advanced tips for working with adwords scripts by frederick vallaeys

#SMX #24B @SiliconVallaeys @Optmyzr

Scaling AdWords Scripts for the Real World

Advanced Tips For Working With AdWords Scripts


“Addinghumanjudgmenttostatisticalmethodsmakesresultsroughly15percentmoreaccurate.Andit’seventrueinchess:Whilethebestcomputerscannoweasilybeatthebesthumans,theycaninturnbebeatenbyhumansaidedbycomputers.”

–WiredMagazine,January2014

Scripts Help You Do Better PPC


“Aslongasthehumans[…]understandwhatitistheyarecontrolling,we’refine.It’swhentheybecomeslavestothenumbersthattroublebreaksout.”

–WiredMagazine,January2014

Automation Can Be Bad


TITLE OPTION #2 – IMAGE Slide with SMX FOOTER:

ThisblanklayoutoffersyouflexibilitytoinsertyourownstandardslidesabovetheSMXfooter-eitherforatitleslideorallothers.YOUMUSTUSETHISFOOTERATMINIMUMONYOURTITLESLIDE&ALMOSTALLOFYOURSLIDES.Ifascreenshotoverlapsthefooteronoccasion,that’sfine–butdoyourbesttocropappropriately.Ifusingexplicitfontsareimportant,youmayprovideapdftotheeventorganizerstomaintainlook&feelduringlivepresentationandintheversionSMXwilluploadtoslideshare.DELETETHISSLIDEIFYOUDONOTUSE.

•  Versionschange•  Youwanttodoslightly

differentvariationsofthesamethingfordifferentclients

Scripts Solve Some Problems but Also Create New Ones


MCCScriptsLetYouMaintain1CopyoftheCode

Makecodechangesin1placeratherthanineveryaccount


ReadthesettingsfortheaccountfromaGoogleSheetProTip:Usespreadsheetstocreateworkflowsforyourteam

Spreadsheets are a good way to maintain settings


1.  ExecutionTimeLimits2.  EntityLimits3.  GoogleServiceQuotaLimits4.  AuthorizationLimits5.  CampaignTypeLimits

Solutions for AdWords Scripts Limits


Execution Time Limits

Solutions:1.  Runtasksinparallel2.  Maintainstateofwork

done(e.g.withlabels)3.  Writebettercode

ScriptscanrunuptoOnceperHourforaupto30Minutes


•  Separatereadandwriteoperations•  Googlewillautomaticallybatchthechanges

•  Usereportswhenfetchingalotofdata•  Usebulkuploadswhenpostingalotofchanges•  Usefilterstogetonlywhatyouneed•  Usecommonsense1.  E.g.ifyou’reusingyesterday’sdata,thescriptonlyneedstorunonce

perday

Write More Efficient AdWords Scripts Code


Scriptscantouchatmost250,000entitiesinanaccount…That’saproblemifyouraccounthas1millionkeywordsSolution:1.  Fetchdataforanunlimitednumberofentitieswithreports2.  Limitprocessingbyfilteringtheentitiesyoutouch3.  Pushupto50Mbofdataor1millionrowstobulkuploads

Entity Limits

1.Fetch 2.Process 3.Post


Checkbrokenlandingpages:

20k-100kURLfetches

EmailAlerts:

100-1500recipients

GenerateReportinSpreadsheets:

250-3200sheets

Google Services Have Quota Limits


Eachuserisallowedtohaveupto250authorizedAdWordsScriptsatatime

Authorization Limits

Solutions:•  Multipleusers•  MCCscripts


Notallfeaturesaresupported:keywordtool,bidsimulator,changehistory,…

Notallcampaigntypesaresupported:

Feature Limits


Giventheselimitations,areScriptsreallyworthit?


AdWordsScriptsvsAPI

Scripts API

Hosting HostedbyAdWords,justlikeGoogleDocs

Youneedaserver

Skillsneeded Copy-and-Paste Installthecode,someSDKsorlibraries,…

Scheduling SetyourscheduleinsideAdWords Maintaincronjobsonyourserver

Capabilities Can’tmanageeverything AlmosteverythinginAW

Strengths Quicktotestsomethingout Betterforlargeaccounts

BottomLine:WithScripts,youdon’tneedtobeanengineertoautomateAdWords


AdWordsScriptsvsAutomatedRules

API

Scripts AutomatedRules

Scheduling Asoftenashourly Asoftenasdaily

Capabilities Highlycustomizable Limitedpredefinedrules

BottomLine:ScriptsaremoreflexiblethanAutomatedRules


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advanced tips for working with adwords scripts by frederick vallaeys

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