Google AdWords scripts offer endless possibilities to take your PPC account to the next level. Scripts can be used to automate changes in your account, analyze complex information quickly, interact with external data and even leverage the Google Prediction API to apply machine learning to your PPC efforts. Scripts can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know how to code, but you don’t actually need to know JavaScript to harness the power of scripts. There are many easy-to-use, open source scripts at our disposal. Here are five of my favorites —

Laptop with Google AdWords Script

Leave the coding to the pros. Image via Pexels.

How Much Are You Really Bidding?

With so many layers of bid adjustments in any well-managed PPC account – for device, geographic region, and ad schedule just to name a few – it’s not hard to imagine how the effective bid for a given query can deviate from your keyword level bid. This script analyzes keyword bids and bid adjustments in aggregate, and produces a spreadsheet with the actual CPC ranges for a given campaign or keyword to provide you with a more accurate picture of what you are actually bidding. All you have to do is paste it into a new AdWords script window, input your spreadsheet URL and run it! One caveat – scripts cannot access audience data so the output ranges will not take RLSA or demographic bidding into account.

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A/B Test Any Aspect of Your Account

It’s not uncommon for search marketers to A/B test ad copy or landing pages by evenly rotating ads within each ad group. But imagine the impact you can have on conversion rate by testing any aspect of your account with this script. How does it work? First, duplicate the campaign in question and alter what you plan to test (maybe it’s a setting like enhanced cost per click, or separating match types by ad group) to create your control and experiment. Next, apply labels and make a few adjustments to the script per the instructions, including selecting a confidence threshold. The script will pause and un-pause each campaign every hour so each campaign gets an even share of traffic, and then it will email you when your test has achieved significant results.

Reverse Close Variant Matching

Several years ago, Google shook up the search world by removing your ability to choose if you want your exact keywords to match to “close variant” search terms. For some advertisers, this presented a real problem. And while most have likely bolstered their negative keyword lists and honed their strategies by now, there are still some instances where never-ending close variants are driving up costs. This script will pull a list of close variant search terms that matched to exact match keywords, and automatically add them as negatives at the campaign or ad group level.

Discover or Pause Landing Pages with Errors

Ever click through an ad in your account to find the landing page has been removed, or resolves in an error? Especially for larger accounts, this script can be a huge time saver and important health check. All you have to do is input which status codes are acceptable (maybe 301 and 302 redirects are fine, but 400 & 500 level errors are not), and if you want the script to pause the bad ads or simply notify you via email. Schedule it to run weekly, and you’ll never have a landing page error again.

Highlight Your Best and Worst Phrases from Search Terms Using N-grams

What in the world is an n-gram? An n-gram is a phrase containing n(umber) words. This script mines your search query report to find your best and worst performing 2, 3 and 4 word phrases (however many you want, really). You can use this script to glean insight into your keyword universe. Are there hidden gems that you can expand? Or are certain search terms, like those with “promo code” for example, driving up costs?

All of the examples I provided today require minimal adjustment and come with straightforward instructions, often commented out within the code. If you get confused, look for the following syntax to indicate a comment – ‘//commented out JavaScript instruction’.

Google AdWords Script Screenshot

So there you have it. With a few minutes of setup, you can save yourself tons of time, and produce some high-level analyses, by setting up a few simple AdWords Scripts.

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