The document discusses various ways to automate Google AdWords accounts, including using Google's built-in automated bid strategies, creating automated rules, and developing custom scripts. It provides examples of bid strategies, rules for pausing low quality keywords and notifying of position drops, and describes how AdWords scripts can automate complex tasks or integrate with external data sources. Developing scripts is presented as a powerful way to preserve proprietary automation while gaining benefits like running tasks frequently and integrating with other systems.

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Automating AdWords
Frederick Vallaeys

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Frederick Vallaeys
Ten years as Google AdWords Evangelist
Optmyzr.com
@SiliconVallaeys

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Our Toolbox
• One-Click Optimization™
• A/B Ad Testing
• Quality Score Tracker
• Geo Performance Report
• Report Builder
• AdWords Scripts Library

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Agenda
Automating AdWords
Bid Automation
Automated Rules
AdWords Scripts

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Why automate?
• Humans get distracted
• Some humans are bad at
math
• Humans want new
challenges

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Why not to automate?
Tools treat your accounts with a cookie cutter
mentality:

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Smart Automation Leverages Your Team’s Knowledge
“Adding human judgment to
statistical methods makes results
roughly 15 percent more
accurate. And it’s even true in
chess: While the best computers
can now easily beat the best
humans, they can in turn be
beaten by humans aided by
computers.”
– Wired Magazine, January 2014

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Bid Automation

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Challenge: Manage Many Goals
Bid for some ads to be at the top of the page, and others to deliver the
right ROI.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 9

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Challenge: Too Many Variables
Lots of factors impact
performance
Keeping track of what you’ve
tested is complicated
Bid Tested Date Results
$1.00 Sep 1, 13 +120%
$1.10 Sep 8, 13 +130%
$0.95 Sep 15, 13 -80%
… … …
Thousands of keywords
Real-time factors

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Google’s Automated Bid Strategies
Bid Strategy Goal Level
Maximize Clicks More Site Visits
Campaign, ad group,
keyword
Target Search Page
Location
More Ad Visibility
Campaign, ad group,
keyword
Target CPA
More Conversions at
Target CPA
Campaign, ad group
Enhanced CPC More Conversions Campaign, ad group
Target ROAS More Return on Ad Spend
Campaign, ad group,
keyword

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How to Implement Bid Strategies

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Flexible Bid Strategies: They’re More Flexible!

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A Word Of Caution About Automation
“As long as the humans […]
understand what it is they are
controlling, we’re fine. It’s when
they become slaves to the
numbers that trouble breaks out.”
– Wired Magazine, January 2014

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Automated Rules

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Challenge: Repetitive Data Analysis
• Scenario: Look for poor Quality Score keywords

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How to Enable Automated Rules

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Rule 1: Pause Low Quality Score Keywords

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Rule 2: Email Me When Position Drops

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Rule 3: Enable Weekend Ads

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Advanced AdWords automation
AdWords Scripts

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Challenge: Preserve Your Secret Sauce
AdWords Scripts Can Automate Complex Things:
– An ice cream shop wants to raise bids when it gets over 80 degrees
outside.
– An online retailer wants to pause keywords for products that get bad user
reviews.

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What Are AdWords Scripts?
AW Scripts are pieces of JavaScript
code that are put into an AdWords
account where they can be scheduled
to run automatically on a predefined
schedule.

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What Can AdWords Scripts Do?
AW Scripts can read from and write to your
AdWords account and make changes to:
• Keywords
• Bids
• Ads
• Ad Groups
• Campaigns
• Targeting
• Bid modifiers

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Benefits of Scripts
• Your secret sauce can be automated
– Scripts can run automatically, as frequently as every hour.
• Scripts can talk to external data sources
– Google Sheets, email, arbitrary URLs (APIs).
Weather
Data
Movie
Data
Company
DataAPI

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AdWords Script Ideas
• Get notified when an ad group’s CTR drops 3 days in a row.
• Add the same negative keywords to several AdWords accounts.
• Track Historical Quality Score.
• Calculate the right mobile bid modifier.
• Add new keywords based on the Search Terms Report.
• Detect anomalies in clicks and impressions in near real-time.
• Find ad groups with underperforming ad texts.

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Example Use Case for AdWords Scripts
Script: Quality Score Tracker

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Challenge: Tracking Detailed Quality Score
By far, click-through rate is the most important factor contributing to your
quality score.
Account
Creative + URLKeyword
Quality Score

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Account Quality Score: The Excel Way

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The Scripts Way

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Copy-and-Paste the Code

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Preview the Script’s Changes
There is no “Undo” button!

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Send Results Via Email

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Add Results to Spreadsheets

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Add Results to Dashboards
• Push data into dashboard widgets, e.g. Cyfe.com

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Take AdWords Scripts to the Next Level
Advanced Tips for Scripts

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AdWords Scripts Tip 1: Use Labels
• Use Labels as inputs

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AdWords Scripts Tip 2: Build Workflows
• Use spreadsheets to create worksheets that your team can process
• Upload via Editor or another Script

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AdWords Scripts Tips: Data Storage
• Connect a Spreadsheet to a Database and create ads from your
product database
Google
Sheets
AdWords
Script
Database
(e.g.
MySQL)

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Where to Start with Scripts
Prebuilt Scripts: From Google
https://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/

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Let’s Stay in Touch!
www.Optmyzr.com
Frederick Vallaeys
– frederick@toptier.us
– @SiliconVallaeys
– @Optmyzr

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Q&A
Thank you!