PPC Tools – Ads PPC Management

Site usage data for search terms

Site usage data for the search terms that you paid for in Google ads can be very useful information in judging what keywords you should keep.

How do we judge if a keyword is useful in our Google account?

You would of course see the conversion data, the search queries (the actual terms which the user typed that triggered the keyword in your account), and other such data that is available in the Google ads interface.

However, if you have Google Analytics linked with your Google ads account (and this linking is highly recommended), then you can also see the engagement data for the search queries that triggered your ads.

For example, if you are bidding on a competitor name, then over time you will find out whether this keyword is converting (bringing business for you) or not. However, it can also be very interesting to see the website engagement data for such keywords.

You can see this engagement data in Universal Google Analytics in Reports > Acquisition > Google Ads > Search Queries section of the Google Analytics interface. Once you are in this section, Google Analytics will show you a Summary by default. In order to see more engagement data, click on the “Site Usage” link. (This site usage link is on the top of the graph that you see on the page and you can easily find this link by searching for the words site usage using the Find option in your browser.)

Once you have the Site Usage report open in front of you, you can see data like Pages/ Session, Avg. Session Duration, Bounce Rate, and Goal completions for the search queries (the actual terms that users typed) that you paid for in Google Ads.

Let us suppose you notice that people visiting your website after clicking on an ad that you show when people search for your competitor, engage well with your site but do not convert, then it may be that these people are looking for an alternative to your competitor (which can be you) but your content is not convincing enough to convert them. The site usage report can show you this data and you can take appropriate action on that basis.

In some cases, the competitors are so strong (they have such high brand recognition and interest) that most people looking for those competitors will not look at your site in depth. Even if such people reach your site by clicking on the ad that you showed for those competition keywords, they may not engage with your site. It may be better to avoid such keywords until you have something (some deal, some content) that can attract the fans of your competition to your company.

The site usage report for search queries can help you decide which competition keywords you should keep and which ones you should not bid on (till you are ready for your competition).

As always there are other uses of this information (report), and there are other ways to decide on the usefulness of your keywords but this tip is only meant to point out an available resource that you may consider when deciding on the success of your keywords.

Google Analytics 4 property

Google Analytics 4 Property is the next generation of Google Analytics.

You should install it along with your current GA tag.

See this video to know more about it in simple terms –

The implementation can vary from case to case and the theme or other plugins shown towards the end of the video are not necessary.

This video is also useful to get started with GA4

Other resources –

What is Google Analytics 4 property

Upgrade to GA4

Useful info on Google ads policy disapprovals

If you are a PPC pro then this article might be a useful read – https://www.ppchero.com/google-policy-ad-disapprovals-a-story-of-false-flags/

If you are a business owner managing your own PPC, then most probably you may not have time to check your Google ads account everyday. In such a case, do follow the “Email Notifications” section of the above article, to set up email notification for ad disapproval.

Free VPN for accessing Google Ads (adwords) web interface

Most people would not need a VPN solution to access Google ads web interface.

However if are using a VPN for accessing Google ads web interface, and if that VPN solution happens to be Windscribe for Chrome then you would know that Windscribe is no longer working well. (as of November 2019)

You could try https://setupvpn.com/ or http://freevpn.zone/ , instead of Windscribe.

Paid (premium) VPN solutions also exist and may be better in some contexts, but I find that above free VPNs work fine too.

Value track parameters can be very useful with third party tracking tools like Hotjar

Auto tagging works well to communicate data between Google AdWords and Google Analytics, when both are linked together.

However if you are using third party analytics or tracking solutions like HotJar, then value track parameters can be very useful. ( You should not use UTM parameters along with auto tagging.)

For example, a useful tracking template for a search campaigns could be

{lpurl}&kwd={keyword}&mt={matchtype}&nw={network}&dev={device}&crid={creative}

which would tell you the keyword responsible for the click, the match type , the network (search, search partner or display), the device and the creative id (the ad which send the traffic to you).

Suppose you are watching a visitor’s video recording in HotJar to understand customer behavior on your website. Now without value track parameters, it’s difficult to guess what might be the intent of the visitor.

However if you have value track parameters set up, then you know the keyword that bought the person to your site, the creative id, the network and other information as relevant. All of this is useful information which can help you analyze better.

Similarly for display campaigns, the following tracking template could be useful as a campaign level tracking template :

{lpurl}?placement={placement}&network={network}&dev={device}&adgrpid={adgroupid}&targetid={targetid}&creative={creative}

Your usage might require more customization.

Do check the list of Adwords value track parameters available at – https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6305348?hl=en

The AdWords interface keeps changing but currently you can set value track parameters at campaign level by accessing the Settings > All Settings tab at campaign level. Look under Advanced Settings > Campaign URL options (advanced) > Tracking Template.

Most websites including WordPress websites usually work perfectly with value track parameters. However you should be especially careful if you are using some third party website ( like may be a ticket booking site) as your landing page in some ads. There is a rare chance that these sites may not work correctly with value track parameters.

So, when you enter the tracking template, always use the “Test” button (given in the AdWords interface) to make sure the landing page is still accessible with your value track parameters. It takes only a few seconds but you will be sure that your tracking and ads are working correctly.

I hope value track parameters will be useful to you.

Adwords Editor on Ubuntu (Version 11.8.0 – March 2017)

Adwords Editor on Ubuntu works well once installed correctly.

Update: March 2017

I am just updating this old post to confirm that the latest AdWords Editor 11.8.0 also works on Lubuntu 14.04.5 LTS.

AdWords Editor for Linux Ubuntu

Installation method is same as outlined in the old post below.

The link to download the current latest Adwords msi file is https://dl.google.com/dl/adwords_editor/11.8.0.0/google_adwords_editor.msi

Installation instructions are as follows.

Old post follows :

I installed Adwords Editor 11.5.9 on Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS using Wine 1.6.2

Adwords Editor on Ubuntu

Step 1 : Download correct msi file using the following URL

http://dl.google.com/adwords_editor/__VERSION_HERE__/google_adwords_editor.msi

Example for AdWords Editor version 11.5.9 the URL will be

http://dl.google.com/adwords_editor/11.5.9.0/google_adwords_editor.msi

(Please note the zero at the end of 11.5.9.0 when the version number is being stuffed into the URL. Please use the correct version number in the above URL. The current version number can be found from here – https://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/ )

Step 2 : Set wine default to Windows 7 (This is true on Wine 1.6.2. Newer versions of Wine may not need this step.)

adwords editor on ubuntu

If you try to install AdWords Editor in Windows XP mode, the AdWords Editor installer would report that “AdWords Editor cannot work on this operating system” and the installation will fail. However if you use the Wine Configuration tool and change the default windows mode to Windows 7, the installer will work successfully.

Step 3: Run the installer using the command line.

After setting the default Windows mode to Windows 7, as mentioned in step 2, open a terminal window (xterm/ UXterm or your favorite).

Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the msi file. Then use the following command line to install from the downloaded msi file

wine msiexec /i ./google_adwords_editor.msi

Step 4: Set Wine default back to Windows XP.

Once AdWords editor is installed successfully, running as a Win7 app was not successful for me. (My wine version is an old 1.6.2 version. ) It generated error as follows :

This application failed to start because it could not find or load the Qt platform plugin “windows”

So after successful installation of Adwords Editor on Ubuntu, I set wine default back to WinXP and Adwords Editor ran just fine.

Big Thanks to AgenT – I got to know this method from
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=32146&iTestingId=92838