Measuring Ad Effectiveness Using Geo Experiments
Abstract
Advertisers have a fundamental need to quantify the effectiveness of their
advertising. For search ad spend, this information provides a basis for formulating
strategies related to bidding, budgeting, and campaign design. One approach that
Google has successfully employed to measure advertising effectiveness is geo
experiments. In these experiments, non-overlapping geographic regions are randomly
assigned to a control or treatment condition, and each region realizes its assigned
condition through the use of geo-targeted advertising. This paper describes the
application of geo experiments and demon- strates that they are conceptually
simple, have a systematic and effective design process, and provide results that
are easy to interpret.
