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Pivot table ad review

Using Pivot Tables To Perform Ad Reviews

Pivot tables are the most excellent way to make huge sets of data digestible. Account Manager Sean Quadlin teaches you how to use pivot tables to perform ad reviews, making ad testing a breeze.

June 7, 2012

About the Author

Amanda @Amanda_WestBook

Amanda is an Account Executive at Hanapin Marketing, a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through pay-per-click advertising.
  • Kane Bartlett

    Hey.
    Great video.
    Also it’s useful to try and filter (or at least treat separately) your brand terms from this list.

    If your brand term’s display URLs we’re all regular (in this case) it will probably skew the data.

    Worth adding as a filter and seeing how brand and non-brand ads perform.

    Cheers
    Kane

    • http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/ Sean Quadlin

       Thanks for the tip, Kane.  Another way to go about this would be to add an additional row label that segments out campaigns or ad groups so you can evaluate the data on a campaign by campaign basis in addition to what you’re looking at on the ad.  That’s the type of stuff that really makes my heart sing for pivot tables.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/W4PXHHJIAAA6OMQZECTWQN7V3I VincentL

    Hi there, thanks for the video, I use pivot tables for this type of analysis all the time and it’s very helpful!

    I just wanted to point out that the method used here is slightly flawed.  In order to do this analysis reliably, you need to perform split testing for each ad group, one with the URL extension and one without and ads must be rotated evenly.  Otherwise the analysis won’t be weighted evenly and the data can be misleading.

    • http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/ Sean Quadlin

       You’re absolutely right, Vincent.  This data was just for the purposes of the video.  When doing your own testing, make sure that you control all of the extraneous variables that could influence the results.  Thanks for the note.

  • http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/ Sean Quadlin

     That’s a fair point, Martyn.  That’s a great way to look at this info as well.  I personally prefer pivot tables just so you have more ways to look at the data.  They give you the option of adding different row labels so you can look at variables by different criteria.  It could also be just that I’m hooked on Excel and prefer manipulating my data there instead of the interface.  Thanks for the note, though! I’ll definitely consider using the Dimensions tab in the future.

  • oranges

    the video is now private, any chance you can open it back up?

    • http://www.hanapinmarketing.com PPC Hero

      It should be better now. Thanks for pointing it out!