The Ad Versions report expands on information provided in the Campaigns report by allowing the performance of different ads within campaigns to be compared. Regular Google Analytics metrics such as visits, pages/visit, avg. time on site, % new visits and bounce rates are provided in this report to help provide an insight into which ads are performing more effectively. 

The main benefit of this report is that it allows companies to identify which versions of ads are working most effectively, so they can adjust their other ads to improve performance. An example of this is a company using this report to compare the effectiveness of two different text-based ads (ad A and ad B). In this cases ad A may have a higher number of visits and lower bounce rate, meaning it is more effective than ad B (in this example it is assumed that ad A’s click through rate is also superior). The image below shows the site usage tab within the ‘Ad Version’ report, with the ‘Visits’ and ‘Bounce Rate’ metrics highlighted as they are the most important metrics to consider when evaluating.

Now that we have established that ad A is performing better than ad B, we may want to look at improving the quality of ad B’s landing page to make it more relevant to the ad text.

 Considerations

• When comparing ads you should ensure that each ad has delivered over 100 visits to your site in order to make the best decisions regarding improving or discontinuing ads.

Implications for Different Business Sectors

Multi-National Corporations

• Care should be taken when comparing ads running in different countries due to factors such internet usage (i.e developed western countries have a higher proportion of users that have access to the Internet, while countries in 3^rd world locations have a decreased level of Internet access) . 

Domestic Corporations

•  Can use the Ad Versions report to analyse the effectiveness of multiple ads

Medium

• Smaller organizations may not be able to generate enough data (i.e visits) per perform meaningful comparisons between ads.

Membership Based Organisations

• Membership-based organizations can use the ‘Ad Version’ report to evaluate the effectiveness of different membership driven ads.