Create automated rules

Important details about automated rules

• Automated rules run independently of the Search Ads 360 users who create them. That is, unless a rule is paused or removed, it will continue to run, even if the user who created the rule is removed from Search Ads 360 or the user's permissions change.
• Automated rules only work on settings that you have set explicitly. For example, if you create a rule to increase keyword bids by 10% and a keyword is inheriting max CPC from the ad group, Search Ads 360 won’t change the keyword's max CPC setting.
• Rules that match keyword landing page URLs or that update keyword landing page URLs will skip keywords that don't specify landing page URLs.

Permissions required

• Advertiser viewers can't create or edit rules 
• Advertiser editors can create and edit rules except from the Engine accounts tab 
• Only agency managers or advertiser managers can create rules from the Engine accounts tab. 

How to set up an automated rule

1. Navigate to the scope at which you want the rule to run.
   For example, if you want the rule to evaluate all keywords in an advertiser, navigate to the advertiser and click the Keywords tab.
   
   Rules that you create from the Engine accounts tab or from segmented reports can only be used to send notifications. These rules can't be used to change settings. For example, you can create a daily rule that sends an email if the total spend in any engine account increases by more than 20% from the previous day. If you wanted to pause bids when spend increases by 20%, you would need to manually pause each campaign in the accounts listed in the email. A rule that targets an engine account cannot change settings.

2. Select a time range from the time-range list near the top right corner of the page.
   The time range determines how far back Search Ads 360 looks when evaluating the rule conditions. For example:

   • If you select Last 7 days for a rule that runs daily, and if today is March 22, Search Ads 360 evaluates metrics from March 15 - 21. If you select the Include today check box, Search Ads 360 includes as much data for the present day (March 15 - 22) as is available when the rule runs.
   • If you select Last business week (Mon - Fri) for a rule that runs daily, and if today is Friday, March 29, Search Ads 360 evaluates metrics from Monday, March 18 - Friday, March 22. If today is Saturday, March 30, Search Ads 360 evaluates the metrics from Monday, March 25 - Friday, March 29.

   The Custom option, which specifies absolute date ranges, is not supported in rules. Only relative date ranges can be used with rules.

3. Click the Rules button, which appears above the reporting table.

4. Click Create new rule.

5. In Rule name:

   1. Name the rule.
   2. Click Next.

6. In Conditions:

   1. Select a setting or metric from the + Attribute or metric list, which contains all attributes or metrics available in the current scope. Then select a comparator and enter a value. 
      For example:

      Clicks greater than 500 will cause the rule to fire if any item in the current scope reports more than 500 in the Clicks column during the time range you selected for the table.

      Add multiple terms in one condition: You can use pipes | to include multiple terms in one attribute or metric field. The pipes set up an inclusive OR filter. For example, if you have an attribute of Campaign Contains Car | Truck | Boat, Search Ads 360 will return campaigns that have at least one of car, truck, or boat in their name.

   2. Select any additional criteria from the next + Attribute or metric list. The rule will fire only if an item matches all of the criteria.
      For example, if you create these two criteria:
      Clicks greater than 500
      AND
      Campaign Contains Car | Truck | Boat
      the rule will fire if at least one campaign in the current scope has car, truck, or boat in its name and has recorded more than 500 clicks.

   3. Click Preview matching items to see up to 10 items that currently match the conditions.
   4. Click Next.

7. In Actions and alerts:

   1. Select the actions that you want to apply if the conditions are met.
      If you select Notify only, you will receive an email alert instead of having an action automatically occur.
      
      If you're changing a setting, you may be able to use a formula column to calculate the value of the setting. For example, you can use a formula column that returns a monetary value to calculate the value of a campaign's budget.  ​
   2. If you select an action other than Notify only, next to When to send alerts, specify when you want to receive email:
      • Every time a change is attempted: You'll get an email when a rule started, is evaluated, completes with some change, or a problem occurs.
      • Only if changes occur: You'll get an email only when a rule completes with some change or a problem occurs.
      • Only if there are problems
   3. If necessary, update the email addresses that will receive rules alerts.
   4. If you want the rule to run only the first time the conditions are met, select the Pause rule after running if any <entity type> matched conditions checkbox.
   5. Click Next.

8. Google Ads only:

   • If you select Change location extensions, choose one of the following options:

     • Inherit from campaign or account
     • Disable location extensions
     • Use location extensions

9. In Schedule:

   1. If you want to run the rule only once, click At later time and select a time and date.
      If you want to run the rule on a regular basis, click Recurring and set up a schedule.
   2. Click Save rule.

   12am is interpreted as the beginning of the day. For example, if you schedule a rule to start at 12am on Fridays, Search Ads 360 runs the rule as soon as 11:59pm Thursday changes to 12am Friday.

   Leave enough time in the schedule for edits or automated rules to complete before starting additional edits. That is, if you're scheduling multiple edits or rules, make sure the first edit has plenty of time to complete before the next edit begins. If the edits are scheduled too closely together, the later edit could base its calculations on values and settings that end up being changed by the earlier edit.

Check the rule status periodically

Even if you set up an email alert to be notified if errors occur when a rule runs, you might also want to check the rule status to verify that the rule isn't being skipped.

Search Ads 360 will automatically pause a scheduled rule if errors occur while processing items or while generating a report about the items that were changed. In some cases, items may process and update successfully but Search Ads 360 pauses the rule because of errors encountered when generating the report. The rule will be skipped each time it is scheduled to run until you resume the rule.