After you've completed the Google Ads integration with Bluecore, the next step is to create an audience and a campaign to sync to Google. This article outlines the following:
Creating a campaign (an existing or a new campaign)
CREATING AN AUDIENCE
Once Google Ads has been integrated, create an Audience to push to the platform. For more information, see Create an Audience. Google Ads audiences must have at least 1,000 entries or the audience won't be able to be used in Advertise campaigns.
You can share these audiences with multiple Google Ads managed accounts under the same MCC. You can either link Bluecore to the MCC and share the MCC audiences with all managed accounts, or you can link Bluecore to one of the managed accounts. Then share up to the MCC, and share back down to the other managed accounts. To do this, please see this article about tag and list sharing.
CREATING A CAMPAIGN
Create a new campaign or edit an existing campaign.
Navigate to the flag icon on the left-hand side of the navigation bar.
Go to Advertise.
Then Campaigns.
NEW CAMPAIGNS
Click Create a New Campaign.
Select the Google Channel.
3. Click Next.
4. Enter a Campaign Name. This is the audience name that will display in Google Ads.
5. Select an Audience.
6. Configure a cadence for the campaign to sync.
7. Select Google Ads from the drop-down menu of where to sync the audience.
8. Click Save and Continue.
9. Once reviewed, click Save and Launch Campaign to complete setup. To save without launching, click Save and Exit.
EXISTING CAMPAIGNS
Select an existing campaign and click Edit Draft to create a draft.
Change the Campaign Name. This is the audience name that will display in Google Ads.
Configure the Schedule. Click Save and Continue.
Update the channel to Google Ads.
Once reviewed, click Save and Launch Campaign to complete setup. To save without launching, click Save and Exit.
TARGET THE AUDIENCE
To target an Audience with a Paid Search or Shopping Ad Group via the Ads web UI, follow these instructions under the Add a remarketing list to a Search Network ad group heading. We recommend using Google Ads Editor to make bulk changes to your campaigns, such as applying Customer Match audiences to a large number of Ad Groups at the same time.
To apply audiences via Ads Editor, follow these instructions.
EXAMPLES
The following section outlines the following use cases:
PAID SEARCH AND SHOPPING
When applying bid adjustments to your audiences, be careful in distinguishing between “bid only” vs. “bid & target”. Use “bid only” when applying audiences to existing Ad Groups where you simply want to extend the reach and make sure you’re getting more impressions from people in the audience with the bid adjustment. Bid only will increase your bid on the list but will still target new customers. Use “bid & target” when applying to a new Ad Group that you have only created for the audience(s) being targeted. “Bid & target” will only target and bid on the members of the list. Click here to learn more about display network for searching and shopping.
USE CASES
The primary use case for using Bluecore Audiences with Ads Paid Search or Shopping campaigns:
Extend the reach on existing campaigns to capture missed impressions (Note: use “bid only” targeting).
Other use cases for Bluecore Audiences with Ads:
Extend existing campaigns using category preference.
Create net new campaigns that achieve an acceptable ROI or CPA only from targeted audience members (Note: use “bid & target” targeting).
NOTE: These secondary use cases for Bluecore Audiences with Ads should only be used if you have a large customer list (i.e., over 1 million) and you want to add incremental performance to the primary Ads use case you’ve already launched.
EXTENDING EXISTING CAMPAIGNS WITH PREDICTED CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE
The primary use case for Bluecore Audiences on Ads is to extend the reach of existing Paid Search and Shopping campaigns using Predicted Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Bidding higher on impressions from known contacts based on their value allows you to capture otherwise missed impressions.
USE CASES
Cut Predicted CLV into thirds – High (Top 33%), Medium (Between 33% and 67%), and Low (Bottom 33%), plus a fourth audience for Unknown CLV contracts. These four groups encompass your entire customer list.
Apply all four of these audiences against every existing Ad Group you are running. Be sure to use “bid only” targeting.
We recommend the following default bid adjustments:High CLV +150%Medium CLV +100%Low CLV +50%Unknown CLV +70%
The recommended bid adjustments may seem high, but keep in mind this will not increase the price paid on all impressions, but rather only when needed to win the impression. We’ve determined these default bid adjustment recommendations based on the increased performance of these audiences we’ve seen from other clients during testing.
If you’d like, you could set up the audiences with zero bid adjustment to get a baseline of performance and have a better idea of what bid adjustments to apply. For example, if you see the High CLV audience is getting an ROI 6x higher than your threshold (which is not uncommon), you might be willing to do a +450% bid adjustment to capture more volume.
It is not a good idea to apply the same bid adjustment across your whole list because if you did so, you would bid too much for low CLV customers and bring your ROI way down on them, and you wouldn’t bid enough on high CLV customers and you wouldn’t capture as many clicks and conversions for those valuable customers.
EXTENDING EXISTING CAMPAIGNS WITH CATEGORY PREFERENCE
Another good use case for Bluecore Audiences on Ads is to extend the reach of existing Paid Search and Shopping campaigns using the Predictive Audience filter, Category Preference. Bidding higher on impressions from known contacts based on their interest in certain categories allows you to capture otherwise missed impressions. This use case for Bluecore Audiences with Ads should only be used if you have a large customer list (i.e., over 1 million) and you want to add incremental performance to the primary Ads use case you’ve already launched.
USE CASES
Create a Category Preference audience for each of your Ad Groups where you want to extend audience reach. For example, if your campaign is “Winter Sports” and have Ad Groups of “Skiing” and “Snowboarding, you would create a Skiing Category Preference audience and a Snowboarding Category Preference Audience.
There is no best practice bid adjustment amount for these types of audiences– start with +25% and then adjust from there after a couple weeks of performance. You’ll want to keep adjusting up as long as the ROAS or CPA is acceptable for the audience. This will allow you to capture more impressions.
NEW CAMPAIGNS WITH PREDICTED CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE
The increased performance on Predicted CLV audience members opens up the possibility of targeting keywords that have historically underperformed required performance thresholds. For example:
An apparel retailer may not target a generic search term such as “pants”, but when a High Predicted CLV customer of theirs is searching that term, it does make sense to target it.
Targeting competitors’ keywords to prevent valuable customers from straying.
Targeting brands you carry, that might otherwise underperform when not targeted properly.
This use case for Bluecore Audiences with Ads should only be used if you have a large customer list (i.e., over 1 million) and you want to add incremental performance to the primary Ads use case you’ve already launched.
USE CASES
Use the same four Predicted CLV audiences from the previous use case.
Come up with ideas by looking at keywords that have been tested in the past and either were cut off, or the bid was lowered so much that the impression share is now minimal.Note: Keywords that you have continued to target, but at a very low bid price, will have bid adjustments applied to them from the first use case above. If their default bid price is too low though, even a +100% bid adjustment may not win much impression share.
Use “bid & target” targeting.
NET NEW CAMPAIGNS WITH CATEGORY PREFERENCE
Similar to Predicted CLV, certain Category Preference audiences will have improved performance to open up net new campaigns that were not possible before. Multi-category keywords could be more accurately targeted, such as “helmets” for a retailer that carries bike, ski, snowboard, kayak, and other types of helmets. If a customer has a ski preference, they should be shown ski helmets. This use case for Bluecore Audiences with Ads should only be used if you have a large customer list (i.e., over 1 million) and you want to add incremental performance to the primary Ads use case you’ve already launched.