Harness the power of automation with Google Ads scripts

While Google Ads Scripts are nothing new to the platform, they can be glossed over or seen as intimidating blocks of code which advertisers are fearful to touch. In reality, these scripts can be invaluable to you and make the day-to-day running of your account(s) much smoother.

What are Google Ads scripts?

Google scripts use JavaScript code to automatically make changes to your ads account, such as changing bids, pausing keywords or sending performance alerts. This code can also use data from external sheets to influence automation.

There are thousands of pre-written scripts available out there too, each with their own unique automations. You don’t have to worry about coding with these, as they can be copied and pasted directly into your Google Ads interface.

If you do possess some coding knowledge, then you may find you’re able to craft very niche scripts that specialise in a particular function unique to your own needs. But for the majority of users, small tweaks to freely available scripts can go a long way.

Be aware that there are different scripts for different account levels. If you use a single Google Ads account, then a manager account script will not work, and vice versa. 

Here are some useful scripts you can use to optimise your workflow:

URL checker 

When a website goes under maintenance, page URLs can be updated or removed altogether. If you have a particularly large website, such as an ecommerce site with hundreds of products, these URL updates can go unseen, meaning traffic could be sent to non-existent pages.

Google’s URL checker can test URLs in your Ads account for error responses like 404 pages, and email you any that are flagged as such. You can find a link to this script along with set-up instructions below:

https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/solutions/link-checker (single account)

Bid adjustments

It can be very time consuming setting time bid adjustments in Google, especially if you want these to update hourly. Thankfully, you can use a bid adjustment script to automate the process for you. A number of these scripts use data in a custom Google Sheet to determine the bid multiplier that should be applied at a given time. The script can be set to update hourly to apply the adjustments and save you having to make manual adjustments. 

Brainlabs have a great example you can copy here:

https://www.brainlabsdigital.com/marketing-library/24-7-bidding-script/

Remove underperforming ads

These scripts automatically detect your better-performing ads and remove those which are not performing as well. This script is particularly useful for expanded text ads which are not tested as frequently as responsive search ads.

While some scripts offer the functionality to completely delete the poorer ad variation, we recommend utilising a pause functionality as it will allow you to compare ad copy and see which copy caused the lower performance. 

Google does offer the functionality to serve better performing ads over lower performing ones. However, this does not pause or remove the ads.

https://www.optmyzr.com/scripts/remove-underperforming-ads/

Search query report

Another script from Google which allows users to create a report of negative keywords from a search query report. You can specify which parameters trigger a search term to be reported, such as a term with a cost-per-click higher than £2. 

https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/solutions/search-query (single account)

Conclusion

Google Ads scripts offer custom automation which can help your workflow and improve account performance. Remember that adding multiple scripts at once can make it difficult to identify exactly what caused a performance increase or decrease, so add one or two at a time and test before adding any others.