Custom dimensions add extra information to your campaigns, ad groups, product groups, keywords, or ads. Each custom dimension defines a new table of data (that is associated with campaigns, ad groups, etc.). Each table row includes a primary dimension value and optionally one or more secondary dimension values. You can use custom dimensions to automate optimization (e.g., keyword optimization), when you create conditions for automated rules, when you generate ads with ad-group-based responsive-search-ad templates, and when you examine reporting data.
Why use custom dimensions?
The following examples show how you can use custom dimensions to create categories of campaigns, ad groups, key words, or ads and then summarize reporting data for each category.
Retailers organize their marketing efforts into product lines within larger departments, similar to a traditional department store. For each product line, the retailer has separate campaigns for brand and non-brand marketing, and has a few campaigns for specific promotions. While reporting at the campaign, ad group, and keyword level is useful for tactical decisions, the retailer also needs a way to view and compare performance at the product-line level. So the retailer creates a "Product line" custom dimension and then associates each campaign with a product line, such as "Outdoor furnishings", "Living room", "Audio", and so on.
For example: Reports can show the overall performance for each product line.
| Product line | Clicks |
| Outdoor furnishings | 1,500 |
| Living room | 1,000 |
| Computers | 1,200 |
| Audio | 300 |
For deeper insight, the retailer segments the "Product line" report by campaign:
| Campaign | Product line | Clicks |
| Campaign 1 | Outdoor furnishings | 550 |
| Campaign 2 | Outdoor furnishings | 50 |
| Campaign 3 | Outdoor furnishings | 400 |
| Campaign 4 | Living room | 800 |
| Campaign 5 | Living room | 200 |
What can I apply custom dimension to?
You can apply custom dimensions to any of the following entities in Search Ads 360:
- Campaigns
- Ad groups
- Keywords
- Ads
- Product groups (inheritance only)
Adding a secondary dimension
Secondary dimensions provide additional details, and are attached to the primary dimension that you apply to your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, or product groups.
For example, each retail product line belongs to a retail department, so a retailer could expand the "Product line" dimension by adding a secondary dimension named "Department". Then the retailer would add values such as "Furnishings" and "Electronics" for each secondary dimension.
| Product line | Product line department |
| Outdoor furnishings | Furnishings |
| Living room | Furnishings |
| Computers | Electronics |
| Audio | Electronics |
Just as reports can show overall performance for each product line, reports can also show overall performance for each department.
| Product line department | Clicks |
| Furnishings | 2500 |
| Electronics | 1800 |
Inheriting custom-dimension values
When you create a child item, such as an ad group or keyword, it inherits the custom dimension values of its parent. For example, if you apply custom dimensions to a campaign, all ad groups, keywords, ads, and product groups in the campaign inherit the custom-dimenson values.
You can override these values later by assigning a new value to the child item. However, because custom dimensions are inherited, you cannot exclude them from a child item when creating them.
Compare labels with custom dimensions
| Use labels for | Use custom dimensions for |
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Quick, informal annotations.
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Long term annotations that reflect key categories of your business or marketing strategy. |
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Annotations that don't require uniform naming conventions. For example, if you create labels like
a simple typo could ruin the naming scheme, and you might not notice until you've created and applied many of these labels. |
Annotations that imply multiple levels or hierarchical relationships. Instead of creating complex naming conventions, you can use secondary dimensions to add structure to your annotations. |
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Annotations that don't need to be applied to all campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads. If your labels are long, or if you've applied a large number of labels, it can be difficult to see which entities might be missing a specific label. |
Annotations that you need to apply consistently across your campaigns, ad group, keywords, ads, or product groups. You can add a custom dimension column to a reporting table and apply a filter or simply visually scan to see which entities aren't yet associated with a custom-dimension value. |
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Annotations that are not mutually exclusive. You can associate multiple labels with a single entity (campaign, ad group, etc.). For example, if you created labels for different cities in which your campaign was taking place, you can associate more than one of those labels with the campaign. If you apply multiple labels to a single entity, then reporting data for that entity includes data for each label. |
Annotations that apply a single exclusive value to the entire campaign, ad group, keyword, or ad. For example, if your custom dimension is "hotel", multiple campaigns may each have a value for "hotel", but each campaign can have only one value for "hotel". (Each campaign can have values for more than one custom dimension.) If you apply a custom dimension to an entity (e.g., a campaign), then reporting data for that entity includes only data for that custom dimension. |