Did You Know?
A Google Ads account can contain as many as 10,000 campaigns.
Taking a consistent approach to your campaign names means that anyone who views your account will be able to instantly see what each of your campaigns is about. Even if they are not too familiar with Google Ads, the easy-to-follow titles will let them know exactly where they need to look to find the answer they’re searching for.
It also means that anyone can go into the account and create a campaign (if someone is off sick or on annual leave) and they can effortlessly follow the same structure.
Consistency
Depending on how many campaigns you have running at any one time, the dashboard view of your Google Ads account can get quite busy. This is even more the case if the names of these campaigns are vague, confusing or, in the case of ad groups, left as the default ‘Ad Group #1’ etc.
Establishing an easy-to-follow naming convention has many great benefits and allows you to take control of your account and spend less time looking for important information. As well as discussing some of the main reasons why you might want to take this approach with your own ads, we’ll share the way we do things here at Reach Digital.
Efficiency
Not only does establishing a company-wide naming convention save a bit of time when it comes to thinking of what to call your campaign, but it also makes analysing performance and creating reports so much easier.
When you can instantly see the details of a campaign just by looking at the name, it means you will know exactly what the best-performing platforms, audiences and campaign types are. Of course, the opposite is also true, so you’ll be able to see where improvements are needed.
Discovery
As well as highlighting what is and isn’t working amongst your current campaigns, the organisation created by a consistent naming convention will allow you to pinpoint opportunities that you’re not currently pursuing.
As you will see below, the ideal campaign name should include key information like audience, location or device and therefore you will be able to see which options within these areas you aren’t yet targeting. With that being the case, you will be able to instantly see the next element you could test.
Filtering
Depending on how many Google Ads campaigns you’re running, it can be difficult to drill down and find a specific campaign without jumping through pages or scrolling forever. With campaign names that clearly describe what the campaign is about, you can use keywords relating to the goal or audience to filter the view to just the relevant campaigns. This is especially useful when producing reports.
Example Campaign Naming Convention
The basic idea of a campaign title is to clearly show the key aspects of the campaign at a glance. So, using punctuation like a pipe | or underscore _, you should separate each of these elements in order of importance. At Reach, we like to start with the subject of the campaign (usually the product or services being advertised) and then use the pipe to list Campaign Objective, Campaign Type, Location, Audience and finally Device, provided all of these are necessary.
It usually looks something like this:
Subject | Objective | Type | Location | Audience | Device
When you get down to Ad Group level, you can then include things like keyword categories and then specific offers and CTAs at the ad level. Ad-level naming is not relevant for Search campaigns, but campaign types like Display and Demand Generation give you the option to do this.
If you’re looking for someone to manage your Google Ads, Reach Digital offers a comprehensive PPC management service that includes strategic analysis, ongoing optimisation and monthly reporting to keep you in the loop. Get in touch today to maximise your online exposure.
About the author
Chris Mayhew has great experience in a wide range of digital marketing practices, focussing predominantly on paid media. By implementing iterative A/B tests, he optimises Google and Meta Ad campaigns to maximise results.