Manage Creative Testing campaigns#

This page describes what to consider while running an active campaign and troubleshoots some potential issues that might arise while testing.

For specific steps on how to run a Creative Testing campaign, refer to the Start a Creative Testing campaign documentation.

For information on testing parameters and recommended best practices for Creative Testing campaigns, refer to the Configure Creative Testing campaigns documentation.

Prerequisites#

• Active campaign: To use these management practices, you will need to have a live Creative Testing campaign.

Campaign management#

While you are actively running a Creative Testing campaign, the following information will help you with potential questions that arise during a live Creative Testing campaign.

Auto-start your campaign#

You can enable your campaign to go live automatically with Auto-start when the moderation team has approved all the campaign's creatives. To enable Auto-start for your campaign, you need to meet the following requirements:

• Assign at least two creative packs to your campaign.
• Remove any rejected creatives from your campaign. Auto-start will disable automatically if your creatives are rejected.
• Complete the Creative Testing campaign setup. Refer to Configure required Creative Testing campaign details for more information.

You can view the status of your campaign on the Campaigns page of the Unity Ads User Acquisition dashboard. If you’ve met the requirements and enabled Auto-start for your campaign, it will show the Scheduled status until all creatives have been approved. When all creatives are approved, it will go Live automatically.

Performing some actions will disable Auto-start for your campaign automatically. If you do any of the following after enabling Auto-start, your campaign will go back to the Paused status:

• Assign additional creatives to the campaign.
• Remove any creatives from the campaign.
• Remove all targeted countries and bids.
• Remove the Click URL attribution link associated with the campaign without assigning a new link.

If Auto-start cancels for any of these reasons, you can re-enable it from the Campaigns page. Refer to Go live automatically with Auto-start for instructions on how to enable the feature.

Pause or stop campaigns#

You can pause or stop a Creative Testing campaign at any time in the campaign cycle. The recommended best practice is to stop the campaign when you've generated enough data to accurately interpret the creative testing results. To determine when you've generated enough data to pause the campaign, do one of the following:

• Use a sample size calculator to evaluate the amount of data you've collected.
• Run your test campaign until you've delivered at least 20,000 impressions for each creative pack in the campaign.

To pause or stop your Creative Testing campaign at any time, do the following:

1. Go to the Campaigns section of the Unity Ads User Acquisition dashboard and select the checkbox next to your active Creative Testing campaign.
2. Select the Pause campaign button.

Campaigns will retain the Paused status until you delete or restart them.

Multiple test campaigns#

There is no limit to the number of Creative Testing campaigns you can run simultaneously. Because Creative Testing campaigns deliver all impressions equally, your test campaigns will be competing with each other for impressions if they run concurrently. It’s recommended best practice to limit the number of test campaigns running at a time to avoid increasing the time needed to achieve enough impressions.

For more information on how to calculate whether your campaign has reached enough impressions, refer to the Calculate sample size section of this documentation.

Uneven distribution#

If your Creative Testing campaign isn't delivering your creative packs equally, an uneven distribution warning will appear in the Creative packs section of the campaign details. This warning appears when there are notable differences in your creative packs, such as the moderated age rating or the assigned start date.

Hover your mouse over the yellow warning icon next to your creative packs to access a warning tooltip. These tooltips contain information about the creative pack differences that might be leading to uneven distribution. The tooltip will offer guidance on how to resolve the issue, usually by removing the problem creative pack or changing the time frame of your campaign.

Change or add creative packs#

The recommended best practice is to avoid changing or adding creative packs to an active Creative Testing campaign. Because test campaigns deliver impressions equally, the impression count is an essential metric of the experiment. Any creative packs with an existing impression count will continue that count after you add a new creative pack. This makes accurately comparing creative packs difficult.

If you do add a creative pack to an active Creative Testing campaign, ensure that you adjust the test start date by doing the following:

1. In the Scheduling section of the campaign details, select the edit icon next to Start Date to open the date field.
2. Enter the date that you added or changed a creative pack in the Creative Testing campaign. You can also select the calendar icon to choose the date from a date selector.
3. Select Save to save your details and close the date field.

Changing the start date to the day you added or changed a creative pack will reset the data in the overview table of the Creatives section and in any reports you generate through Report Builder.