In this blog post, I'm going to explain what scripts are, how they work and why every advertiser should use them for their PPC campaign.
What are scripts?
Scripts are an easy way to use automation to programmatically control or report on your AdWords account via JavaScript.
How they work
AdWords Scripts can create, edit, record or alert based on a defined criteria. There is also the opportunity to link and perform actions based on external data points which means it can be useful for bid optimisations. AdWords scripts can make life, as a digital marketer, easier and less stressful.
Why every advertiser should use scripts
In an age of growing automation and machine learning, marketers need to get on board with scripts. With new innovations coming from both Google and Bing, there is less time than before to spend on the traditional optimisations. However, less time does not mean the accounts need to miss out on any optimisations or checks to get everything completed. Optimisations have no choice but to be completed in a more efficient fashion.
What is the difference in an MCC and account script?
MCC scripts are great as no matter what the size of the agency, they allow for easy management of multiple accounts. Small agencies can use scripts for multiple clients at once, whereas large agencies would use MCC scripts on each client (or maybe even more granular than this). MCC scripts are applied at MCC level (see instructions below), whereas the account level scripts are applied to each individual account. Each have their own purpose and benefits.
Benefits of an MCC script
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Can easily make changes and checks at scale
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Allow for checks and recording cross-account
Benefits of single account scripts
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Not all scripts are able to run at MCC level
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Allows for different optimisations based on different accounts goals.
Top Scripts Every Advertiser Should Use
1. Negative keyword conflicts
This is a type of script that our team use for our clients' top MCC accounts. It serves as a 'hygiene check' to ensure that any negative keywords don't block top converting keywords. This script also checks against MCC and account-level negatives which are not flagged as an alert in the account.
2. Link Checker Script
We also try to use the link checker on all our accounts. However there are limitations: if you access a website too frequently, it can cause the website to flag an error. If a client changes the URL path to our landing page, we can still serve adverts without Google identifying and disapproving the ad. This script identifies these potential errors and notifies the account team of this.
3. Out of Stock products
If you work on an ecommerce account, you’ll know one of the most heartbreaking things is when one of your URLs is going to a product that is out of stock. This script prevents this situation as it pauses any out of stock products based on text on the page or within an HTML tag. This script is even able to reenable adverts and keywords if they come back into stock. This is an excellent script. However, be wary that if you have any paused ads or keywords, you will either need to label these and exclude the script running on these ads or remove them. This is because the script will activate anything that is paused and in stock.
4. Zero Impression alarm
Accounts can go offline for a number of reasons including (but not limited) to an account running out of budget allocated from an IO, the payment geting declined or the account is disabled due to a breach of policy. This script allows an email to be sent to selected email addresses if the account does not receive any impressions in a day.
If you would like any more information of script implementation and use, please contact our iProspect PPC team.
