How to A/B test responsive search ads

Adalysis makes testing responsive search ads (RSAs) easy. Here's the process that we would recommend for effective RSA tests:

Adjust active ads

To start, go to Ad groups and click Filters. Select the prebuilt filter Ad groups with too many ads and update it to filter for more than two active RSAs.

Select the ad groups with three active RSAs. Then you can use the Pause Ads tool to pause ads based on performance metrics, leaving only one or two RSAs active per ad group. (If there are three or more active RSAs, new ads  will be automatically rejected by Google Ads.)

Duplicate ads for testing

You can duplicate your ads from either the Ad groups screen or the Ads screen:

• Ad groups screen:

  • Filter for the ad groups to test.

  • Select your ad groups and use the Create Ads tool to copy RSAs.

  • Choose ads to duplicate based on metrics like conversion rate or impressions.

  • Label the new RSAs for tracking purposes.

  • Retain the same pinning settings as the original ads, if applicable.

• Ads screen:

  • Filter for the ads to duplicate.

  • Label the original ads as controls.

  • Use the Copy RSAs tool to create duplicates with distinct labels.

  • Maintain the same pinning settings as the original ads
    

Manage RSA assets

You can now go to Ads > Manage RSA assets, and use the ad labels to filter and manage your RSA assets.

• Edit any asset used across multiple ads simultaneously.

• Delete unwanted assets from the test set.

• Customize pinned headlines and other attributes to differentiate your tests (e.g., use call-to-actions in one set and pricing details in another).

• Add and pin new assets to all selected ads, ensuring consistency.

  
  

Analyze test results

Go to Ad testing > Multi ad group to view aggregate performance data for your labeled ad sets.

• Compare results between the labels to identify high-performing strategies.

• Use insights to refine and optimize your RSA testing approach.

Using the filters, labels, and asset management tools in Adalysis, you can efficiently set up, execute, and analyze RSA tests to achieve better ad performance.

Related content:

• The RSA Handbook