Including business data by reference

If you create business data tables with several or more columns, you may want to move some of these columns into a separate table, and then include one table inside another. This helps you:

• Apply, maintain, and update your business data

• Reuse repetitive information instead of redefining it directly in each row

• Apply separate but related business data at different levels in your account

• Separate information that is rarely updated from information that is frequently updated

Example: Reuse information

For example, if you add availability data to your hotels, the Hotel business data table contains quite a few columns:
Hotel:

ID	Region	City	Neighborhood	Tier	Rating	Availability
Sleepwell	Northeast	Boston	Back Bay	5	5	50
Rest Eazy	Northeast	New York	Chelsea	5	3	200
Harbor View	Northeast	New York	Chelsea	3	4	100

 

Notice that the location information--Region, City, and Neighborhood--may apply to multiple hotels. So instead of repeating that information each time you add more data, you can create a separate business data table for the locations of your hotels, and then include the locations data in the Hotel table.

Here's a business data table that contains hotel locations:

Location:

ID	Region	City	Neighborhood
Boston: Back Bay	Northeast	Boston	Back Bay
New York: Chelsea	Northeast	New York	Chelsea

 

And here's the updated Hotel table. Each row in the table now includes (refers to) a row in the new Location table:

Hotel:

ID	Location.ID	Tier	Rating	Availability
Sleepwell	Boston: Back Bay	5	5	50
Rest Eazy	New York: Chelsea	5	3	200
Harbor View	New York: Chelsea	3	4	100

 

Because you've included the location data inside each hotel, you can still pivot on any of the columns from the Location table or the Hotel table. And you can reorganize or update your locations without needing to update your hotel data. The updated locations will automatically apply to the hotels because each hotel includes a location.

Example: Apply separate but related business data

Continuing with the previous example, if your account contains one group of campaigns for your hotels and a separate group of more generic campaigns for the cities your hotels are located in, you can apply the Hotel business data to your hotel campaigns and the Location business data to your location campaigns.

When your view a report for your most popular cities, you can see metrics for the specific hotel campaigns as well as the metrics for the location campaigns. 

Data conflicts

A note of caution when applying business data from included tables directly to campaigns, ad groups, or other items: you may unintentionally apply conflicting data.

For example:

1. You apply the "New York: Chelsea" location to an ad group.
   

2. Then you apply the "Sleepwell" hotel to the same ad group.

3. Because the "Sleepwell" hotel includes the "Boston: Back Bay" location, Search Ads 360 will detach the "New York: Chelsea" location you originally applied and replace it with the "Boston: Back Bay" location.
   

Essentially, the last edit that you make wins. Search Ads 360 will make whatever changes are needed to avoid data conflicts based on the last edit.

Only included in one table

Note that a table can be included only in one other table. For example, the Location table can be included in the Hotel table or a Restaurant table, but not in both.

Ready to get started?

• See business data examples for specific verticals, such as retail, flights, and finance.
• Create a business data table