Client Update – 13 December 2022

A New Scripts Experience

For our clients, scripts just got even better this month! Before we begin: what are Google Ads scripts?

Google Ads scripts allow us to write code to control your Google Ads data programmatically. We use this to deliver higher results more consistently, achieve higher accuracy, and prevent many human errors.

We manage a list of high-quality, custom-built Google Ads scripts at the agency level. These scripts provide an invaluable advantage in our client’s accounts. But before we explore the powerful scripts, let’s understand the 3 main types of Google Ads accounts regarding their use of scripts.

3 types of accounts

There are generally 3 types of ad accounts, listed below from the most common to the least common.

1. Accounts without scripts (most common)

Most ad accounts are run without scripts. This is common with self-managed and even managed ad accounts. Scripting requires both Google Ads and Javascript programming knowledge. A unique blend of both skills makes leveraging scripts possible inside Google Ads.

2. Accounts using open-source scripts (public)

The second most common ad accounts adopt open-source scripts in their accounts. These scripts are basically accessible to the public. This is usually the case with most managed ad accounts. 3rd-party Google Ads programmers wrote and shared it with the community.

However, there are a few fallacies with using open-source scripts. Firstly, being public, most people can tap onto the same scripts, and their results will be similar. The inability to customize it makes it difficult to use the script precisely to your requirement.

Secondly, Google Ads makes hundreds of new changes to their platforms (API) every year. Most of them are bundled into scheduled releases that happen throughout the year. (With 5 such releases this year)

The disadvantage with open-source scripts is that they will most likely break during any release update if your scripts are not updated regularly. And based on our research, most of these open-source scripts have not been updated for years, rendering them useless.

3. Accounts using closed-source scripts (proprietary) (least common)

The least common accounts use closed-source scripts. These are the ones we use inside your ad accounts. Each script is custom-built from scratch. Closed-source is completely the opposite of open-source—they are not accessible to the public. The advantage of this is a clear differentiation from the market and close to 100% uptime with our scheduled script maintenance and updates.

With customized scripts, we can tailor the script design to our special requirements.

You can readily access our dashboard here to see the scripts working live inside your accounts: https://bit.ly/3VCay94

Let’s now examine a few of our ad account scripts. (More will be added in the future)

404 Check For Broken Destination URLs

Our “404 Check For Broken Destination URLs” script protects your ad account from continuously wasting ad spend from sending ads traffic to broken links.

Supposedly ads are sent to a broken link. This can happen for many reasons, for example, during site changes or typos. In that case, Google will continue sending traffic to a blank page (without warning you) until you find it out weeks or months later. By then, you would have already accrued so much ad costs that are not reversible.

Our script completely prevents this from happening. It automatically trips the circuit and stops the ads from running; then email alerts us of the exact campaign, ad group, and ad location of the problem. Once rectified, we will resume your ads as normal!

Budget Management and Overspend Script

Our “Budget Management and Overspend Script” alert & notify us via email every time your account budget changes, which then updates all your individual campaign budgets into our private dashboard daily.

A fear beginners often have when they try to self-manage their ad accounts is entering the wrong budget. A $200/day campaign mistakenly entered as $2000/day will cost you exactly 10 times more until you find it out later. This can be a few days (if lucky) or a few weeks later. Or, what if you accidentally enter your budget in 2 different places, and suddenly your ads are spending more than anticipated?

Our “Budget Management and Overspend Script” is designed to stop this irreversible damage from happening in your ad accounts. Whenever your budget changes, even for 1 dollar, we are alerted of the change via email and inside our dashboards.

Ads Pro Optimization Script

Our “Ads Pro Optimization Script” is designed to counteract a common human oversight error when managing accounts. It can comb and fetch the ads and assets in your accounts that need optimization, so nothing gets left behind by oversight.

When changes get done quickly and accurately, your ad account spends more time in optimized mode rather than being under-optimized.

Smart Competitor Alert Script

Our “Smart Competitor Alert Script” notifies you whenever a new competitor is found on Google, bidding for the same search terms as you. This script uses the Search Auctions tab in your Google Ads but looks at the data daily to find out if there are new competitors in the space and instantly lets you know by email.

With this knowledge, you can proactively adjust your strategy and research your competitors early instead of only finding out by chance later.

In other news

The Knowledge Base center has just received a quality and visual update. You can now access the scripts dashboard and optimization table directly from the menu section.