I’ve been studying for the Google AdWords Certification Exam with their study guide and, contrary to my expectations, it’s been a great experience. I’ve discovered a lot of features and techniques that I didn’t know existed. Among them are the reports available under the (hidden by default) Dimensions tab. Through this type of reporting, you can slice and dice your AdWords metrics by week, month, hour of day, conversion action, and a number of other dimensions (see the full list below).
For our local business clients, the geographic report has been particularly helpful, as we can now refine our location targeting based on click-thru and conversion metrics. But I think the easiest one to start with — and potentially gain some efficiencies from — is the Day of the Week report. Here’s how to do it:
1. Add the Dimensions tab to your account by clicking the drop-down arrow at the far right of your existing tabs and selection Dimensions.
2. “Day” is the default view. Change that to “Day of the week.”
3. Choose the largest date range possible.
4. Sort by conversion rate (if you’re not using conversion tracking, this analysis won’t work for you).
In the example above, we saw enough of a gap in conversion rate between the top 2 days (Mon and Wed) vs. the bottom 2 (Sun and Tue) to justify using Ad Scheduling to increase/decrease our bids on those days. This allows us to get more clicks on our best-converting days and fewer clicks on our worst-converting days.
You can do the same type of analysis with a number of other dimensions. Have fun!