A Three Man Approach to Mastering AdWords Scripts By Steve Hammer, Russell Savage, & Frederick Vallaeys

A Three Man Approach to Mastering AdWords

Scripts SMX East

Steve Hammer Russell Savage

Frederick Vallaeys

A family restaurant with a huge sandbox

2 Steve Hammer, @armondhammer Rankhammer.com

Looks like this when it rains


Ads via XML


Pricing that changes, hourly


A marketers dream


But a Warning: Scripts can’t fix bad


8

About Me

FAMILY What it’s all about

FOOD AND WINE Ea8ng as an art form?

HOCKEY Go Stars

RANKHAMMER Dallas Based Internet Marke8ng Agency

Steve Hammer, @armondhammer Rankhammer.com

Our Agenda

• Use Cases for Scripts – Frederick Vallaeys •  The Language of Scrip8ng – Russell Savage • Modifying Scripts – Steve Hammer • Advanced Performance of Scripts – Russell Savage

9

+Frederick Vallaeys

@SiliconVallaeys

@SiliconVallaeys OPTMYZR.com

What Can AdWords Scripts Do?

AW Scripts can create reports and make changes in accounts. Supported en88es:

•  Shopping Product Groups (NEW!) •  Ad extensions (NEW!) •  Budgets (NEW!) •  Labels •  Keywords •  Bids •  Ads •  Ad Groups •  Campaigns •  Targe8ng •  Bid modifiers


AdWords Scripts vs API

Scripts API

Hos.ng Hosted by AdWords, just like Google Docs

You need a server

Skills needed Copy-‐and-‐Paste Install the code, some SDKs or libraries, …

Scheduling Set your schedule inside AdWords

Maintain cron jobs on your server

Capabili.es Can’t manage everything Almost everything in AW

Strengths Quick to test something out Beber for large accounts

Bo;om Line: With Scripts, you don’t need to be an engineer to automate AdWords


AdWords Scripts vs Automated Rules

Scripts Automated Rules

Scheduling As ocen as hourly As ocen as daily

Capabili.es Highly customizable Limited predefined rules

Bo;om Line: Scripts are more flexible than Automated Rules


Use Case Examples


Scripts Work In MCC Accounts

•  Benefits •  Maintain fewer copies of scripts

•  Hide scripts from clients

Script for All accounts

Script for Auto accounts


MCC Example

Get all anomaly alerts in one place

VS


More MCC Script Ideas

•  Add the same nega8ve keyword lists to all accounts in a par8cular ver8cal

•  Create aggregated reports across mul8ple accounts


Scripts Talk With Your Data

•  Scripts can talk to external data sources •  Google Sheets, Google Drive, Gmail, arbitrary URLs (APIs).

Weather Data Movie

Data

Company Data API


External Data Example

Automa8cally create ads when adding a new product to a spreadsheet


Save Reports To Your Computer

•  Save reports to your computer automa8cally


More Examples Of Using External Data

•  Pause ads for an ice cream shop when temperature goes below 70 degrees

•  Pause ads when the landing page is not working (404 error)


Scripts Can Access All Reports

Account Performance

Account Reach Frequency

Ad Performance

Ad Extensions Performance

Ad Group Performance

Ad Group Reach Frequency

Age Range Performance

Audience Performance

Automa8c Placements Performance

Bid Goal Performance

Budget Performance

Call Metrics Call Details

Campaign Performance

Campaign Ad Schedule Target

Campaign Loca8on Target

Campaign Nega8ve Keywords Performance

Campaign Nega8ve Loca8ons

Campaign Nega8ve Placements Performance

Campaign Plaiorm Target

Campaign Reach Frequency

Campaign Shared Set

Click Performance

Crea8ve Conversion

Criteria Performance

Des8na8on URL

Display Keyword Performance

Display Topics Performance

Gender Performance

Geo Performance

Keywordless Category

Keywordless Query

Keywords Performance

Paid and Organic Query

Placeholder Feed Item

Placement Performance

Product Par88on

Search Query Performance

Shared Set Criteria

Shared Set

Shopping Performance

URL Performance


Scripts Can Merge Data Any Way You Want

Iden8fy a trend before your client does

VS


Scripts Make Aggrega8ng Data Easy

•  Performance by keyword match type


Ad Template Performance

• What is the best text for Descrip8on Line 1?


More Repor8ng Ideas For Scripts

•  Calculate account level Quality Score

•  Report performance of 1 word, 2 word, 3 word keywords, etc.

•  Find the best ad text for each keyword


Scripts Can Send Emails


Scripts Can Add Results to Google Sheets


Scripts Can Add Results to Dashboards

•  Push data into dashboard widgets, e.g. Cyfe.com


Some Notes About Javascript

Russ Savage, FreeAdWordsScripts.com 30


About Me Free

AdWords Scripts

Why Does This Javascript Look Different?


VS

Sever Side vs Client Side

• What Won’t Work •  Anything with the Window object •  Any web libraries like jQuery or Prototype •  Ajax, alert(), popups, anything involving UI •  Event handling (click events, loading, etc.)

• What Will Work •  Standard Javascript constructs such as Arrays, Maps, Loops, Func8ons •  Special Google Objects (AdWordsApp, SreadsheetApp, MccApp, UrlFetchApp) •  Javascript eval •  JSON object


Style Is Important


Choose a Style and Stick With It

• Google Javascript Coding Style •  hbps://google-‐styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/javascriptguide.xml


Arrays and Maps

• Access elements of an Array using an index • Access elements of an Object using a key •  Elements of Arrays or Maps can be anything, even func8ons


Functions

• Use func8ons to execute the same code mul8ple 8mes • Don’t Repeat Yourself (D.R.Y.) •  Each func8on does one thing, and one thing only


Where to Learn More

•  Intros to Javascript •  hbp://autotelicum.github.io/Smooth-‐CoffeeScript/literate/js-‐intro.html •  hbp://www.tutorialspoint.com/javascript/

• Code Academy Course for Beginners •  hbp://www.codecademy.com/tracks/javascript

•  StackOverflow Javascript •  hbp://stackoverflow.com/ques8ons/tagged/javascript

38 Russ Savage, FreeAdWordsScripts.com

Programming?

Steve Hammer, @armondhammer Rankhammer.com 39


Getting Started in the Interface


A first simple script – Bid changes

42

Log “Hello World”

•  Had a CTR greater than 0.01 •  For all dates

Find Keywords that

• While iterates one at a 8me Go through the keywords

•  Based on Maximum CPC * 1.01 Set a new CPC

Go broke


Tweaking the script – to something almost useful

43

Log “Hello World”

• Had a CTR greater than 0.01 • For all dates

Find Keywords

that

• While iterates one at a 8me Go through

the keywords

• Based on Maximum CPC * 1.01

Set a new CPC

Go broke

Log “Raise on Conversion”

• Had conversion rate > 10% • With more than 10 clicks • Over the last 30 days

Find Keywords that

• While iterates one at a 8me Go through the keywords

• Based on Max CPC * 1.05 Set a new CPC

Go slightly less broke


End Result


Snippets and functions build the building


A simple framework – talk your idea

46

Metric When bounce rate

Target Exceeds 50%

Ac8on Reduce bid 10%


What can be changed?

Easy •  Ready made snippets • Methods used, especially same type •  Condi8ons •  Outputs (stats)

Moderate •  Output type •  Data Sources

Hard •  Repor8ng + En88es (But beber to do) •  Large Accounts


Code Snippets

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•  Any published script •  Freeadwordsscripts.com

Func8ons

•  hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/examples/

Google


Code Snippets - Example


Method List

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hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/reference/adwordsapp/adwordsapp


Selector Conditions

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hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/reference/adwordsapp/adwordsapp_labelselector#withCondi8on_1


Stats

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hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/reference/adwordsapp/adwordsapp_stats


Output Type

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hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/examples/reports


Changing Data Source

@armondhammer 54

hbps://developers.google.com/apps-‐script/reference/url-‐fetch/ hbps://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/solu8ons/bid-‐by-‐weather

hbp://www.rankhammer.com/blog/1261/adwords-‐scripts-‐twiber-‐followers

Live Twitter Followers – same idea, new source


Advanced Optimizations


If You Can Pull It From A Report, Do It


Read and Write All Related Entities Together


Logging Is Slow


Logging Is Slow


Thank you

Marketing

A Three Man Approach to Mastering AdWords Scripts By Steve Hammer, Russell Savage, & Frederick Vallaeys