Google ads is becoming less & less about what you want to
target, and more about what you need to exclude.
With this tool, you can setup advanced rules to ensure wasteful,
irrelevant terms are excluded before money is wasted.
In the not-too-distant past, you decided which search terms your
ads appeared for. Now Google decides. It's based on the data you
provide (landing pages, a shopping feed, keywords, etc.) but we've
lost a lot of control.
We've also lost visibility. By some estimates, between
20% and 80% of search terms are
hidden so we can't see what we're spending money on.
This script allows you to add a variation on Positive Keywords.
You add the words or phrases you want to target. Everything else
gets excluded.
So, what can this puppy do!?
Our Frankie when she was a pup
Auto Negative Keywords (Positive Keywords)
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs), Shopping Ads, Performance Max and other
campaign types are supported.
Bringing Back Keywords
There was a point when Google nailed keywords.
You could target what you asked for but it would still be clever
enough to show ads for mispellings, typos, etc.
That's what I've tried to replicate here. Full control, without
throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
It's achieved via an Approx. Match setting. If
you want to target "banksy" but the search term contains
"banksie", the approx. match won't add the search term as a
negative keyword (which is usually what we want!).
Positive Keywords Helper
The positive keywords helper lets you see the result of your
positive keywords without running the script. Just add some
examples (good and bad search terms) and you'll see what would be
added as a negative keyword.
Perfect for Brand Campaigns
This functionality is perfect for brand campaigns, or anywhere
where you want stricter matching.
Positive keyword functionality, annotated.
Search Term Alerts & Negative Keyword Suggestions
Setup custom rules based on search term performance. Use the tool
for positive and negative keyword suggestions, or to alert you
when things go awry. Some examples include:
High CPCs
Get an email when CPCs exceed a certain threshold. For this, I'd
set the lookback window to 0 (which targets today) then run the
script hourly. Note you'll get a maximum of one email per day (per
rule) so don't worry about inbox overload!
Zero Conversions, High Clicks
Here's a simple one. For the click amount, I'd say your conversion
rate * 200 is a good start for an urgent/semi-urgent alert. Of
course, you can setup multiple rules checking multiple lookback
windows and click numbers.
High Cost, Poor ROI
That's low ROAS for ecom, or high CPA for lead gen. These could be
contenders as negative keywords or, more likely, opportunities to
improve landing pages, etc.
High Impressions, Low Ctr
High impression, low Ctr search terms can be a sign the advert
isn't relevant to the search.
Reporting & Analysis
Key search term metrics at account, campaign or ad group
level
The results of each rule are written to a Google Sheet along with
KPIs such as ROAS and CPA.
Use the tool to setup reports across different lookback windows,
with different filters, etc.
AI (LLM) Integration
Why review each individual search term when AI can do it for you?
Pass each search term into your custom prompt. You can also add
variables to your prompt such as {{keywords}} in order to provide
greater context. Sound confusing?
I've put together an explanation and some example prompts in a
Google Doc.
The sky's the limit, but here's a few things you can do:
Broad Match Negatives
Positive Keywords (see above) are great for finding and adding
exact match negative keywords. However, they can't cover
everything.
Ask AI to find broad match words and phrases from your search
terms and they'll be added to the output sheet (see the AI Prompt
Response column).
Relevance Detection
Ask AI to determine whether the search term is relevant to the
business based on the keywords, campaign and ad group name. Any
responses which are not "relevant" can be auto negated and will be
added to your report.
Location Matching
LLMs are good at spotting location names in search terms and
deciding if its relevant to the location you serve. This is great
for finding broad match negatives for location-specific businesses
like plumbers.
Ad Group Suggestions
Ask the AI if the search term is relevant, but perhaps should be
in another Ad Group.
A few notes & thoughts
Performance Max has some API limitations
-
Cost data isn't available (which means no ROAS, CPA, etc.)
-
"Auto apply" is not supported. The potential negatives will be
added to the output sheet but you'll need to manually apply
them. My
PPC Keyword Wrapper
will help here.
AI Functionality requires an API Key
ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are all supported. There's info on
grabbing API keys within the template Google Sheet.
Once you have your API key, paste it in the the Google Sheet where
it will be secure.
Bookmark your dashboard
A link to each rule is included in the output sheet, but I'd
bookmark the main dashboard too.
What if the script times out?
The script will pick up where it left off next time. It will start
with new rules, then process the oldest first.
However, note that any one rule needs to be able to run within the
30 minute limit. This will only be a problem for larger accounts
and can be solved via shorter date ranges and impression or click
filters.
There was a bit of a rush to get this
ready for a
webinar
so bear with me on a couple of quirks. If you do notice anything (or
have suggestions) please let me know (LinkedIn
and
Email
are good).
I can't see your search terms or any of your account data, and I
couldn't if I wanted to. I also can't
see your AI/LLM API Key so that's safe too. The script is public
on GitHub
so feel free to have a developer (or AI these days) confirm this.
Anyone with a link to your dashboard can see and edit your rules. I
did that to make collaboration as easy as possible, but don't add
any sensitive data (you shouldn't need to).
Look after yourself.
- Charles