Use ad rotation

The "Ad rotation" setting allows you to specify how often you’d like the ads in your ad group to be served relative to one another. If you have multiple ads within an ad group, your ads will rotate because no more than one ad from your account can show at a time. In this article, you'll learn about ad rotation settings.

Ad rotation settings

You can use the "Ad rotation" setting in Shopping, Search and Display campaigns. There are 2 settings for ad rotation: "Optimize" and "Do not optimize".

Optimize

The "Optimize" setting optimizes your ads for clicks in each individual auction using signals (such as keywords, search terms, devices, locations, and more), and prioritizes ads that are expected to perform better than other ads within an ad group.

As data is accumulated, ad serving will become weighted more heavily in favor of the ads that appear statistically likely to perform better. Ads expected to attract more clicks (and conversions if you’re using a Smart Bidding strategy) are delivered more often into the ad auction than other ads in the ad group. These ads show more often, resulting in higher ad-served percentages. However, it's possible for ad serving to remain relatively even within this setting. For example, if ads in an ad group have similar performance, or if the ad group doesn’t receive a significant amount of impressions and clicks for some period of time, ad serving might remain the same.

Tip:

If you’re using Smart Bidding, which prioritizes conversions, Google Ads will automatically use the "Optimize" ad rotation setting.

Also, Ad Rank considers landing page experience and ad relevance (among other factors) when determining your ad’s position and whether it will show at all. A more relevant ad with a better landing page experience could lead to overall better performance.

Do not optimize

The "Do not optimize" option delivers your ads more evenly into the ad auction for an indefinite amount of time.

Keep in mind

"Do not optimize" isn’t recommended for most advertisers. While the percentage of impressions for ads served in the ad group will be more even than the other ad rotation options, the percentage of impressions for each ad may not be even due to the quality of the ad. An ad with high quality may appear on the first page of search results, while an ad with low quality may show on the second page of search results, which reaches a smaller number of users.

Instructions

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the "Appearance" icon, and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

Set ad rotation for your campaign

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. Hover over the ad group or campaign you'd like to change and click the settings icon when it appears.
5. Click Additional settings.
6. Choose Ad rotation.
7. Choose an ad rotation method: Optimize or Do not optimize.
8. Click Save.

Set ad rotation for multiple campaigns at once

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. Check the box next to the campaigns or ad groups you want to change.
5. Click Edit.
6. In the drop-down menu, select Change ad rotation.
7. Choose an ad rotation method: Optimize or Do not optimize.
8. Click Save.

Tip: While on the “Settings” page for your campaigns, you can click the filter icon to show only campaigns that match specific criteria. This can also help you make bulk changes to certain campaigns.

Set ad rotation by ad group

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Ad groups.
4. Use the filter icon to show only those campaigns that match specific criteria, including ad rotation.

Related links

• Set an ad delivery method
• About ad scheduling