Many companies run limited time sales. Creating ads with creatives such as:

Limited Widget Sale
Low prices from $150!
Sale ends 7/5/2004
www.example.com/Special

can have a very positive response, as the end date will compel people to check out your offer while it still lasts.

There are two inherit issues with creating such groups. First, this is related to Never Modify an Ad, as you don’t want to lose its history.

The second is that it takes from a few days to a week or more to have new ads approved for partner & content sites. If you create a new campaign near your launch date, your ads might never appear on AOL and other sites which feature AdWords.

There are a few steps to take to properly launch sale prices which have end dates.

This process should be started at least two weeks before your promotion is started.

1. Create a new AdGroup with the same keywords as another group in the same campaign (basically, copy and paste the entire keyword selection into another ad group).
2. Pause the new group (you don’t want it to compete with your established group).
3. Write ads for the new group that are specific for your sales.
4. When the date arrives to show the sale ads, pause the non sale AdGroup, unpause the sale group.
5. At the end of the sale, pause the sale group, unpause the regular group.

At this point, there are two options.
1. Use the same sale group again so that you can compare the CTR and conversion rate of a similar sale in the future. (This will also save on total number of AdGroups as you are limited to how many you can have in an account).
2. Use a new group for the next promotion, so you can easily compare sale 1 against sale campaign 2 and your established group.

If you choose option 1, when you know of the next sale, modify the ads in the sale group while leaving everything else alone. Again, this should be done two weeks ahead of time so that your new ads are approved for syndication (or delete the old ads, and write new ones for this group).

If you choose option 2, delete the old group (Deleted groups maintain their history, but it’ll be easier to manage as to which group you want shown.) Then follow the above steps for your new campaign.

Creating sale campaigns can be a great way to entice searchers to click on your ads and view your website; however, proper timing and planning must be established for maximum visibility.

• Google AdWords New Feature: Pause Individual Keywords or Ads
• AdWords Makes it Easier to Control New Campaigns
• Negative & Positive Keywords
• Google takes Pay Per Action Ads out of Beta
• The Guide to Creating AdWords Pay Per Action Campaigns