Create a campaign template

A campaign template generates one campaign for each unique value or combination of values in your inventory feed. The value or value combination you specify is called the campaign multiplier. For example, you can specify a multiplier that generates campaigns for each brand of shoe, such as "SpeedyShoes" and "ComfyWalkers," or for each brand and type of shoe, such as "SpeedyShoes loafers" and "ComfyWalkers loafers."

Only one engine account

Because templates exist within an inventory plan, the campaigns will be generated in only one engine account. If you want the campaigns to be created in additional engine accounts,  you can either create another inventory plan with its own set of templates, or copy the generated campaigns into the other accounts. If you copy campaigns, you'll need to manually recopy each time Search Ads 360 updates the original generated campaigns.

Campaign templates work within the scope of the inventory plan

If you used filters to limit the inventory data available to the plan, the campaign template will only be applied to the filtered data. For example, if the plan specifies the following filter:
Category level 2 Equals Shoes 
The campaign template will only be applied to products in your inventory feed for which the Google product category attribute includes the word Shoes at level 2, such as 
Apparel & Accessories > Shoes > Outdoor shoes > Hiking boots & Shoes
and
Apparel & Accessories > Shoes > Outdoor shoes > Sneakers

You don't need to repeat the plan's filter in the campaign template.

Create a campaign template

Here's an overview of creating a campaign template (the details are below):

1. Specify the campaign multiplier and optional filters.
2. Enter campaign settings, such as campaign names, budgets, start dates, and so on.
3. Enter settings for applying sitelink extensions to generated Google Ads campaigns.
4. Preview some of the campaigns that will be generated.

1. Specify the campaign multiplier and optional filters

Here's an example of multipliers and filters that generate one campaign for each brand of loafer. The filter guarantees that campaigns will be generated only for items for which the Google product category attribute specifies the word loafers, Loafers, or LOAFERS at level 5.

To specify multipliers and filters:

1. Navigate to an advertiser.

   Steps for navigating to an advertiser

   1. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

   2. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

   3. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser.

   4. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the advertiser page, which contains data for all of the advertiser’s engine accounts.

2. In the left navigation panel, click Templates.
3. Click the Inventory management tab and click the name of an inventory plan.
4. Click New ▼ and select Campaign template.
5. Enter a name for the template. The name appears in the reporting table for the inventory plan. You can also filter on the name to see performance metrics for all campaigns generated by the template.
6. Under Multiplier, click +Feed column and select a column from your feed that uniquely identifies the product or group of products you want in the campaign. The list contains all of the product attributes defined in the inventory feed you selected for the inventory plan.
   
   For example, to generate a campaign for each brand in your inventory plan, select the Brand column.
   
   To generate campaigns from a unique combination of values,  click +Feed column and select another column. For example, to generate a campaign for each brand and type of item in your feed, select a category column such as Category level 5.
7. Optionally enter a filter to generate campaigns for specific types of items in your inventory feed. For example, use a filter to generate campaigns only for "loafers" or other types of shoes in your feed.
   
   To enter a filter:
   1. Under Feed filters click + Attribute or metric and select an attribute from the inventory feed.
      The list contains all of the product attributes defined in the inventory feed you selected for the inventory plan.
   2. Select an operator, such as Equals or Starts with.
      If you need complex filters, you can use regular expressions in the filter.
   3. Enter a value to match. 

      For example, the filter Category level 5 Equals (case insensitive) loafers matches all products in your inventory feed for which the Google product category attribute specifies the word loafers, Loafers, or LOAFERS at level 5.

   4. You can specify additional filters. The campaigns will generate only for those items that match all of the attributes.

      For example, if you add Price Greater than $50 to the filter in the previous step, the template will only generate campaigns for loafers that cost more than $50.

   5. To remove a filter, click the X that appears at the end of the line.

8. Click the Preview button to see the list of products that match the filter.
9. Specify criteria for removing and pausing campaigns.
10. Optionally specify existing labels or rows from business data tables to apply to the campaigns generated by the template.
11. To receive an email when the plan creates new campaigns, select Send email when new campaigns are created.

    Each time the inventory plan evaluates your inventory feed and creates new campaigns, you'll receive one email that lists all of the newly created campaigns. If you also select the Send email option in the plan's ad group templates, the email will also contain the list of newly created ad groups.

12. Click Next.
    The editor for campaign settings appears.

Status settings for campaigns

By default campaigns are created in the active state, and Search Ads 360 removes a campaign when all of its inventory items no longer appear in the feed. In the Status section, choose any of the following settings:

• When items are no longer found in the feed, set the status to:
  • Removed: Search Ads 360 removes a campaign when all of its inventory items no longer appear in the feed. For example, if you use the Brand inventory attribute as the multiplier and then you later remove a specific brand from the feed, the campaign that was generated for the removed brand will be removed.

    When a campaign is removed, all of its ad groups, ads, and keywords are also effectively removed. Note that while you can include the removed campaign in reports, the removed campaign cannot be re-activated. When at least one inventory item matching the campaign multiplier and filters is returned to the feed, Search Ads 360 generates a new campaign. Performance data from the old campaign is not applied to the new campaign.

  • Paused: Search Ads 360 pauses a campaign when all of its inventory items no longer appear in the feed. For example, if you use the Brand inventory attribute as the multiplier and then you later remove a specific brand from the feed, the campaign that was generated for the removed brand will be paused.

    When at least one inventory item matching the campaign multiplier and filters is returned to the feed, Search Ads 360 resumes the campaign.

    This setting only affects the status of the overall campaign. The status of ad groups, ads, and keywords within a resumed campaign depends on the status setting you chose in the corresponding templates. For example, if you set up ad groups to pause when their inventory items are removed from the feed, when Search Ads 360 resumes a campaign, only the ad groups with inventory items in the feed will be resumed.

  • Current status: Search Ads 360 doesn't change the campaign's status, even if all of its inventory items no longer appear in the feed.
• Create campaigns in a paused state: The template always pauses new campaigns. This gives you the chance to review the newly created campaigns before their ads start serving. After you activate the paused campaigns, restore inventory management for the campaigns. Alternatively, if you haven't specified a condition under Pause campaigns when a condition is met, you can restore inventory management and the campaigns will resume.
• Pause campaigns when a condition is met: Pauses campaigns when an update to your inventory data matches  conditions you specify in a formula. For example, you can pause campaigns when the availability of related inventory items falls below a quantity threshold you specify. Search Ads 360 resumes the campaign if your inventory data no longer matches the conditions.

2. Enter campaign settings

1. After you specify the campaign multiplier and optional filters, Search Ads 360 displays campaign settings.
2. Enter campaign settings as you would for a manual campaign.
   • You can use functions, inventory attributes, and formula columns in any setting to generate unique values for each campaign. Be sure that any formula you specify returns the correct data for the setting.
   • To use the same value for all campaigns, enter static text or numbers depending on the setting's data type.

   Here's the syntax for campaign settings:

   • Static text and numbers can be entered directly into a template.
   • Dates always need to be entered in a function, such as the date function.
   • All functions, inventory attributes, and formula columns need to be surrounded by[ ] (square brackets) 
     To include the [ ] characters in your ad copy, escape them as follows:
     \[ \]

   Example: \[*EngineAccountType*\]) - Escapes a macro. 

   Here are some examples of basic settings:

   Setting	Value	Description
   Name	[Item_brand] - [Item_category_level_5]	Two inventory attributes separated by spaces and a static text character (-). Outputs names such as: SpeedyShoes - loafers ComfyWalkers - loafers
   Daily budget	100	A static number that specifies a daily budget of $100 (or €100, ¥100, or other currency depending on the engine's currency)
   Start date	[add_days(today(), 7)]	A function that starts campaigns 7 days after being generated (this gives you time to review the output before starting the campaign). For example, if the template generates CampaignA on November 1, then CampaignA's start date is November 8. If the template generates CampaignB on November 2, then CampaignB's start date is November 9.
   End date	[date(2018,12,31)]	A function that specifies the date December 31, 2018.

    

   Looking for Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising location targets?

   If your inventory plan creates campaigns in a Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising engine account, you can't set location targets from campaign settings. Instead, create a location target template to specify geographic areas in which your ads can appear.

   For other types of engine accounts that support location targeting, the campaign template does provide location target settings. See a description of campaign settings to learn more about location targeting for each type of engine. 

3. Click Next. 

3. Enter settings for ad extensions

Inventory plans that target Google Ads accounts can generate sitelinks. By default, generated campaigns inherit generated account-level sitelinks as well as any manual account-level sitelinks.

If you want generated campaigns to override account-level sitelinks, you can either manually edit the campaigns, or set up the campaign template to do one of the following:

• Inherit generated and manual account-level sitelinks: New and existing campaigns generated from this template will inherit all account-level sitelinks in the engine account. 
• Disable generated and manual sitelinks: New and existing campaigns generated from this template will not display sitelinks.
• Apply generated and manual campaign-level sitelinks: Displays the list of all sitelink templates in the inventory plan. Select one or more templates. New and existing campaigns generated from this template will display sitelinks that are generated from the selected templates and that have a common key.

Learn more about using inventory management to create and apply Google Ads sitelinks.

4. Preview campaigns

1. After entering your settings (as outlined earlier), in the last step before saving the template, Search Ads 360 shows a preview window containing up to the first 50 campaigns that will be generated with the current settings and inventory data.
2. Look through the list of campaigns to make sure your formulas create the campaign names, budgets, and other output that you expect.
3. You can click the Previous button, adjust your formulas as needed, and return to the preview. 
4. When you're satisfied with the preview, click Save template.

 

Search Ads 360 saves the template and pauses it. The template won't be applied to the plan's inventory data until you change its status to Active.

Next steps

Create at least one ad group template, ad template, and keyword template. If you've already created one of these templates in the current plan, you can use the existing template instead of creating a new one.