One of the most advanced, but unnecessarily rarely used services among all Google tools, is the Google Ads editor. Even if you are a professional in setting up and managing contextual campaigns on the platform itself, when you start using Ads Editor, you can find many useful features that make your work easier.
The service offers a set of effective intelligent tools that simplify the process of advertising optimization. This tutorial on working with the Google Ads editor is designed to help anyone who wants to understand this system and learn more about the possibilities that it provides.
What is Google Ads Editor?
Google Ads Editor is an application whose main task is to quickly and easily make large-scale adjustments to advertising campaigns. It has a simple user interface, navigation is intuitive even for inexperienced users.
Advice! Adding new ad sets and campaigns, testing, and managing semantics are all possible through the editor, so you won’t need to download the standard AdWords web interface.
All account management is done locally. Adjustments are made on the computer and then uploaded to the AdWords account. First you need to create a kind of image of an advertising account on your PC by downloading all the information from the network. Any updates are applied in real campaigns only after the data is sent to the server.
Advantages of the Google Ads Editor over the Web
The local mode of making changes mentioned above and the mechanism of interaction with the Google Ads server exclusively within the data exchange session gives the Google Ads editor a number of advantages:
Loyal requirements for the quality of the connection to the global network. You can edit campaigns even where there is no connection, uploading the data later, when a stable connection appears.
Insurance against accidental adjustments. If you accidentally delete or change an element, you can quickly return to its original state if you do not apply an update on the server.
The ability to undo or redo an action. There is no need to search for an error or duplicate the same changes. The application provides convenient functionality for this.
Reducing Internet traffic. The load on the network is reduced, while the number of functions and usability do not suffer.
Batch editing of campaigns. Professionals often use the ability to adjust several campaigns at the same time in the standard online mode. The Google Ads editor is not inferior to the web interface in this matter. It implements not only the functionality of mass editing of any elements and settings, but also the ability to evaluate all adjustments at once.
Advice! As an alternative, of course, you can copy all campaign parameters into a separate table, but using the editor is still more convenient to change both the content and settings, semantics, criteria for selecting the target audience, etc.
How does the initial setup of Google Ads Editor work?
Before you can set up the Google Ads Editor, you need to install the application itself. You can find it by searching or downloading it in the Advanced Campaigns section of AdWords:
Download will start immediately after clicking the appropriate button. During the download process, the system will determine which software version is required depending on the operating system on your computer.
Now you need to install the program, which requires you to run the downloaded file. The system will offer a choice of two authorization methods – using the Google Chrome browser or the browser built into the application:
Enter your e-mail and enter your password in the account login form that appears, then click on the “Next” button.
Determine which campaigns you want to download: active and paused or advertiser-selected only:
If you want to selectively upload campaigns of a certain type (for example, only search or display campaigns), click on “Select campaigns by type”:
Confirm your actions to signal the algorithm to start downloading. Please wait until the copy process is finished.
How to use the Google AdWords editor interface?
The interface of the application ready to go (the user is authorized and the campaigns are loaded) looks like this:
Numbers are shown next to important modules in the image. To understand how to work with Google Ads Editor, let’s look at six key modules of the software workspace:
Main menu. The familiar block, which is usually present in all standard applications, allows you to perform basic actions aimed at changing program parameters and processed data.
Toolbar. Includes a set of functions for making changes and setting up advertising cabinet objects.
Account tree. The module provides quick access to any account level.
Working panel/information display window. Information about accounts and campaigns, as well as information about child objects is displayed in this block in the form of a table.
Object management module. The window includes account elements grouped by type. The necessary objects can be quickly found and displayed on the working panel.
Editing block. All characteristics of the selected object are changed in this module.
The list of elements displayed by default is quite large. For convenience, you can leave in it only those objects that are used in your campaigns. This can be done in the following way:
In the account tree, you can limit or organize the display of campaigns and ads by type or status:
Depending on the tasks set for the advertiser, you can configure the output of only certain data. Columns with unnecessary information can be hidden.
To exclude columns from the table, use the button:
Fix the metrics you need to see:
The system has two interface themes: dark and standard light. You can switch between them quickly using the button located on the right side of the screen, in the lower corner:
The choice of theme is a matter of taste. Some people think that a darkened interface is less stressful for the eyes.
Overview of useful Google AdWords Editor features
Further in this article, you will learn about the most popular functions of the Google AdWords editor, which are regularly used by PPC specialists when working with advertising campaigns.
Batch Editing of AC
The app makes it easy to adjust your budget, set bids, and edit other settings for multiple campaigns or ad groups at once.
Using the account tree and holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, mark the campaigns where changes are planned.
In the edit box on the right, update the settings for all marked positions. These can be bid values, URL parameters for labels, or even text snippets of selected items. To replace text, use the corresponding button in the control panel.
Next, we are interested in the “Replace” tab, by filling in the fields in which and clicking the button of the same name, you can partially update the text:
This window also allows you to add generic UTM tags. Find the “Edit URL” tab, where check the box “Append text to all URLs”. In the field below, enter the link and apply the changes.
Import data from another account
This feature is useful if you need to copy data from one account to another. The relevance of the tool is also related to the fact that the standard information transfer is performed correctly far from every time. Experts often solve this problem using a spreadsheet editor.
You need to find the “Export entire account…” item to write the information to a CSV file:
Specify the location where the data will be copied and transfer it. It can take a long time to export an account with a lot of items.
Log in to the account where you plan to upload the saved information. You can use the built-in import from a file function in the application, but this method sometimes works incorrectly. Errors that occur in the process are difficult to identify, and the program itself often does not read its own files.
A similar problem also occurs when external transfer tools are used, for example, the function of transferring campaigns from Yandex to Google.
A more reliable way is to make bulk changes, for which, in the target account, select the appropriate position in the campaign tree and click “Make multiple changes”. Open the file in MS Excel.
Copy the data, after selecting the entire table, and transfer it to the spreadsheet editor:
Click on the “Process” button and wait a bit until the system finishes importing the information. Most likely, there will be no problems in the process, but even if errors appear, you can easily detect and correct them.
When the upload is complete, save your changes and you can start publishing.
Search for duplicate keywords
Sometimes you need to create many campaigns at once, but due to the fact that a large amount of information is not easy to control, key phrases can be duplicated. Often this situation occurs in accounts where setup work was carried out at different times by different people. To identify and remove repetitions, the Google Ads editor has a handy solution.
Via the main menu and the “Tools” item, follow the link “Find duplicate keywords”:
Clicking on it, you will see a search form:
In the left module, mark the positions with which you plan to continue working. On the right, the search is configured:
Word order. If the keyword consists of several parts, then you can limit the search to a strict word order or allow you to find any combination.
Match types. Of the three existing match types that determine the order in which search queries are included in the keyword, you can search for duplicates only within one of them. An alternative option is to look for repetitions in different match types, even taking into account negative keywords. This often helps to detect blocking of key phrases by minus phrases.
Location of takes. Set the search level for duplicates – it can be an ad group, a campaign, a single account, or even several of them.
Optionally, you can configure the search based on deleted or stopped campaigns.
When all parameters are defined, start the search. You will see the result on the main working panel.
If, for example, you tested keywords in a broad and phrase variant, but forgot to stop a less effective one, the system will definitely show this defect. You can optimize the further work of your account by removing unnecessary key phrases.
Using Formula Words
Words in editable elements can be edited using formula words. They take time to compose, so using a tool to replace one phrase is not very efficient. But when editing several fragments of text at once, it is quite advisable to use it.
The action algorithm looks like this:
Select all positions where changes are planned by holding down the Ctrl button on the keyboard.
In the main panel, find the “Replace Text” link and click on it.
In the form that opens, select Campaign Name in the Perform Action list.
In the “Find text” field, fill in the formula “[campaign]” and write “[campaign] replacement” in the “Replace with” field.
All adjustments should be saved.
How do I view search query reports?
To evaluate the effectiveness of key phrases, you often need a list of search queries that brought visitors to your site. You can generate such a list both in the web interface using a special report, and in the application using the appropriate tool. You will find it in the previously mentioned “Tools” section:
As in the previous versions, we mark all campaigns where changes are planned. Specify the collection period and in the right module tick the parameters that we want to analyze:
All items are checked by default. In our example, we will not change anything and keep the list as is. After a certain period of time after collecting requests, their list will be displayed in the corresponding window.
The system will show each key, its associated values of the criteria selected in the previous step, and statistical data characterizing its operation. The report contains information on both clickable queries and phrases that only initiated an ad display and did not end with a click through.
After analyzing the list of keywords, you will find irrelevant ones among them. They can be safely minus in whole or in part. Some phrases will flash around often enough to be included in a “broad” key phrase, while remaining high-performing. For such keywords, it is effective to create separate ads using them in the headings and body text.
The listed activities are carried out manually or using the corresponding interface buttons. A similar mechanism works when including phrases in the list of keywords. It is not difficult to understand the principle of its action.
Use special rules
According to the results of automatic verification of ads by the Google Ads editor, the system may indicate the presence of errors by an icon with a yellow triangle next to incorrect positions. The reasons for the problems may be:
The campaign does not contain any running ads.
Failed to apply audience lists.
Campaigns have three or fewer sitelinks, or none at all.
Missing qualifiers.
The text part of the ad is empty, etc.
Reducing the number of problematic points allows you to create your own rules for advertising. To do this, go to the “Account Level” module, which can be found in the special rules in the control panel.
When adding a special rule, you must enter data in the form that opens.
For example, if the bid level for a keyword set at 15 hryvnia is exceeded, the algorithm should show a warning. To perform this task, you need to create a special rule.
You should specify the following parameters:
Name. It should be simple and clear.
Message. This warning will be shown to the user when hovering over the yellow icon.
Scope. By clicking on the button with the image of a pencil, in the form that opens, select the objects for which you plan to apply the custom rule.
Violation criteria. If this limit is exceeded, a warning will appear.
Seriousness. You can set the severity of the events described by the created rule and choose how the algorithm will react to them: issue a warning, report an error, or automatically block impressions.
