Format spreadsheets - Google Ads Help (original) (raw)

Bulk uploads & edits

Next: Upload spreadsheets and apply changes

You may need to make some adjustments to ensure that your spreadsheet uploads correctly depending on your use case. This section will give you more information on how Google Ads expects your spreadsheet to be formatted

General tips

• If you are using a Google Ads report as your upload sheet, remember that it’s not necessary to delete extraneous columns or the total rows.
• Non-editable columns or editable columns where no change has been made will be ignored.
• If you don't specify the "status" column of a new item, the item will be enabled by default.
• When inputting URLs, remember that the full URL is always required:
  • Correct: https://www.example.com
  • Incorrect: www.example.com

Spreadsheet Technical Requirements

• Spreadsheets must be in one of our supported formats (Google Sheets, .xls, .xlsx, .tsv, or .csv).
• Spreadsheets must be 50MB or less in size.
• Spreadsheets must have 1 million rows or less.

Note: All uploads timeout after 2 hours of processing. If a spreadsheet has a lot of rows it's possible you may run into a timeout issue. See “Handling Upload Timeouts” for more information.

Next, enter the values you want for your new item, such as bid, budget or status. You can see this list of example templates to help with your specific use case.

Remove an item

Use the following steps to remove a keyword, ad or any other item:

1. Download a spreadsheet report of the item(s) you want to remove
2. In your downloaded spreadsheet, find the row that contains the item.
3. In the "Status" column for that row, enter Remove.
4. Upload your spreadsheet.

Review our Templates page for template examples of removing various items

Edit keyword spreadsheets

1. Type the keyword in the Keyword column. Use square braces ([ ]) or quotes ("") around the keyword to specify exact or phrase match.
2. Enter the ad group name in the Ad group column.
   Note: You won’t be able to edit the keyword or match type column for an existing keyword. When you change a keyword or match type, the old keyword is removed and a new one is created. Bulk uploads work the same way. So, if you want to edit a keyword or match type in an editable report, you’ll have to remove the current and create a new keyword with your desired changes.

Review the keywords section of our templates page for examples

Edit campaign spreadsheets

Certain columns can’t be edited because they’re only used while creating a campaign. Your spreadsheet can include these columns:

Campaign

• Campaign (required)
• Campaign ID (required)
• Campaign state
• Campaign type (can’t edit)
• Campaign subtype (can’t edit)
• Ad rotation
• Start date
• End date

Bidding and budget

• Bid strategy type
• Bid strategy
• Budget
• Target CPA
• Target ROAS
• Target impression share
• Max CPC bid limit for target impression share

Measurement

• Tracking template
• Custom parameter

Review the campaign section of our templates page for some examples

Note: You can only update the "Status" column of video ads that aren't part of Video action campaigns. When you update a video ad from your upload sheet, provide 2 rows, one row to delete an existing ad and another row with all the updated attributes.

Edit ad asset spreadsheets

Add an ad asset

Use the following steps to add a new ad asset:

Specify in the “Level” column which level you want your asset to apply (“Campaign”, “Ad Group”, or “Account”). If you specify “Campaign”, type the campaign name to which you want to add your asset. If you want to add the asset to an ad group, then specify both the “Campaign” column and the ad group name in the “Ad group” column.

To add an app asset, specify the following:

• Mobile OS: The operating system that your target customers are using. You can enter Android or iOS.
• Package name: The unique ID of your app. For Android, the Package Name follows id= in the app’s Google Play URL: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.appname
• For iOS apps, enter the App ID, which appears after id in the app’s iTunes URL: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/example-app-name/id#########
• App link text: Text that people will click on to get to your app. For example, you could use “Download app.”
• Final URL: The URL displayed to your customers for your app. For example, this might be the URL of your app in the Google Play store.

Note: If you want to apply the new asset to multiple ad groups or columns, you can create another row.

To add a call asset, specify the following:

• Phone number: The number that will be called when a customer clicks your asset.
• Country code: The country where your phone number is listed. For example, if your phone number is in the United States of America, you would put US.
• Use forwarding number (optional): Whether you want to use a Google forwarding number with your ad. You can enter yes or no. The default is no.

To add a sitelink asset, specify the following:

• Sitelink text: The text that you want to appear as the clickable link in your sitelink.
• Final URL: The URL where the link in your sitelink will lead.

The Description fields are optional, but can make your ad more relevant to potential customers. If you choose to have descriptions, you must use both fields. Your description may be eligible to show below the sitelink. Learn more in the Sitelinks with additional detail section.

To add callout assets, specify the following:

• Callout text: The text you want to appear as your callout.

To add structured snippet assets, specify the following:

• Structured snippet header: Header(s) chosen from this list of predefined headers, capitalizing the first letter of each header. Note: Only the headers on our list will be accepted.
• Structured snippet values: The specific header-related details you’re highlighting.

To add image assets, specify the following:

• Either the Image URL or the Image asset id
  • Image URL: You can find the image URL by right-clicking on an image on your website and selecting “Copy Image Address.”
  • Image asset id: You can reuse an image from an existing image asset by using the image asset ID. To find your image asset ID, download the image asset report.

Optional specifications for all ad assets

In addition to the required columns in each report, you can use bulk uploads to identify device preference, start and end dates for your asset, and scheduling preferences. To specify these options, add a new column to your spreadsheet with the following names and information:

• Start time: The date you want your asset to start showing. This should use a mm/dd/yyyy format. For example, July 1, 2014 would be 07/01/2014.
• End time: The date you want your asset to stop showing. This should use a mm/dd/yyyy format. For example, July 1, 2014 would be 07/01/2014.
• Device preference: The devices you want to show your asset on. You can specify all or mobile.
• Scheduling: The days of the week and times you want your asset to be shown. You must use the format of Day, start time - end time. For example, if you wanted to schedule from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, you would enter Monday, 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM. If you want to schedule for multiple days, separate your days with a semicolon. For example, you could schedule for both Monday and Tuesday using Monday, 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM; Tuesday, 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM.

Disassociate ad asset(s) from an account, campaign, or ad group

To remove an ad asset, enter Remove in the "Action" column of that ad asset’s row. This will disassociate the asset from the campaign, account, or ad group (this is different from deleting, as the asset will still exist for use with other campaigns and ad groups). Deleting a row or removing the contents from the row will have no effect.

Review the ad assets section of our templates page for some examples

Edit product group spreadsheets

Edit bid strategy

You can assign existing portfolio bid strategies to your campaigns or edit standard bid strategies.

Assign portfolio bid strategy

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. In the Campaigns page, click the download icon , and select More options at the bottom of the dropdown.
5. Under “Include” check the box for Editable columns for Bulk Upload, and click Download.
6. Enter the portfolio bid strategy’s name in the “Bid strategy” column.
   • Leave the “Bid strategy type” column and other columns such as “Target CPA” or “Target ROAS” blank. If you see values in these columns, enter “remove_value.” This information will be automatically added to your campaign based on the existing bid strategy.
   • If columns like “Target CPA,” “Target ROAS,” or “Bid strategy type” don’t match with what you’ve set for your existing bid strategy, you’ll receive an upload error.

You can’t edit or create new portfolio bid strategies with the bulk upload spreadsheet.

Edit standard bid strategy

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. In the Campaigns page, click the download icon , and select More options at the bottom of the dropdown.
5. Under “Include” check the box for Editable columns for Bulk Upload, and click Download.
6. Edit the “Bid strategy type” column with the type of bid strategy you’d like.
7. Edit any additional columns like “Target CPA” or “Target ROAS.”

Review the templates page for some examples

Edit audiences

You can assign audiences you’ve created to campaigns or ad groups.

Tip: It’s recommended to download an editable report for bulk upload from the Audiences page first.

If you have multiple audiences with the same name, you need to add an “audience ID” column to differentiate them. You don’t need the “audience ID” column if you’re editing an audience that’s already associated with a campaign or ad group.

You can edit your bid adjustment by entering a value in the “bid adjustment” column. All other edits, such as audience name and targeting setting are not supported.

If you’re adding an audience for the first time, it will use the “smart default” targeting setting. This option will keep your current audience targeting settings. If you haven’t yet chosen a setting, your targeting will default to the following options based on your campaign type:

• Observation for Search and Shopping campaigns.
• Targeting is the default for Video and Display campaigns.

Supported audiences

• Detailed demographics
• Affinity
• In-market
• Your data
• Similar audiences
• Customer match

Review the audience section of our templates page for examples

Edit location targeting

You can add, exclude, edit or remove locations from your targeting:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Under the "Settings" tab, click the download icon , and select More options at the bottom of the dropdown.
5. Under “Include” check the box for Editable columns for Bulk Upload, and click Download.
6. In the “Locations” column, enter the locations you’d like to target as “[location]”:”[bid adjustment or removed]”. The status can be set to “excluded” or “removed”.
   • Example bid adjustment for Seattle, WA: “Seattle, Washington, United States: -5%”
   • Example of removing Seattle, WA: “Seattle, Washington, United States: removed”
7. In the “Exclusions” column, enter any locations you’d like to exclude from targeting:
   • Example exclusion of Seattle airport: “Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Washington, United States”

Tip: If you are not sure how to format a location, try setting one campaign to your desired location(s) in Google Ads before downloading the report in the instructions above. This way, that campaign will contain your desired location(s) in the correct format that you can easily copy and paste

Format Radius Locations/Exclusions

Format: [distance] | [mi or km] | [location] : [bid adjustment or removed]

Examples:

10 | mi | Chicago, Illinois (10 Mile radius around Chicago, Illinois)

10 | mi | Chicago, Illinois: -50% (10 mile radius around Chicago, Illinois with -50% bid modifier)

5.0 | km | 43.823196,-79.533821 (5 kilometer radius around geopoint)

5.0 | km | 43.823196,-79.533821: +50% (5 kilometer radius around geopoint with +50% bid modifier)

10 | mi | Chicago, Illinois: removed (removes the radius target)

Adding Multiple Locations

You can add multiple locations at once by separating each with a semicolon:

Format: [location] ; [location] ; [location]

Examples:

Seattle, Washington, United States: -5% ; 10 | mi | Chicago, Illinois (adds Seattle Washington and 10 mile radius around Chicago, Illinois)

Seattle, Washington, United States: removed ; Chicago, Illinois: removed (removes Seattle Washington and Chicago, Illinois)

**Seattle, Washington, United States ; Chicago, Illinois: removed (**adds Seattle Washington and removes Chicago)

Note: To remove all Locations from a particular campaign you can put “remove_value” into the “Location” column of that particular row. (This will also work in the “Exclusion” column to remove all exclusions.)

Review the locations section of our templates page for examples

Next: Upload spreadsheets and apply changes

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