Google Ads (previously known as Adwords) can help you to maintain and grow your audiences easily and improve your retargeting efforts. You can create multiple profiles in Dotdigital for a Google Ads channel.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
The availability of the Digital marketing channel is dependent on your account package.
To learn more, contact your Customer Success representative.Your Google Ads account must have at least Standard Access permission.
Learn more in User access levels and Manage access to your Google Ads account.You must have a minimum of 1000 contacts in an audience list before your adverts are activated.
You must create a program using our program builder.
Learn more in An introduction to the program builder.
Consent requirements for the EEA
If you’re advertising to audiences in the European Economic Area (EEA) using Google Ads, it’s essential to obtain consent according to Google's terms and conditions.
By using our Google Ads program action to add contacts to a Google Ads audience, you are verifying that they have already given their consent to:
Sharing their data with Google
Personalised ads
All contacts added to Google audiences from Dotdigital are automatically marked as consented for all data fields. It is crucial to obtain the necessary consent beforehand.
Advertising consent is not the same as marketing consent when it comes to targeting EEA users with Google ads. You must collect advertising consent outside of Dotdigital. You can do this through a consent management platform (CMP) or by enabling the tracking of Consent for Google Ads.
Learn more
Create a Google Ads channel profile
Before using the Google Ads program node, you must create a channel profile to connect to your Google Ads account.
Go to Connect > Digital marketing channels.
Under the Channel column, select Google Ads.
Select NEW PROFILE.
Select LOG IN TO GOOGLE and enter your details.
Select Allow.
Choose the Google Account you want to use.
For Status, select Enabled.
Select SAVE.
At this point, the Google Ads node is available in the program builder under Actions in the side panel.
Insert the Google Ads node into a program
After creating a Google Ads profile, the Google Ads node becomes available in the program builder under Actions in the side panel.
Go to Automation > Programs, and create a new program, or edit an existing one.
Learn more in the Program builder section of the Help Centre.Drag the Google Ads node onto your program canvas. Insert the node at a point in the program where you want to add or remove contacts from a selected audience automatically.
Select the node to open its settings.
Choose to either Add the selected audience to your ad account or remove the selected audience from your ad account.
If you want to create a new Google Ads audience for the node to add or remove contacts from:
Select + NEW AUDIENCE.
Enter a name for the audience.
Select CREATE.
If you want to choose an existing audience for the node to add or remove contacts from:
Select CHOOSE AUDIENCE.
Select your Google Ads audience.
Select APPLY.
Change the Google Ads profile in a program node
While editing your program, select the Google Ads node in the program builder you want to change.
Select CHANGE AUDIENCE.
Choose a new audience.
Select APPLY.
Choose what data gets synced
To be selective about what data gets synced with your social media, for example, only consenting contacts, you can use data fields.
If you store consent as a data field, you can check for the data field before pushing data to Facebook or Google. To do this, you can use a decision node to filter by data field, preference, or segment depending on your needs.
Learn more in Two-way decision node.
Node reporting
Once your program is activated, you can see how many contacts passed through the node and are now in your Google Ads audience.
To do this, edit your program in the program builder and look at the lower right-hand corner of your Google Ads node.
Contact sync
The number of contacts synced could be greater than the number of contacts in your Google Ads audience. This is because Google compares a list of contacts with users they know about, so only the contacts that Google can match are in your audience.
View Google Ads node contact data
While editing your program, select the icon at the bottom right of the Google Ads node. The number here shows the number of contacts currently at the node, as well as the number of contacts who have previously travelled through the node.
On the Google Ads side-panel, expand the drop-down menu and choose to either view contacts who have travelled through the node or contacts currently at the node.
You see all the selected contacts and the date they joined.
Time statistics
All time statistics are stored for 100 days.
View detailed contact figures
To view your audience statistics in your account, go to Connect > Digital marketing channels and select the channel.
The Contacts synced in the last 7 days column shows how many contacts have synced in the last seven days for each profile.
Drill down into contact figures
Select the number under the Contacts synced in the last 7 days column to see more contact details. On the Google Ads usage page, you can see how many contact syncs succeeded or failed and if there are any warnings.
Adjust the date range
Select DATE RANGE.
Select the current date range.
Choose if you want to see a predefined or custom date range - set it however you want.
Select APPLY to save the date range you selected.
Select APPLY again.
Synced contacts
To see the number of contacts synced to your audience, under the Contacts synced column, select the number. The usage panel slides in from the right.
To add the synced contacts to a list, select ADD CONTACTS TO LIST, and then select:
Add contacts to list
Include the synced contacts in an existing list in your account.
Add contacts to new list
Create a brand new list in your account containing the synced contacts.
Delete or disable a Google Ads profile
Before you start
You can't delete or disable a profile that's in use in an active program.
Deleting a profile deletes all usage statistics for that profile.
Disabling a profile stops your team members from selecting the profile in a Google Ads node until you enable the profile again.
Delete a Google Ads profile
Go to Connect > Digital marketing channels and select Google Ads.
Select the checkbox next to the name of the profile you want to delete.
Select DELETE.
Disable a Google Ads profile
Go to Connect > Digital marketing channels and select Google Ads.
Select the name of the profile you want to disable.
Expand the Status drop-down menu and select Disabled.
Select SAVE.