FAQs about campaign management
General information
The process of pulling the previous day’s click data from the search engines begins at 06:00 in the advertiser’s time zone.
In addition, Google Ads campaign-level performance metrics on the search network for the current day are pulled at 08:00 and 16:00 in the advertiser’s time zone.
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| (Advertisers with portfolios) Expect the performance of new keyword and match type combinations to be volatile while Search, Social, & Commerce gathers data to create models for them. |
Actions in the Search > Campaigns views, in the bulksheet posting process, and in the ad network’s own editor:
The existing keyword or ad is deleted and another one is created when:
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(Baidu, Google Ads, and Yandex) You edit a keyword name.
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(Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Yandex) You change a keyword’s match type.
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You move a keyword between ad groups.
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(Google Ads dynamic search ads, Microsoft Advertising expanded text ads, and all ad types on other supported ad networks) You edit ad copy (headline/title or description) or an ad image.
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You move an ad between ad groups.
Events in the product inventory feed posting process:
An existing ad or keyword is deleted and another one is created when:
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A feed file contains a new value for a column used in an ad variation.
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The template settings for an ad changed since the last propagation.
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A new feed file includes a row for an ad or keyword that a) was in a previous file but b) has been omitted since then and was paused or deleted according to the feed data settings.
Depending on the feed data settings, an existing ad or keyword may be deleted when:
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A new feed file doesn’t include a row for an existing ad or keyword.
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The scheduled end date for the components of a posted feed file occurs.
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The stock level of an item dips below a minimum specified in the feed data settings.
You can use the Google Ads ValueTrack parameters {ifmobile} and {ifnotmobile} to determine the domain name of the landing page in one of two ways, as applicable for your sites:
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Include the mobile designation as the host server using
{ifmobile:m}{ifnotmobile:www}.For example,
http://{ifmobile:m}{ifnotmobile:www}.example.comtakes mobile users to m.example.com and non-mobile users to www.example.com. -
Include the mobile designation as the top-level domain using
{ifmobile:mobi}{ifnotmobile:com}.For example,
http://www.example.{ifmobile:mobi}{ifnotmobile:com}takes mobile users to www.example.mobi and non-mobile users to www.example.com.
In both cases, the base URLs with Search, Social, & Commerce tracking include the unencoded {} tags and any additional parameters appended to the base URL.
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| Don’t use a full URL as the value for ifnotmobile and ifmobile parameters; use only the variable part of the URL (such as “m” versus “www,” or “mobi” versus “com”). |
Google Ads campaign-level performance metrics on the search network for the current day are pulled at 08:00 and 16:00 in the advertiser’s time zone.
In the Campaigns tab in both the Search > Campaigns > Campaigns view and the Optimization > Portfolios view, when you report on Today or a custom date range that includes the current day, the data includes the most recently synched data.
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| Data for clicks, impressions, and conversions are delayed by three hours and aren’t complete until the next data pull. |
Use a landing page suffix only for ad networks that support parallel tracking. In Search, Social, & Commerce, both tracking templates and landing page suffixes should include a click identifier from the ad network, but tracking templates include additional tracking parameters.
See the next FAQ about parallel tracking support for more information about how tracking templates and landing page suffixes are loaded when a user clicks an ad.
Parallel tracking sends customers directly from your ad to your final URL, which may include appended parameters from a final URL suffix, or “landing page suffix.” Your tracking template URL (with additional parameters for click measurement) is loaded separately in the background; as a result, your landing page is loaded more quickly.
Search, Social, & Commerce supports parallel tracking for search and shopping campaigns using the ad network’s click identifier (msclkid for Microsoft Advertising; gclid for Google Ads). Use an account-level or campaign-level Landing Page Suffix (called “final URL suffix” in the ad networks), which is appended to landing page URLs to track clicks on child ads from browsers that support parallel tracking. See the required suffix formats for Google Ads and required suffix formats for Microsoft Advertising.
When a user views your ad on a browser that doesn’t support parallel tracking, the ad network uses sequential tracking instead: customers are first sent to your tracking template URL, which may redirect customers to intermediate tracking servers before redirecting them to the final URL (which may include additional parameters in a landing page suffix). All tracking templates for an ad network account should include the same click identifier parameter that you use in the Landing Page Suffix. See the tracking template formats for Google Ads and the tracking template formats for Microsoft Advertising.
&EV_HASH={<hash>}?"Inventory feeds
It depends on the advertiser’s business requirements.
When you pause ads, they’re reactivated if you resubmit the same ad or the stock level goes above the minimum. This allows you to retain the ad’s history.
When you delete ads and resubmit them, new ads are created, and historical data needs to be accumulated for the new ads. If you don’t expect to resubmit deleted ads, however, having historical data isn’t important.
For Google Ads campaigns, yes: The Google Ads {Param 1} and {Param 2} variables allow you to dynamically insert numeric values in an ad variation without deleting and recreating the ad, and therefore without affecting the quality score.
To use a {Param 1} or {Param 2} variable for your price data, map the price column in your data file to that variable in the appropriate feed templates, and then include the variable in your ad variation templates.
For example, if the column is called “Price,” then open the feed template that creates the ads, click in the input field next to Param 1, and then click the Price column in the Feeds/Available Columns list, which inserts [Price] as the value for Param 1. Then, in the ad variation template at the bottom of the feed template, insert {param1:default text}, where “default text” is text to use if the parameter column in the feed file is empty for an ad row.
When you submit data, the data fields for the Param1 and Param2 columns may include up to 25 characters, including numeric data, currency symbols and currency codes, and the following non-numeric characters: , . % + - /
Account- and campaign-related performance issues
- This is normal in an optimized portfolio that is configured with the “Auto-adjust campaign budget limits” option. When this option is enabled, you may spend up to N times each campaign’s budget, where N is the value of the “Multiple” setting. This option allows the optimization capability to adjust spending for individual campaigns as necessary while steering the entire portfolio to meet its target.
- If Google Ads campaigns use a shared budget, then Google Ads adjusts spending for individual campaigns as necessary to spend the entire shared budget.