What Are AdWords Scripts, And Why Do You Need Them?
The word “scripts” might conjure up images of complex programming tasks, but you don’t have to be a pro to streamline parts of your AdWords campaigns.
AdWords scripts are simply a way to automate commonly performed tasks and take better control of your PPC (pay-per-click) marketing efforts. If you want to dive in and give automation a go, here are 5 AdWords tasks that are easy to automate.
Setting up an AdWords script
First things first, get your account set up for scripts. You’ll have to change a few settings in your account, and instructions on how to do so can be found here.
Once your account is properly configured, test your chops with these easy scripts.
1. Pause keywords with 0 impressions
It’s not uncommon to have some keywords in a campaign that don’t produce any impressions. With this script, you can set those keywords to be paused or deleted at preset intervals (such as monthly or quarterly).
This simple script is a great one to start with, and you can find all the code you’ll need in the link above.
2. Automatically find broken URLs
Some websites, especially eCommerce websites with frequently updated pages, have tons of URLs to track. In fact, as any website adds new pages and takes old ones down it can become tricky to keep every URL in good shape.
This script identifies broken URLs so that you can get them fixed promptly, seamlessly allowing you to keep your AdWords campaigns aligned with the content on your website.
3. Account summary report
This script will generate a full overview of your AdWords account in a Google Sheet. The sheet will contain data like cost-per-click (CPC), clicks, impressions, and average position, making it an important tool for tracking the efficacy of PPC campaigns.
4. Weather-based campaign management
This script automatically increases your bids when specific weather events occur.
For example, if you own an ice cream store, you could create a script to increase bids whenever the weather is nice out. Remembering to do this manually isn’t an efficient use of time (and you might forget), but now you won’t have to worry about that.
5. Account monthly budget pause
With this script from AdHawk, you can automatically pause a campaign when the budget is used up. All you have to do is set the “monthly_budget” portion of the script and schedule the script to run every hour. Now, when a monthly budget is exceeded, the script will pause the active campaigns.
More AdWords scripts to try
Once you start learning about scripts, the options for further automation are endless. If you want to set up even more scripts that will make managing your PPC efforts easier, this list of 100 Google AdWords Scripts You Should Be Using is a must-bookmark resource.
