Troubleshoot template errors

Purpose

After reading this article, you should understand the following:

• Template error categories
• Likely error cause
  There might be other error causes. This document presents the most likely scenarios.
• How to resolve errors
  There might be other ways to resolve errors. The correct resolution varies depending on how templates are implemented.

General information

Each supported advertising platform has specific requirements and limits that aren't defined by Search Ads 360, but are defined by the advertising platforms. See each advertising platform's help center for more information.

Because Templates automatically builds and manages campaigns at scale (as opposed to when campaigns are manually built), the Templates feature can't check each field.

Example

When manually building individual campaigns, you can't save if the campaign name is too long. Templates automatically builds hundreds or even thousands of campaigns based on feed data. Templates errors provide information about configuration errors that apply to a subset of campaigns (or campaign structure, targeting, or creatives) that are built by a given template.

Templates errors do the following:

• Provide insight into where you might need to refine your feed, formulas, or other template configurations to maximize template output and effectiveness.
• Display the number of campaigns, ad groups, targeting, and creatives that the template couldn’t generate or update because of errors when the template was evaluated.
• Help you iterate on templates’ configurations to make them more effective. Because of Templates flexibility, configuring templates for each use case might require iteration.

Text is too short

In most cases, this error indicates that the template didn’t generate any text for the field with this error, because most text fields accept as few as one.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
Campaign	Field is too short: Campaign name
Ad group	Field is too short: Ad group name
Responsive search ad (RSA)	Field is too short: Unknown field
Keyword	Keyword text is invalid: Keyword text

Potential causes

Template formulas use feed data to generate the text for fields. Examples include campaign name, ad group name, headlines, and descriptions.

• For formulas to be successfully validated, feed columns used in formulas must either contain data or be wrapped in if_error(value, error_value) functions.
  Note: If value generates an error, the function evaluates and returns the alternative defined in error_value. Otherwise, the function returns the value.
• If data is missing, the formula fails, so partially accurate values aren’t created. The if_error() function enables templates to continue to produce values, even if some requested columns don’t have data.

Example scenario

Feed name: Feed A

Feed data:

ID	Brand	Category
1	Alpha	Shoes
2	Beta
3	Charlie	Clothes

The following formula automatically attempts to build a campaign for each unique combination of Brand and Category: "Campaign: " & f:"Brand" & " " & f:"Category".

Expected output:

Campaign 1 = “Campaign: Alpha Shoes”

Campaign 2 = “Campaign: Beta “

Campaign 3 = “Campaign: Charlie Clothes”

Actual output:

Campaign 1 = “Campaign: Alpha Shoes”

Campaign 2 = “”

Campaign 3 = “Campaign: Charlie Clothes”

Because Campaign 2 is empty, you get the following error: “Field is too short: Campaign name”

Example resolution

Depending on the field, do the following:

• Use alternatives with other formulas or static text.
• Use if() functions combined with length() functions to detect if there will be length issues and provide alternatives.
• Use text functions to trim and refine feed data to prepare it to be used in text fields.
• Modify feed data so it only contains data that meets advertising platform text fields requirements.

Start date should be after current date

Templates can't generate campaigns and ad groups after a statically defined date has passed.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
Ad group	The AdGroup Start Date should be after current date
Campaign	CAMPAIGN_ERROR_CANNOT_SET_DATE_TO_PAST: Start date

Potential causes

The template start date was defined as a specific date, and that date passed before the template tried to generate affected campaign structure, targeting, or creatives.

Example scenario

Template start date: 10/31/2022

Scenario: A feed is updated with new values on 11/01/2022, which triggers the template to attempt to create new campaigns or ad groups.

Output: New campaigns and ad groups can't be created, because the template start date (10/31/2022) is in the past.

This error may not require action and is working as intended if you don’t want the template to generate new campaigns or ad groups after a specific date, even if the feed is updated with new values.

Example resolutions

If a resolution is required, do one of the following:

• Change the start date to a date in the future.
• Use the "As soon as campaigns are created" option to set the start date as the date the campaign or ad group is created.
• Define a static number of days after the campaigns or ad groups are created as the start date (for example, “today +1”).

Text contains invalid characters

The template-generated text included characters that aren't allowed for the impacted field. Typically, errors are generated because special characters are used, which can include (but aren't limited to) the following: !, @, #, $, %, -, (, ), and /.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
Keyword	Invalid characters in keyword text: Keyword text
RSA	STRING_ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARS: Display Path 2
RSA	STRING_ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARS
RSA	STRING_ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARS: Display Path 1

Potential causes

The following are potential causes for this error:

• Feed data contains characters that aren't allowed for the impacted field.
• The formula on the template contains static text with characters that aren't allowed for the impacted field.

Example scenario

Feed name: Feed B

Feed data:

ID	Field A
1	Alpha/Beta
2	Charlie
3	Delta

Scenario: The following formula is used to populate Field A, which doesn’t support the “/” character: f:"Field A" & " / "

Expected output:

“Alpha/Beta / “

“Charlie /”

“Delta /”

Actual output: 

No values are generated because all instances of the expected output would contain the “/” character, which is not supported. One of the Field A values, “Alpha/Beta” contains the “/” character, and the formula adds the “/” character as static text.

Example resolutions

The following are general guidelines to resolve these errors:

• Update feed data to ensure that it doesn’t use special characters.
• Use alternates.
• In the Templates functionality, use functions such as clean_keyword() or regex_extract() to remove special characters. The following example function removes special characters from the feed’s product ID column data: [TRIM(CLEAN_KEYWORD(PRODUCT_ID, " "))]. For example, if the product ID in the feed is “Bolt (10x),” the function returns “Bolt 10x”.

Advertising platform policy issues

The template-generated text doesn't meet advertising platform policy requirements.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
Keyword	POLICY_ERROR_POLICY_VIOLATION: Keyword text

Potential causes

The following are potential causes for this error:

• Feed data doesn’t adhere to advertising platform policy requirements.
• The combination of feed data and static text produced by the template formula generates text that doesn't adhere to advertising platform policy requirements.

Example scenario

Feed name: Feed B

Feed data:

ID	Custom
1	Alpha
2	Beta
3	Charlie

 

Scenario: The value “Alpha” in the “Custom” column doesn't adhere to the target advertising platform keyword policy.

Keyword formula: f:"Custom"

Expected output:

Keyword 1 = “Alpha”

Keyword 2 = “Beta”

Keyword 3 = “Charlie”

Actual output:

Keyword 2 = “Beta”

Keyword 3 = “Charlie”

“Alpha” can't be created, because in this example, “Alpha” doesn't adhere to the advertising platform’s keyword policy. A template error is displayed.

Example resolution

Modify feed data so text field data adheres to the advertising platform's policy requirements.

Advertising platform count limit exceeded

Each advertising platform puts limits on the number of campaigns per account, number of ad groups per campaign, number of ads per ad group, and more. Advertising platform limit errors occur in the Templates functionality in the new Search Ads 360 when the template configuration attempts to build more campaign structures, targets, and creatives than the advertising platform allows.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
RSA	Advertising platform count limit exceeded

Potential causes

The following are potential causes for this error:

• The multiplier, or the set of columns that a template uses to build campaign structure, targeting, or creative, results in more combinations than the advertising platform limit allows.
• The number of templates that produce ad groups, targeting, or creatives for a particular campaign or ad group exceeds the advertising platform's limits.

Example scenarios

Example 1

• Scenario: An ad group template has the following multiplier defined directly or implicitly based on ad group name: f:"Product_ID". For a particular campaign, there are more ad Product IDs than the advertising platform allows.
• Output: The ad group template builds up to the maximum number of ad groups allowed for each campaign. The remaining product IDs display as limit errors on the template.

Example 2

• Scenario: An ad group template has the following multiplier defined directly or implicitly based on ad group name: f:"Product_ID", and the advertising platform limits the number of ads per ad group to three. The user then creates four or more RSA templates for the ad group template, which causes the number of RSAs per ad group to exceed advertising platform limits.
• Output: The ad group template builds up to the maximum number of ad groups allowed for each campaign. The remaining product IDs display as limit errors on the template.

Example resolutions

Example 1

• Change the multiplier on the ad group template to generate fewer ad groups by using any feed column or combination of feed columns that generate fewer unique values per campaign.

Campaigns are generated by the multiplier on the campaign template.

• Change the multiplier on the campaign template to generate more campaigns, so fewer ad groups are required for each campaign.

Example 2

• Decrease the number of templates that build ads within an ad group.
• Update the ad group template multiplier to generate more ad groups so fewer ad templates are required per ad group.

These examples can occur together when there are multiple ad templates using a multiplier that generates more than one ad per ad group.

Empty RSA path 1 field

The template-generated text for the path 1 field was empty, but the path 2 field has a value. Both path 1 and path 2 must have values, or errors are generated.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
RSA	FIELD_ERROR_VALUE_MUST_BE_UNSET: Display Path 2

Potential causes

The following are potential causes for this error:

• Path 1 is empty because the text is too short.
• Path 1 was not configured on the template, but path 2 was configured.

Example scenario

Path 1 doesn’t exist, so path 2 must have the error. See the Text is too short section of this article

Example resolution

Check path 1 for errors and update path 1 on the ad template.

Duplicate assets

Headlines and descriptions for each template-generated ad must be unique. If template formulas attempt to generate duplicate ad headings and descriptions, an error is displayed.

Potential errors

Template type	Error
RSA	ASSET_ERROR_DUPLICATE_ASSET

Potential causes

The following are potential causes for this error:

• Feed data is the same in multiple feed columns that are referenced in different headline or description fields.
• The combination of feed data and static text the formula produces results in duplicate headlines or descriptions.
• The same alternative is used for multiple headlines or descriptions, and two or more of these alternatives are needed to generate an ad.

Example scenario

Feed name: Feed B

Feed data:

ID	Brand	Category
1	Alpha	Shooting stars collection
2	Shoes	Shoes
3	Charlie	Clothing

Scenario: An ad template has the following two formulas that result in the same output:

• Headline: f:"Brand"
• Headline: f:"Category"

Likely expected output:

Ad 1 = “Alpha. Shooting stars collection.”

Ad 2 = “Shoes. Shoes.”

Ad 3 = “Charlie. Clothing.”

Actual output:

Ad 1 = “Alpha. Shooting stars collection.”

Ad 3 = “Charlie. Clothing.”

Ad 2 can't be generated because two of the headlines have the same value, “Shoes”, which the advertising platform doesn’t allow.

Example resolutions

To resolve this error, do one or more of the following:

• Use different alternatives for each headline or description.
• Modify feed data to avoid duplicate values in the headline and description columns.
• Use logic functions, such as if() to prevent duplicate data.

Update non-managed settings via bulk edits

If your template generates an item (e.g., an ad group) with settings that conflict with related items (for example, if the template generates an ad group whose Max CPC is lower than the minimum required for related Microsoft Shopping Campaigns) and that setting is not managed by the template, then you can use a bulk edit to update the affected setting (e.g., increase Max CPC so it meets the minimum requirement for Microsoft Shopping Campaigns).

Related links

• About Templates and advertising platforms
• Custom columns