Make bulk changes to hotel campaigns

If you want to make changes to a significant number of hotel groups and bids in a hotel campaign, you can save time by using bulk uploads. You’ll do this by downloading an editable report, making changes right in the document, and then uploading the updated report back into your account, where your new changes can be previewed and applied.

Before you begin

• To make bulk edits, you first need to create a hotel campaign.
• You can use bulk uploads to efficiently make changes across all of your hotel campaigns.

Instructions

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the "Appearance" icon, and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

 

Step 1: Download a hotel group report

To make changes to your hotel groups and bids with bulk uploads, you’ll first need to download an editable hotel group report.

Here's how to download a hotel group report:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Choose the hotel campaign you’d like to make changes to.
5. Choose an ad group in the campaign.
6. Make sure the table is displaying all of the columns you may want to edit.
7. Click the "download" button.
8. Select the file format you’d like to use.
9. Click Download.

Step 2: Edit your hotel group report

With your downloaded hotel group report, you can review all hotel groups across any number of ad groups and modify bids (Max. CPC, Max. CPC %, and Commissions) for hotel groups.

When you edit your report, there are some general rules to follow to ensure that Google properly interprets your change requests.

General rules for editing your hotel group reports

• Don’t worry about deleting extraneous columns or the total rows. Simply upload the whole report, and we’ll ignore what isn’t essential.
• Be sure to save your spreadsheet in one of our supported formats (.xlsx, .tsv, or .csv).

Below are the columns you’ll see in your editable hotel group report, along with instructions for how to make your changes. Depending upon the columns visible on your “Hotel groups” tab when you downloaded your report, you could see additional columns, all of which are non-editable.

Column name	Description	Edit instructions
Campaign	Shows the name you gave your campaign.	Editable (Must also change campaign ID)
Campaign ID	Shows the unique identifier Google Ads assigned to each campaign.	Editable (Must also change campaign name)
Ad group ID	Shows the unique identifier Google Ads assigned to each ad group.	Editable (Must also change ad group name)
Ad group	Shows the name you gave your ad group.	Editable (Must also change ad group ID)
Hotel group ID	Shows the unique identifier Google Ads assigned to each hotel group.	Non-editable
Hotel group	Shows the full path of the hotel group in your hotel group hierarchy. Learn more about subdividing hotel groups	Editable
Partition type	Shows whether a row represents a subdivision or a unit.	Non-editable
Max. CPC	Shows the current maximum cost-per-click bid for the hotel group. You won’t see a value if the hotel group has been subdivided.	To change your bid, edit the value in the column. Note: If you set your MaxCPC to 0, you will receive an error. Instead, you can set the MaxCPC to “Excluded.”
Max. CPC%	With CPC%, you bid a percentage of the total hotel price per night (including taxes and fees).	You can set a maximum effective bid limit at the campaign level. Use the "Excluded" value instead of 0.
Commissions	You can only modify the “include/exclude” status for a Commissions bid.	Editable
Clicks	Shows the number of clicks on ads for the hotels in that hotel group. Use this information to decide how you might want to adjust your bid.	Non-editable
Tracking template	Shows the tracking template.	Edit the template in the column. Learn more about tracking
Final URL suffix	Shows the final URL suffix.	Edit the suffix in the column. Learn more about tracking

Tips for editing your hotel group organization

In your report, each hotel group is represented on a separate row with a partition type and the path of subdivisions in that hotel group. You can use the “Hotel Group” path to add, remove, or edit your hotel group organization.

Note: When performing a bulk upload, you may subdivide by Hotel ID only. In order for hotel group bulk uploads to work, the “All hotels" hotel group or the root hotel group must be subdivided by hotel ID.

The “Hotel Group” path represents the sequence of subdivisions that led to the hotel group. The path always starts with * and uses / to represent a subdivision. Hotel groups are represented by attribute = value, while “Everything else” hotel groups are represented by attribute = *.

Examples of partition type and hotel group path

Hotel group as shown in Google Ads	Partition type	Hotel group name in downloadable report
All hotels	Subdivision	*/
i123	Unit	*/hotel id="i123"
Everything else in "All hotels"	Unit	*/hotel id =*

Add a hotel group

Let's say your hotel groups look like this:

Hotel group	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/	Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel id=*	Unit	0.35	Everything else in "All hotels"

To add a new hotel group unit, insert new rows that correspond to the hotel groups you want to see. Below, the hotel group “104208” has been added to the report.

Hotel group	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/	Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel id="104208"	Unit	0.45	104208
*/hotel_id=*	Unit	0.35	Everything else in '"All hotels"

Remove a hotel group

Let's say your hotel groups look like this:

Hotel group	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/	Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel id="104208"	Unit	0.45	104208
*/hotel_id=*	Unit	0.35	Everything else in "All hotels"

To remove a hotel group unit, add an "Action" column and then add "REMOVE" next to the hotel group you want to remove.

Hotel group	Action	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/		Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	REMOVE	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel id="104208"		Unit	0.45	104208
*/hotel_id=*		Unit	0.35	Everything else in "All hotels"

Edit an existing hotel group

Let's say your hotel groups look like this:

Hotel group	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/	Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel_id=*	Unit	0.35	Everything else in "All hotels"

To change an existing hotel group into another one, you'll follow two steps:

• For any hotel group you want to replace, add an “Action” column and then add “REMOVE” next to the hotel group you want to remove.
• Add new hotel group rows as you need them.

Below, the hotel group “104208” is added, and the hotel group “i123” is removed.

Hotel group	Action	Partition type	Max. CPC	Hotel group name in Google Ads
*/		Subdivision	--	All hotels
*/hotel id="i123"	REMOVE	Unit	0.55	i123
*/hotel id="104208"		Unit	0.45	104208
*/hotel_id=*		Unit	0.35	Everything else in "All hotels"

Step 3: Upload your report

Here's how to upload your spreadsheet:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Bulk actions drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Uploads.
4. Click the plus button , then click Choose file to locate your edited and saved spreadsheet.
5. Click Preview to review your file, and then click Apply.
6. When loaded, a preview of your changes will appear. At this point, you can see what your changes would look like, fix any errors in your spreadsheet then upload again, or ignore the errors and click Apply changes.

Viewing the results of your upload

Once your file is uploaded, you’ll see a new entry for that file at the top of the table in the “Bulk actions” section. To view details of your changes, click the Results column. For uploaded spreadsheets that you haven't applied, you can choose to Preview, Apply, or Remove.

What to do if there are errors

1. Locate your spreadsheet in the “Bulk actions” table.
2. In the row with your report, click Download errors or click on the number of errors to see the “Details” screen.
3. In the “Results” column on the spreadsheet, find the issue with each row, then fix that issue.
4. Save the file, and then upload it in the “Bulk actions” area.

Related links

• About hotel groups
• Subdivide or edit a hotel group

If you need help with your booking links, contact us or request to chat with a support specialist.