitalz Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-10T05:25:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-01T11:50:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/google-ads.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Being Digitalz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Being Digitalz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Use 'Google Ads Explanation' For Performance Changes","description":"Google Ads is making updates for the business to keep track on the paid performance campaign, understand the new 'Explanation' feature in our blog, do read!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Use 'Google Ads Explanation' For Performance Changes","og_description":"Google Ads is making updates for the business to keep track on the paid performance campaign, understand the new 'Explanation' feature in our blog, do read!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/","og_site_name":"Being Digitalz Blog","article_published_time":"2020-06-10T05:25:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-01T11:50:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":860,"height":525,"url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/google-ads.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Being Digitalz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Being Digitalz","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/"},"author":{"name":"Being Digitalz","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8f28bc6ebc390295e202945a7a96d21d"},"headline":"How to Use Google Ads Explanations to Understand Performance Changes","datePublished":"2020-06-10T05:25:20+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-01T11:50:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/"},"wordCount":444,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Paid Advertising"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/","name":"Use 'Google Ads Explanation' For Performance Changes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-10T05:25:20+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-01T11:50:45+00:00","description":"Google Ads is making updates for the business to keep track on the paid performance campaign, understand the new 'Explanation' feature in our blog, do read!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/how-to-use-google-ads-explanations-to-understand-performance-changes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Use Google Ads Explanations to Understand Performance Changes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/","name":"Being Digitalz Blog","description":"Latest Marketing News, Updates and Information","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Being Digitalz Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/being-digitalz-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/being-digitalz-logo.png","width":300,"height":58,"caption":"Being Digitalz Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8f28bc6ebc390295e202945a7a96d21d","name":"Being Digitalz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6bb7fe196c0518dc6ab4de875978840f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6bb7fe196c0518dc6ab4de875978840f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Being Digitalz"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beingdigitalz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}