Automatically Pause Ads with Low CTR

Recently, Brad over at CertifiedKnowledge.com published some tips about testing at scale.  One of the most common testing techniques he mentions is to create a ton of ads and let Google optimize the rotation for you.  The problem with this technique is that the losers are rarely deleted.  Well, using the script below, you can find the worst performing ads in all your adgroups and pause it (if there is at least one other ad in the adgroup).

Thanks,
Russ

//-----------------------------------
// Pause Ads with Low CTR
// Created By: Russ Savage
// FreeAdWordsScripts.com
//-----------------------------------
function main() {
  // Let's start by getting all of the adGroups that are active
  var ag_iter = AdWordsApp.adGroups()
  .withCondition("Status = ENABLED")
  .get();

  // Then we will go through each one
  while (ag_iter.hasNext()) {
    var ag = ag_iter.next();
    var ad_iter = ag.ads()
      .withCondition("Status = ENABLED")
      .forDateRange("ALL_TIME")
      .orderBy("Ctr DESC")
      .get();
    var ad_array = new Array();
    while(ad_iter.hasNext()) {
      ad_array.push(ad_iter.next());
    }
    if(ad_array.length > 1) {
      for(var i = 1; i < ad_array.length; i++) {
        ad_array[i].pause(); //or .remove(); to delete them 
      }
    }
  }
}

Delete All Disapproved Ads in an Account

Again, another simple script that just focuses on account maintenance. Over time, large accounts might build up thousands of adgroups with ads that might be disapproved. Sometimes, it makes sense to remove those and then slowly build and deploy new creative (we will have a script to build new creative later). Hopefully this will work for you.

Thanks,
Russ

//-----------------------------------
// Delete Ads That Are Disapproved
// Created By: Russ Savage
// FreeAdWordsScripts.com
//-----------------------------------
function main() {
  // Let's start by getting all of the ad that are disapproved
  var ad_iter = AdWordsApp.ads()
  .withCondition("ApprovalStatus != APPROVED")
  .get();

  // Then we will go through each one
  while (ad_iter.hasNext()) {
    var ad = ad_iter.next();
    // now we delete the ad
    Logger.log("Deleteing ad: " + ad.getHeadline());
    ad.remove();
  }
}

Pause AdGroups With No Active Keywords

This is a quick script to pause all the AdGroups with no active keywords in them. Not sure if this is super useful, but for large accounts, it might help identify AdGroups you can get rid of.

Thanks,
Russ

/*********************************************
* Pause AdGroups With No Active Keywords
* Version 1.1
* Changelog v1.1
*   - Updated for speed and added comments 
* Created By: Russ Savage
* FreeAdWordsScripts.com
**********************************************/
function main() {
  // Let's start by getting all of the active AdGroups
  var agIter = AdWordsApp.adGroups()
    .withCondition('CampaignStatus = ENABLED')
    .withCondition('Status = ENABLED')
    .get();
 
  // It is faster to store them and process them all at once later
  var toPause = [];
  // Then we will go through each one
  while(agIter.hasNext()) {
    var ag = agIter.next();
    //get all the keywords that are enabled
    var kwIter = ag.keywords()
      .withCondition("Status = ENABLED")
      .get();
    
    //If .hasNext() is true, there is at least 1 kw in the AdGroup
    var hasKw = kwIter.hasNext(); 
    if(!hasKw) {
      toPause.push(ag);
    }
  }
  
  // Now we process them all at once to take advantage of batch processing
  for(var i in toPause) {
    toPause[i].pause();
  }
}

Update Your Keywords for the Holiday Season

The other day, RKGBlog had a great post about updating your keywords for the holiday season. One of the mentions was to update all the years in your Keywords to the current year. Here is a little script that will find all the Keywords with the previous year in them and create new Keywords in the same AdGroup with the current year.

Thanks,
Russ

/*********************************************
* Update Keywords for the New Year
* Version 1.1
* Changelog v1.1
*   - Updated for speed and added comments 
* Created By: Russ Savage
* FreeAdWordsScripts.com
**********************************************/
function main() {
  var sameDayLastYear = new Date();
  sameDayLastYear.setYear(sameDayLastYear.getYear()-1);
  var oldYearStr = sameDayLastYear.getYear().toString();
  var newYearStr = new Date().getYear().toString();
  
  Logger.log('Updating keywords with old year: '+oldYearStr+' to new year: '+newYearStr);
  
  // Let's start by getting all of the keywords
  var kwIter = AdWordsApp.keywords()
    .withCondition("Text CONTAINS " + oldYearStr)
    .withCondition("Status = ENABLED")
    .withCondition("AdGroupStatus = ENABLED")
    .withCondition("CampaignStatus = ENABLED")
    .get();
 
  // It is always better to store and batch process afterwards
  var toPause = [];
  var toCreate = [];
  while (kwIter.hasNext()) {
    var kw = kwIter.next();
    var ag = kw.getAdGroup();
    var oldText = kw.getText();
    var newText = oldText.replace(oldYearStr,newYearStr);
    // Save the info so that we can create them as a batch later
    toCreate.push({ ag: ag, text: newText, cpc:kw.getMaxCpc(), destUrl : kw.getDestinationUrl() });
    // Same with the ones we want to pause
    toPause.push(kw) 
  }
  // Now we create the new keywords all at once
  for(var i in toCreate) {
    var elem = toCreate[i];
    elem.ag.createKeyword(elem.text, elem.cpc, elem.destUrl);
  }
  // And pause the old ones all at once
  for(var i in toPause) {
    toPause[i].pause();
    //or toPause[i].remove(); to delete the old keyword
  }
}