Google Ads ad group settings

Adgroup Details

Ad Group Name: An ad group name that is unique within the campaign. The maximum length is 255 double-byte characters.

Status: The display status of the ad group: Active or Paused. The default for new ad groups is Active.

Ad Group Type: (Expanded dynamic search ad campaigns only) The type of ad group:

  • Search Standard (the default): For standard ads.

  • Search Dynamic: For dynamic search ads.

Ad Rotation Mode: How often Google Ads delivers your active ads in relation to one another within the ad group:

  • Optimize: Google Ads favors ads that it expects to perform better than other ads in the ad group. These ads enter the ad auction more often, and over time a single ad is favored. This may be inconsistent with your business and optimization objectives.

  • Rotate forever: Each of your ads enters the ad auction a more even number of times, which allows Search, Social, & Commerce to score your ads not only on click-through rate but also on conversions.

  • Use campaign setting(the default for new ad groups): Uses the existing campaign-level ad rotation setting. Note: The campaign-level setting isn’t visible in Search, Social, & Commerce.

If the campaign uses a Smart Bidding bid strategy (such as Target CPA, Target ROAS, or Enhanced CPC), then Google Ads automatically sets the option to “Optimize.”

Custom Bid Level: (Campaigns that target the display network only) How to bid: by Ad Group (the default), Age, Gender, Interest and List (Interests & Remarketing in Google Ads), Keyword, Placement (website), Unknown, or Vertical.

NOTE
  • When you bid by keyword, create tracking templates at the keyword level. Similarly, when you bid by placement, create tracking templates at the placement level. For all other dimensions, create tracking templates at the ad level.
  • When you bid by Age, Gender, Interest and List, or Vertical for campaigns in portfolios, the optimization capability doesn’t optimize bids for the dimension. Also, all attribution is applied to the ad group.
  • Ads on the search network always use keyword bids.

Budget Options

Bid: The maximum cost per click (CPC) for an ad or cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) for an ad, as applicable for the ad network and campaign pricing model. Keyword-level bids override this value.

If an ad group with a CPC bid is in an optimized portfolio, then the specified bid is applied for one day. Afterward, the optimization capability places bids according to its own calculations.

Target CPA: (Campaigns with Target CPA bidding; optional) The target cost per acquisition (CPA) for the ad group. This value overrides the campaign-level target.

Target ROAS: (Campaigns with Target ROAS bidding; optional) The target return on ad spend (ROAS) for the ad group, as a percentage. This value overrides the campaign-level target.

Ad Group Targeting

Audience Target Method: (Campaigns on only the search network, and existing, read-only Gmail campaigns on the display network) Whether to:

  • Target and Bid: To show ads only to users associated with target audiences who also satisfy any other targets for the ad group.

  • Bid Only: To show ads even to people who aren’t associated with target audiences as long as they satisfy other ad group-level targets. You can increase the chances that ads are shown to specific audiences, however, by setting higher bids for those audiences.

Devices: (Optional; not available for Google Ads performance max campaigns) Configure bid adjustments for different device types, as percentages of the keyword-level bid. For example, if the keyword-level bid is 1 USD and the bid adjustment for smartphones is 50%, then the smartphone bid is 1.50 USD. By default, no values are entered (bid adjustment=0), and all devices are bid at the keyword-level bid.

For Google Ads, valid percentages can include -100 for smartphones and tablets (to not bid for the device type), and from -90 to 900 for all device types.

For Microsoft Advertising, valid percentages can include:

  • Smartphones and tablets: -100 (to not bid for the device type) and from -90 to 900
  • Desktop: from 0 to 900
NOTE
  • The ad group-level settings override the campaign-level settings. However, if you exclude a device at the campaign level, then you can’t override the exclusion at the ad group level.
  • If you assign this campaign to a standard optimized portfolio, then Search, Social, & Commerce automatically determines the base keyword-level bid to help the portfolio meet its objective. The ad network then adjusts the bid as specified for different device types.
  • (For all campaigns/ad groups except for Microsoft Advertising ad groups in the audience network) If you assign this campaign to a standard optimized portfolio that’s configured to “Auto-optimize Bid Adjustment Values,” then the optimization capability changes the specified device bid adjustments at the ad group level, as long as the ideal value that it calculates falls within the minimum and maximum values specified in the portfolio settings and the ad group doesn’t exclude bidding for the device type.

URL Options

Tracking Template: (Optional) The tracking template or tracking URL, which specifies all off-landing domain redirects and tracking parameters and also embeds the final/landing page URL in a ValueTrack parameter. Example: {lpurl}?source={network}&id=5 or http://www.trackingservice.example.com/?url={lpurl}?source={network}&id=5 to include a redirect.

For Adobe Advertising conversion tracking, which is applied when the campaign settings include “EF Redirect” and “Auto Upload,” Search, Social, & Commerce automatically prefixes its own redirect and tracking code when you save the record.

  • For supported parameters to embed the final URL, see the Google Ads documentation for the supported ValueTrack formats. (Go to the “Tracking template only” parameters in the section on “Available ValueTrack Parameters.”)

  • You can optionally include URL parameters and any custom parameters defined for the campaign, separated by ampersands (&), such as {lpurl}?matchtype={matchtype}&device={device}.

  • You can optionally add third-party redirects and tracking.

NOTE
  • Avoid using macros, which aren’t substituted for clicks from sources that enable parallel tracking. If the advertiser must use macros, then the Adobe Account Team should work with Customer Support or the implementation team to add them.
  • The tracking template at the most granular level overrides the values at all higher levels. For example, if both the account settings and the keyword settings include a value, then the keyword value is applied.
  • If you update a tracking template at the ad, sitelink, or keyword level, then the relevant ads are resubmitted for review. You can update your tracking templates at the account, campaign, or ad group levels without resubmitting your ads for approval.

Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords: (Optional) Any keywords that, when queried, don’t trigger an ad. Use the following syntax, without a minus sign (-):

  • Negative broad match: keyword (not supported by Microsoft Advertising)
  • Negative phrase match: "keyword"
  • Negative exact match: [keyword]

Separate multiple values with commas, or enter them on separate lines. You can enter or paste up to 2000 negative keywords in one operation.

NOTE
  • The maximum length per keyword is 80 characters and no more than 10 words. The keyword can include only letters, digits, and the following special characters: space # $ & _ - " [ ] ' + . / :
  • You can set negative keywords at the campaign and ad group levels from either the campaign and ad group settings or from the Keywords > Negatives view. Campaign-level negatives are applied at the ad group level.
  • Changing a Google Ads keyword or match type deletes the existing keyword and creates a new one.

Negative Websites

Negative Websites: (Campaigns on the display/native network only; optional) Sites in the display network on which you don’t want your ads to be displayed. To specify multiple strings, separate them with commas or enter them on separate lines. Valid formats include:

You can set negative websites at the campaign and ad group levels. Campaign-level negatives are applied at the ad group level.

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