Final URL expansion helps you optimize your campaigns' performance, and it’s recommended that you turn this on to get the best of Google's AI and optimize your ROI.
When you enable Final URL expansion, you expand your reach by using site-wide signals for advanced keywordless targeting. This helps find more high-converting customers.
Final URL expansion also optimizes your ad creatives by replacing your provided final URL with a more relevant landing page from your site based on the user's search query and intent. It then creates a dynamic ad headline that matches the content of that landing page, making your ads more personalized and relevant.
URL controls
When you use automation features like Final URL expansion, you gain broad reach, but you might need more control over which landing pages appear in your ads.
Use URL inclusion and exclusion controls to guide Google's AI. You can specify which parts of your website are eligible to serve ads. This ensures your campaign traffic goes to your most valuable pages such as product categories, and avoids non-commercial content like "About Us" or careers pages.
Page feeds
You can use page feeds to upload a curated list of URLs for your Performance Max campaign. This helps ensure Google’s AI indexes and prioritizes all of your key pages.
- For inclusion: Attach a page feed to your campaign. Then use custom labels in your asset group settings to select which URLs from the feed you want to use for ad serving.
- For exclusion: While page feeds are primarily for inclusion, you can prevent specific pages from your feed from serving by adding custom labels separately as URL exclusions.
Usage recommendation: Use page feeds when you want to restrict your campaign to serve ads exclusively on a specific list of URLs. Alternatively, use them with Final URL expansion turned on to act as a strong signal. This ensures your key pages are prioritized during optimization while still maintaining broad reach.
URL contains (rules)
You can use URL rules, also known as URL contains, to target URLs based on specific text or patterns within the URL string. This helps you to manage entire sections of your website without having to list every single URL.
- For inclusion: Create rules in your asset group settings to include all URLs that contain a specific path, such as
/shoes. This allows you to target your entire shoe category for ad serving. - For exclusion: Create URL exclusion rules to block an entire category of pages from serving. For example, you can block all pages that contain
/blogin the URL.
Usage recommendation: Use URL_CONTAINS when you want to limit the scope of Final URL expansion to a specific part of your website, like a product line or brand. Be cautious when using URL_CONTAINS. Rules that are too broad can significantly limit the AI's ability to find relevant traffic, which may restrict your campaign's reach and performance.
Exclude some (specific) URLs
You can use Exact URL to prevent specific URLs from being used in your ads. It is the most precise exclusion method available.
- For inclusion: This is an exclusion-only control and cannot be used for inclusions.
- For exclusion: Provide the full, exact URL you want to prevent from serving in your ads. The system will then block only that specific page, ensuring other pages on your site are still eligible for serving ads.
Usage recommendation: Use this control to block individual, non-commercial, or low-value pages. For example, you can exclude an "About Us" page, a careers page, a privacy policy, or a specific out-of-stock product page. This allows you to still leverage the broader optimization benefits of Final URL expansion across the rest of your site.
