When I was managing smaller Google Ads accounts (or Google Ad Words as it was known then) with only a few hundred ads back in the day, I could keep track of my split tests in a matter of minutes. When you scale your Ads accounts, you begin finding that even some of the most basic tasks start taking up a lot of your time.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Google Ads scripts provide a method of controlling your Ads account using JavaScript code. The code can be copied and pasted into your account without any prior coding knowledge.
Scripts can be used to interact with external data and to automate tasks. They aid the running of everyday activities in your account and enhance its performance. An Ads script is particularly effective if you have some knowledge of coding or if you’re managing a relatively large script, but many are comprehensible even to novices!
Today I’m going to break down the top nine Google Ads scripts that we at Push simply couldn’t live without — all of which are totally accessible to beginners.
1) Weather-based bidding
In a significant number of industries, including automotive, retail, travel and home improvement, Google Ads performance is affected by the weather. In order to attain maximum ROI, it’s paramount to alter bids in accordance with what’s happening outside your window.
It’s known that more people search for boilers during cold spells. In this case, implementing a campaign management script predicated on weather conditions would be a really innovative way of enhancing your ads’ performances. It enables you to increase or decrease your bids based on data drawn from an API of the weather currently being experienced by the users in whatever location you are targeting. When that mercury starts a-dippin’, you can start ramping up the budget on your boiler ad!
2) ‘Split-test anything’
There are a number of limitations to using Google Ads experiments. You aren’t always able to test campaign settings using Google experiments themselves. This issue can be all but eliminated by split testing.
Split testing, also referred to as A/B testing, is a randomised experiment in which two versions of a variable are compared, typically by testing an individual’s response to variant A against that to variant B, thereby determining which is more effective. Simply create two identical campaigns and name one Control, one Test. The script will alternate hourly, then at the end of the day you can see the results!
3) Automated ad testing
Split testing is all well and good when you’re dealing with only a few ads — but what about when you have 10,000 to keep track of, or even 100,000? This is dangerous territory when trying to keep a grasp on your ads. Fortunately, there’s a script for that.
The automated ad creative testing tool makes it incredibly straightforward to keep track of all your split tests. It does this by analysing all the ads within an ad group and calculating whether there is indeed any statistical significance. This can be set to test a range of metrics, including conversion rate and click-through rate.
4) Competitor tracking
Whilst keeping track of your competitors is fundamental to the success of any Ads campaign, it can be extremely time-consuming on larger accounts. The solution? Use a competitor tracking script, which allows you to map your competitors’ impression share over time. Sorted!
5) 24-hour heat map
Another limitation of Google Ads is that you can use only six different bid buckets per day, but you’re likely to find that your conversion rates change on an hourly basis. No matter!
With a 24-hour heat map script, you can set different bid modifiers for every hour within the Google Sheets API. Import using the API into Ads, then watch as your bids change 24 times a day! This generates a heat map of what times of day your ad campaign is performing best — and worst.
6) n-gram search query reports
Let’s say you’re selling alloy wheels and want to home in on the performance of the search queries containing silver. Bring in the n-gram analysis!
n-gram analysis allows you to see the aggregate performance of keywords. This is brilliant because, whilst observing trends within your search query reports is pretty straightforward when your Ads account is fairly small, it becomes hugely more complex when you have millions of different search queries to review.
7) Quality Score tracker
The relevance and quality of both your keywords and your ads themselves lead to a Quality Score (QS) from Google. Your QS is then used to determine your cost per click and multiplied by your maximum bid in order to figure out your ad’s rank in the advertisement auction process. Given the importance of QS to your ad’s success, it’s little exaggeration to say that this script is one of the best ever written.
The script automatically records your QS once daily and keeps track of your historical scores, without any need for software. You can also create a dashboard within Google Sheets to show current QS distribution and impression-weighted QS.
And speaking of Quality Score…
8) Google Ads Quality Score performance analyser
It’s one thing to track your Quality Score, but having the capacity to interpret the results proficiently enough that you can then go on to implement your learnings is quite another. This script audits your account’s QS performance and creates a table showing the distribution click-through rate, conversions and cost against QS. This is massively helpful when it comes to analysing the relationship between these metrics and the strategy going forward for improving your Quality Score.
9) Disable ads for out-of-stock items in Search
One of the easiest ways of wasting money on Google Ads is to run ads for product that are no longer in stock (in the words of Homer J. Simpson: D’oh!). Most merchant feeds allow you to pause your Google Shopping Ads when they are out of stock, but no equivalent functionality has been built into Google Search hitherto.
This script scans your landing pages for the words Out of stock (or some permutation thereof) and, if it is discovered in the text, any ad with a URL pointing to that page is summarily paused. It is especially useful for major e-commerce sites that have products coming in and going out of stock constantly. Simply put, this script is truly a must-have when it comes to saving on costs.
You’re on the way to saving yourself both time and money.
Some paid-advertising tasks within Google Ads are, frankly, boring, mindlessly tedious if you have to repeat them over and over again. By automating these tasks, you free up your valuable time, so you can concentrate on the good stuff.
By taking away even just one or two of these scripts and implementing them in your ad campaigns, you’ll be amazed at the results. Automating daily tasks helps keep accounts neat and tidy. Just keep tabs on them, make sure they’re running smoothly, then sit back, relax and let them do the hard work for you.
Push is a Google Premier Partner and one of Europe’s leading paid-advertising agencies. If you have a question about scripts or would like advice or support in running your own, Push can help.
As seen in The Drum