Tag Archives: Campaign management

DS features in May

In May, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):

  • Public launch of Shopping campaigns in DS
    You can create and manage AdWords Shopping campaigns in DS, a feature that we initially rolled out in beta in March. Shopping campaigns are a new campaign type for AdWords Product Listing Ads that streamline how you manage and bid on your products, report on the performance of your ads, and find opportunities to grow your traffic from Google. Learn more.

  • Specify and report on sitelinks for ad groups
    Sitelinks are an ad extension available in AdWords engine accounts. They appear beneath the text of your ads (and in addition to the main landing page), link to specific pages on your website, and help customers find what they're looking for on your site with just one click. By default, all ads inherit sitelinks from the campaign, but now you can add different sitelinks for each ad group or prevent an ad group from displaying sitelinks. Learn more.

  • Include custom dimensions and metrics in DS reports
    If you use Floodlight activities to track conversions, you can add details to your DS reports that are customized to your business needs, such as the genre of a movie that a user purchases, the zip code to which an item is shipped, shipping costs, and so on. Learn more.

  • Upgrade to the new AdWords “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns
    AdWords will soon be replacing “Search & Display Networks” campaigns with a new campaign type, “Search Network with Display Select”, that offers 35% better Google Display Network performance than your current “Search & Display Networks” campaigns. You can upgrade your “Search only" and “Search & Display Networks" campaigns one at a time from AdWords, or use DS bulksheets to upgrade multiple campaigns with a single upload. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Executive reporting: Filter data sources in charts
    By default, charts display metrics from all data sources that are in a report. If you want a chart to display metrics only from specific campaigns, devices, or even keywords of a particular match type, you can add a filter to the chart. The chart will contain data only for items that match the filter.

  • Support for the AdWords "Rotate indefinitely" and "Conversion optimize" settings
    DS now supports the “Rotate indefinitely” and “Conversion optimize” settings for AdWords campaigns in addition to the “Rotate evenly” and “Optimize for clicks” settings that were available previously. Learn more.

Watch the recorded webinar for May features to see these updates in action.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in April

In April, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Bid strategies that can recommend and optimize mobile bid adjustments
    Bid strategies that target conversions or revenue can now optimize AdWords mobile bid adjustments based on the bid strategy’s goal. If you prefer a more hands-on approach, you can set your bid strategy to recommend mobile bid adjustments. Learn more.

  • Use keyword parameters in ads
    You can customize your Google AdWords and Bing Ads ads by using dynamic text parameters in DoubleClick Search (DS). A customized ad is more likely to appeal to potential customers because it's more relevant to their search queries. Ad parameters also allow updates to ads without having to go through the engine’s validation and approval process. This feature works with both manual campaigns and inventory campaigns. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Bid strategies for PLA campaigns
    To optimize bidding on Product Listing Ads, you can now apply a return-on-investment (ROI) bid strategy to product targets, an ad group with product targets, or an entire campaign. You can even use the same bid strategy to manage bidding for both keywords and product targets and let DS determine the ideal bids for reaching your ROI goals. Learn more.


  • Use formula columns that contain Google Analytics goals in bid strategies
    If you need greater control over how conversions are combined and weighted in your bid strategy, you can create a formula column that defines your own key performance indicators (KPIs), and then add a bid strategy that optimizes to the formula column. Now, formula columns that include data from Google Analytics conversion or revenue columns can be used in a bid strategy.


  • New reporting resource in the DS API
    DS has added a new resource type to its API that contains the list of all columns an advertiser has created, such as Floodlight columns, Google Analytics columns, or formula columns. Once you retrieve the list of columns, you can request reports for the metrics that the columns contain. Learn more about working with saved columns from the DS API.

  • Saved views include segmentation selection
    When you save a report view that is segmented, DS now saves the segmentation selection as well. This only applies to new views that you create going forward. Existing views cannot save the segmentation selection.

  • Fresh, new look
    We’ve added more space and softer colors to make DoubleClick Search easier on the eyes. This is the same look in many of the other Google products you know and love.

We also want to let you know about a change in product functionality:

  • Fewer AdWords search queries available in the search query report
    Google now removes the search query from the referrer on ad clicks that originate from SSL searches on Google.com. Learn more about this change. The search query report in DS won’t be able to display search queries for these clicks. Instead, you’ll see Other queries. Learn more about how encrypted searches affect the DS search query report.

    The AdWords search terms report lets you see search queries that generated ad clicks along with key performance data. And the Search Queries report available in Google Webmaster Tools provides aggregate information about the top 2000 queries, each day, that generated organic clicks.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in March


In March, we added the following feature to DoubleClick Search (DS):

  • Support for the new AdWords “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns
    AdWords has launched a new campaign type, “Search Network with Display Select”, which is helping advertisers     gain up to 15% more customers than search campaigns alone. Any new campaigns that you create in DS will automatically be “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns. DS will continue to support legacy “Search & Display Networks” campaigns for a few months. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Include impression share in executive reports
    You can now     add a chart to an executive report that displays the impression share metric for your Google AdWords keywords. With impression share metrics, you can easily report how many of the overall potential impressions you’re capturing.

  • Improved targeting settings for Bing Ads ad groups
    We made some improvements to clarify that a Bing Ads ad group can override the campaign’s location and device settings     independently. In other words, you can override one or both of these settings when you create or edit a Bing Ads ad group.

  • Segment Google Analytics goals by device
    When a reporting table includes columns for Google Analytics goals, you can now     segment the table by device as well as by ads.

  • Bid strategies for PLA campaigns
    To optimize bidding on Product Listing Ads, you can now apply an ROI bid strategy to product targets, an ad group with product targets, or an entire campaign. You can even use the same bid strategy to let DS optimize your bids across both product targets and keywords to reach your ROI goals.     Learn more.

  • Formula columns: new functions, new columns, and new aggregation options
    • New functions
      We have added 18 functions that you can use in formula columns: 14 for manipulating strings, 2 for specifying relative dates, and 2 for error handling. In addition,       to_number(), to_percent(), and to_money() can now convert localized strings into numbers. See a list of all functions in the new function list for DS formula columns.
    • New columns You can now use the Status and Keyword_match_type columns in a formula column. These columns are considered to be enumerated columns because they always contain one of a few values pre-defined by DS. Make sure that any functions you create refer to one of the pre-defined values that the column can contain.
      Here’s an example function that outputs "Brand-Broad" for keywords that are labeled with the “Brand” label and have been defined with a broad match type:       If(and(Has_label("Brand"),keyword_match_type="Broad"),
      "Brand-Broad","Brand")
    • New aggregation options When you create a formula column, you can specify how the summary row in a reporting table aggregates data from a formula column. Previously, a summary row always summed the raw data in the individual rows and then applied the formula to the sum. Now you can specify that a summary row applies the formula to each row and then sums the formula results.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in February

In February, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):

  • Report on impression share You can now report on impression share for keywords in your AdWords engine accounts in DS. Impression share is the number of impressions you’ve received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. With impression share metrics, you can easily track how many of the overall potential impressions you’re capturing. Learn more.

  • Easy access to agency and advertiser data, and faster account navigation We’ve completed the rollout of two DS UI changes that are designed to enhance usability and workflow efficiency.

    • The new agency view: Enables viewing and reporting across multiple advertisers. This view shows key data from multiple advertisers in one integrated, consistent view to help advertisers more easily act on big opportunities.

    • The new navigation bar: Provides a more usable way to quickly find and access information across your advertisers. It includes a new horizontal layout, a search-as-you-type function, favorites labels, and keyboard shortcuts.

To learn more, read this blog post and this Help Center section.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Improvements to automated rules and bulk edits We made the following improvements to automated rules and bulk edits (including scheduled edits) in DoubleClick Search:

    • Bulk edits and automated rules at the advertiser level
      When you navigate to an advertiser with all engine accounts, or navigate to an advertiser with an engine type (e.g.,       All AdWords accounts), you’ll now see the Edit and Rules buttons above the table.

    • Bulk edits and automated rules for objects within labels
      When you click       Labels in the left nav and then click a specific label, you’ll now be able to apply bulk edits and automated rules after navigating to the campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads in the label.

    • Change min/max bid in bulk for keywords
      Change min/max bid for bid strategies is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for keywords.

    • Change budgets across engine accounts
      For rules and bulk edits on Bing Ads campaigns, we combined the       Change daily budget and Change monthly budget options into one Change budget option. This allows you to change budgets in bulk across Google AdWords and Bing Ads engine accounts.

    • Change labels in bulk for ads
      Change label is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for ads.

    • See the source of your bulk edit or automated rule
      When you click       Bulk operations in the left nav, the new Changed by column on the Bulk operations page shows the source of the edit or rule.
      • For one-time bulk edits, the column displays the user’s email address.
      • For scheduled edits, the column displays Scheduled edit: {scheduled edit name}.
      • For automated rules, the column displays Rule: {rule name} with a link to the Rule details page.

  • Sitelink descriptions in DS DS now supports syncing and managing multi-line descriptive text for AdWords sitelinks.

  • New LENGTH() function for inventory templates Inventory templates for ads and keywords now support the LENGTH() function, which returns the length of a string or other value. With this function, you can create templates that respond to the length of a field, as in the following example that outputs “generic” if the BRAND field is blank: [IF(LENGTH(BRAND) > 0, BRAND, "generic")]. Learn more.

Watch the recorded webinar for February features to see these updates in action.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in January

In January, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Inventory Product Listing Ads campaigns
    This release introduces a new type of campaign: an inventory Product Listing Ads (PLA) campaign, which makes it easy to scale up your PLA advertising with detailed reports and bidding on each of your individual products. Inventory PLA campaigns automatically generate ad groups and granular product targets for Product Listing Ads from data in your Merchant Center account.     Learn more.

  • Reporting API
    You can now use the DoubleClick Search API to programmatically download reports. You can combine the API data with data you already have about your products, customers, and business goals (from a CRM system, for example) to complete the picture of your search advertising impact.     Learn more.

  • Assess your bid strategy’s health
    The new     Bid strategy health column displays messages about issues that prevent a bid strategy from performing optimally. If you click the message, DS navigates to the location in the UI in which you can address the issue. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Google Analytics metrics and goals in Executive Reporting
    If you use Google Analytics to track your conversions, you can now enhance your     executive reports with GA metrics and goals for multiple advertisers. For example, you can create a single chart that compares GA new visits with overall revenue for all of your advertisers.

  • More actions and notification options in automated rules and bulk edits
    We made the following improvements to     automated rules and bulk edits (including scheduled edits):
    • You can now perform bulk edits and automated rules on a list of product targets.
    • Change bid strategy and Change mobile bid adjustment % are new options when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for campaigns or ad groups.
    • When setting up your actions and alerts for a rule, you have more options for when to receive an email. For example, you can choose to receive emails only when a problem occurs.

  • Improved support of targeting settings for Bing Ads ad groups
    When you     create or edit an ad group in a Bing Ads engine account, you'll notice that the Languages, Locations, and Devices settings have been changed to more accurately reflect the way Bing Ads organizes these settings.

Be sure to attend the New Feature Review monthly webinar to see these features in action. There are sessions on February 6, so register today!

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in November/December


In November and December, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Executive Reporting
    When it’s time to present performance data to your clients or executives, instead of manually downloading detailed data and distilling it into useful summaries, you can now create an executive report in DoubleClick Search (DS). DS executive reports     are a powerful new way to create custom visual reports to analyze data and share with your end clients, teammates, and managers. Learn more.

  • Analyze performance for all keywords or ads at the advertiser level
    You can now see the performance data for all of an advertiser’s keywords or ads across all engines. Most DS customers have multiple engine accounts, so this feature makes it easier to understand aggregate/overall performance. In the DS UI, simply navigate to an advertiser and click the Keywords tab or Ads tab.     Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Better summary data for your bid strategies
    The bid strategy summary page now focuses on conversions, revenue, and bid strategy status by displaying the Bid strategy performance view by default. In addition to displaying goal type, target metric, and constraints, the Bid strategy performance view has been updated with new columns that show the conversion and revenue statistics relevant to that bid strategy.     Learn more.

  • Apply bid strategies to campaigns/ad groups via bulksheets: You can now use the Bid strategy column in a bulksheet to apply existing bid strategies to campaigns or ad groups. This makes it much easier to apply bid strategies to multiple campaigns and ad groups. Learn more.

  • Use bulksheets to create, change, and delete labels
    There’s a new bulksheet that makes it easier to create multiple labels at once, and it also allows you to change and delete labels.     Learn more.

  • Segment sitelink performance data by campaign
    You can now view sitelink performance by campaign in a single view. For example, if you applied a sitelink to 3 campaigns in a single AdWords engine account, you can see a list of the campaigns with the number of sitelink clicks in each campaign.     Learn more.


Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

New agency view and navigation bar offers more efficiency in DoubleClick Search

Today we’d like to let you know about two upcoming changes to the DoubleClick Search interface that we’ve designed to enhance usability and workflow efficiency: the new agency view that enables viewing and reporting across multiple advertisers, and the new navigation bar that provides a more useable way to quickly find and access information across your advertisers.

Agency view
Agencies using DoubleClick Search often spend time toggling between the many clients they manage. The new agency view in DoubleClick Search shows key data from multiple advertisers into one integrated, consistent view to help advertisers more easily act on the biggest opportunities. This new view allows agencies to:

  • Quickly compare client accounts at a glance, and prioritize their day’s activities
  • Use familiar reporting tools in DoubleClick Search, including date comparison, downloading reports, and customizing views, for better organization across accounts.



Navigation bar
The new navigation bar allows customers to seamlessly move across their accounts in the following ways:

  • A new horizontal layout minimizes scrolling and provides a full view of account components.
  • A “search-as-you-type” function lets you quickly find the objects you’re looking for.
  • “Favorites” labels for your advertisers or agencies ensure your most important ones stay at the top of your list.
  • Keyboard shortcuts let you easily select or deselect specific accounts



The new agency view and navigation bar are in early preview for DoubleClick Search customers. If you’re interested in learning more, contact your DoubleClick Search representative.

DS features in October


In October, we added the following feature to DoubleClick Search:

  • Optimize to Google Analytics conversions: When you create a conversion-based bid strategy in DoubleClick Search (DS), you can now optimize to conversions based on Google Analytics goals. This feature extends the conversion options for DS bid strategies, which already support optimization to Floodlight activities and formula columns. We’re adding another layer of flexibility by allowing you to use the conversions you track on Google Analytics to get the most out of your keyword bidding in DS.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • New Google Analytics columns: By linking your DS and Google Analytics accounts, you can add columns to your DS reports that display data from Google Analytics. With this update, DS added the following columns: GA bounce rate, GA pages / visit, GA avg visit duration, and GA new visits %. DS also renamed some of its existing columns to align with the column names in Google Analytics. Learn more.

  • Updates to formula-column operators: The Days() and Months() operators in a formula column can now count backwards in addition to counting forwards. For example, if today is October 15, clicks.for_date_range(today(), days(-14)) returns the number of clicks from October 1 to October 14. Also, you no longer need to nest IF operators to evaluate multiple conditions and outcomes. For example, now you can write an IF operator like this: If(Impr / Num_days() < 10, "Very low run rate", Impr / Num_days() > 500, "Very high run rate", "").  Learn more.

  • New macros: DS has added new macros that you can use to pass additional information to your landing pages. Specifically, you can now pass the name and ID of the ad group, campaign, and engine account containing the keyword that was responsible for a click. See the available DoubleClick Search macros.

  • Download negative keywords and edit for upload: You can now download negative keywords and edit them for upload in DS. To help with creating negative keywords, we added templates specifically for negative keywords in the Help Center.

  • Easier to upload offline conversions: When you upload offline conversions using bulksheets, you can attribute those conversions to visits by just specifying the click ID. To attribute the conversion to a keyword, you can specify just the keyword ID. Learn more.

  • DoubleClick Natural Search now reports on HTTPS-encrypted searches: DoubleClick Natural Search now reports on encrypted natural searches in DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM), with the value Not provided. In addition, conversions can be attributed to encrypted natural searches, so you may see fewer paid search or display conversions. Learn more and see an example.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Success with DS series: Shortcuts to time savings with automated rules

This is the second post in our "Success with DS" series, highlighting tips and tricks around key DoubleClick Search features. Today’s post comes from Vijay Reddy, DoubleClick Platform Solutions Consultant.


Last time, we heard Technical Specialist Emily Brodman talk about how you can enjoy the rest of your summer vacation with inventory-aware campaigns that automatically create and update your search campaigns, based on your Google Merchant Center feed. But now summer's gone, and Halloween's just around the corner. We figured you could use some of the time you save after implementing the automated rules below to put the finishing touches on your costume.



You may already know the basics of automated rules. You may know that it’s an easy, reliable way to save time by automating the tasks you do everyday. But did you know you could use rules to detect a downward trend in your campaign volume, increase your budget to reverse the trend, and to label keywords for easy reporting. Too good to be true? It’s not. We’ll start small and work our way up to doing exactly that. Navigate to the campaigns tab of a particular engine account, select a couple of campaigns you want the rule to apply to, then configure as follows: 1) Set your condition


2) Set your action to “Notify only”


3) Schedule the rule to run and click “Save rule”

Easy as 1,2,3 (literally)!


Tip: The date range your condition is evaluated over is the date range of the view you created the rule from. You may be thinking, “This is great and all...but in the real world, different campaigns have different volumes. Does this mean I have to create a new rule of every campaign?”
Formula columns to the rescue!  
Instead of triggering off a static click threshold, let’s create a formula column that detects a trend in click volume: Create a formula column called “% Change Clicks.” You can copy the below formula: to_percent((Clicks.for_Date_Range(Yesterday()) -Clicks/num_days())/(Clicks/num_days())) Now recreate the previous rule, but this time trigger off the formula column you just created:

You now have rule that detects if yesterday’s clicks have dropped more than 30% below the trailing 7 day average! Tip: If you liked that formula column, you can see several more creative examples of formula columns in action here.Now, as Emeril  would say, “Let’s kick it up a notch!” Our rule currently just notifies us that volume is trending down, but it doesn’t actually do anything about it. Enter Actions!
Different object types have different actions available. For example, a rule on keywords would have the option to change its landing page or max CPC. Rules on campaigns have their own menu of actions. Since the rule in question is detecting a drop in click-volume, it may make sense to bump up the campaign’s budget in an attempt to get volume back up. Just model your action like below:

Mission accomplished! What’s that you say? You want MORE automation? I thought you’d never ask. Extra Credit:
If you thought Rules +formula columns was a powerful combo, wait till you throw labels into the mix. Try creating a parallel rule  that runs with the same condition as the previous rule, but instead of increasing budget it adds a label (e.g. “Budget Auto-Increased”). Now go back to the first rule and add NOT having that label as a condition for the first rule. This effectively means the each campaign can only be auto-increased once. What other creative ways can you think of to combine rules, formula columns, and labels?

DS features in September

In September, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Manage AdWords upgraded sitelinks: DS now supports AdWords upgraded sitelinks, which make it easy for you to reach customers with deeper information about your site or product. Upgraded sitelinks appear in your ads just like non-upgraded sitelinks, but they’re easier to manage and provide more detailed reporting. You can create and edit upgraded sitelinks in the DS UI or by upload, choose whether a sitelink is mobile preferred, specify start and end dates, and more.

  • Optimize bids to custom metrics using formula columns: The DS Performance Bidding Suite now supports the optimization of bids based on formula columns. Use the flexibility of formula columns to first define your own performance metrics, and then easily set up bid strategies that optimize to those metrics.

  • Manage Product Listing Ads in DS: Retail advertisers can now create and manage AdWords Product Listing Ads campaigns directly in DS and take advantage of the powerful features for managing search campaigns efficiently and delivering maximum ROI. You can easily view Merchant Center feeds and define product targets based on those feeds, preview the products that match your criteria in campaigns and product targets, and use DS bulksheets to upload large amounts of product targets at once.

  • Create match type-specific ad groups in inventory campaigns: These ad groups give you the power to more easily manage negative keywords, report by match type, enforce the bid you set, and more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Use special characters in template functions:  When using a template function for ads or keywords in inventory campaigns, you can now include “, [, and ] as special characters in your static text, as long as you escape them. Special characters make it easier for you to clean up data from the Merchant Center feed to prepare it for inventory-aware campaigns. To use these characters in a text string, they must be preceded by a backslash (\”, \[, \]).

  • New ROUND() template function for inventory-aware campaign templates. When you add ad templates in an inventory campaign, you can now use ROUND() as a function to round number values from the Merchant Center feed to a given decimal point. This allows you to shorten or round numeric values like price in ad copy, making it easier to fit ad copy character limits. For example, if the price listed for a given item is 25.79, ROUND(PRICE,0) outputs 26, while ROUND(PRICE,3) outputs 25.790.

Be sure to attend the New Feature Review monthly webinar to see these features in action. There are sessions on October 3, so register today!

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team