5 Insanely Great AdWords Automation Tricks
By creating bespoke outcomes, you're not only providing a client with the high-value-added service they deserve, but you can feel a bit more creative than you would using somebody else's methodology.
By creating bespoke outcomes, you're not only providing a client with the high-value-added service they deserve, but you can feel a bit more creative than you would using somebody else's methodology.
With the proliferation of high-powered third-party tools, we could be forgiven for overlooking the loads of performance and personality you can inject into an account using the latest and greatest capabilities of Filters in Google AdWords. Give this a try! By creating bespoke outcomes using techniques you customize yourself, you’re not only providing a client or employer with the high-value-added service they deserve, but you can feel a bit more creative than you would using somebody else’s off-the-shelf methodology.
We didn’t used to think of “Filters” as particularly actionable, even though, of course, they are. But with today’s capability to select all the filtered keywords and take any type of action (similar to bid automation) on all of them, AdWords Filters behave nearly the same as third-party bid automation tools, or the “Automate” button in Google AdWords.
Using Filters as your automation method comes with a number of advantages. Foremost, you enjoy the flexibility and ease of sorting and viewing that is baked into the AdWords platform. But perhaps the greatest advantage of Filters is the flexibility in date ranges. For some reason, those creating bid automation software have loved “data look-back periods” of a week, a month, or (woo-hoo!) all 90 days…or “all time.” Notice a gap there? Between “90 days” and “six years,” for example? A whole bunch of your account might not have meaningful data from just the past 90-day period. And “all time” may be skewed, or overkill. With Filters, we can opt for a certain 18-month period and make our first couple of parameters related to minimum volume and cost, so we’re now managing a large, meaningful set of keywords or ad groups with a nice, statistically significant history. (To be sure, you should manage accounts frequently – daily, even – but for long-tail segments, you do want long date ranges.)
The principal drawback of using Filters as an automation method is the lack of a well-developed logging system and revert functionality such as that offered by AdWords in relation to the “Automate” button.
Without further ado, here are five fun tricks you can try. Tip: most filters can provide misleading results unless you are thinking of ways to further filter out or avoid anomalies, such as brand terms. It can be helpful to filter at the campaign level as opposed to the whole account level.
Remember, you can do this with just a couple of keystrokes with the current version of filters. You don’t need to change 92 bids individually. You can also “preview” the change if you wish. The only major difference between this and a more conventional bid management method is that this method is focusing on a shorter date range than might be warranted to make a statistically significant call on what bid level is accurate for some of these keywords. But given the turbulence in the account in the past year, and the short-term nature of the client’s new sales target, taking account of recent conversion behavior is a decent heuristic.
That’s pretty much it. Now you scroll down to the totals at the bottom of the page and look at the relevant statistics (such as ROAS or conversion rate) for “all filtered keywords” and compare it to the mean for “all keywords” across the campaign or account. In an account with many moving parts, this can make a big difference to your methodology in setting initial bid levels for new ad groups, for example. To get more granular with your analysis, you could add parameters for > 30 clicks and match type=broad, for example.
Over time, your overall ROAS should improve as you bid more accurately by match type as a rule, rather than taking everything case by case. Case by case makes sense on the surface, but if you’re like me, you believe that broad match should be bid above other match types only some of the time. If it’s most of the time, your account isn’t doing as well as it should in terms of relevance. This strategy does not substitute for deep dives into the Search Query Report. It also blends Broad Match Modifier with the more-frequently-misbehaving ordinary broad match, unfortunately. (Come on, Google!)
Many of these techniques are quirky and personal rather than being universal, obvious rules that everyone should apply. This goes to show how much scope there now is for customization and creativity in the use of Filters as bid rules. The Filter menu contains nearly every parameter under the sun, from max bid to impression share, keyword and ad text, engagement metrics like bounce rate, and beyond. Enjoy making your own rules. And in the spirit of PPC slow thinking vs. fast thinking, let System 2 reign over System 1.
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