How to pump ads using Google Ads modifiers [5 примеров]

Customizing ads for specific users and their needs is effective, but time consuming – if you do everything by hand. However, it is possible to automate the creation of ads – in particular, using modifiers. These include dynamic keyword insertion, IF function, countdown timer, and modification based on the loaded dataset. How to apply it in practice – we show with examples.

The content of the article

What are ad modifiers and how are they useful?
Examples of using modifiers
Showing a different call to action to mobile and desktop users
We show different offers to different audiences
Improve ad relevance with dynamic keyword insertion
We motivate to place an order using a countdown timer
Display the product name and price in the title

What are ad modifiers and how are they useful?

In Google Ads, you don’t have to compose every ad by hand. There are possibilities for automation (we wrote about them). One way is to use modifiers. The bottom line is that the system substitutes one or more parameters in the ad: product name, search query, availability, price, etc. This is convenient, because we get as many ads as we like from one template.

You can customize modifiers so that they will work for a specific audience. For example, residents of Moscow will see “Free delivery in Moscow”, and Volgograd – “Delivery to Volgograd – 500 rubles.”

Modifiers serve three purposes:

They make ads more relevant (if a search query is inserted into the ad text, its attractiveness to the user increases).
Maintain up-to-date information in ads (about prices, availability, discounts).
Increase conversion (through the use of a countdown timer and the ability to customize the display of specific text depending on the region and audience).

What you need to know when working with modifiers:

They are only available for search ads.
Placed in the title and / or description (not in the display URL and extensions).
When a modifier is added to an ad, statistics on it are not reset.

There are 4 types of modifiers:

Dynamic keyword insertion.
IF function.
Countdown timer.
Modifier based on loaded data.

Next, we’ll show you how to set them up and apply them in practice.

Examples of using modifiers

Showing a different call to action to mobile and desktop users

If from desktops users tend to go to the site and fill out an application on their own, then from mobile they are more willing to call (simply because it is more convenient than filling out a form). We use this feature when displaying ads: when switching from mobiles, we urge you to call, and from desktops – go to the site.

How to set it up

Create an ad, or open an existing one, and place an open curly brace where the call to action will be. In our case, this is heading 1. Select the IF function.

We specify the text that users will see depending on the device:

After that, the following ad will be displayed on mobile:

And on desktops:

You can test different variations of the text in existing ads. The old statistics will remain, and you will see the dynamics of the impact of changes on efficiency.

We show different offers to different audiences

Our goal is to attract the attention of visitors who have added an item to the cart, but have not placed an order with additional discounts. In this example, we will also use the IF function.

In the list of audiences, select the category “Users who have not completed the purchase”. In the line “To” we indicate the amount of the discount for this audience. In the line “Otherwise” set the text for the rest of the users.

Click “Apply”. In this example, users who have not completed their purchase will see an ad like this:

Other users will see another ad:

Improve ad relevance with dynamic keyword insertion

When a user sees a search query or part of it in the ad title, he considers such an ad relevant. Therefore, context specialists always try to include at least the main keywords in the titles and / or texts.

But capturing all the words is laborious. In general, this is not necessary – if you use dynamic insertion. In this case, the system itself will each time substitute the keyword relevant to the request in the ad (where exactly – you define yourself).

How to set up dynamic insertion

We put an opening curly brace in the title / description and select the item “Dynamic keyword insertion”.

This is how the settings window looks like:

In the “Default text” line, specify the text that most closely matches the keywords in the current ad group. For example, in our group, the keys “orthopedic mattress” and “coconut mattress” are set – in this case, we specify “mattresses” as the default text. We do dynamic insertion after the word “Buy”:

After that, the ad will adapt to the user’s request.

If it turns out that the user’s request is too long to fit into the allotted 30 characters, the system uses the default word. For example, if you search for “inexpensive sale of spring mattresses in Moscow time”, the heading “Buy mattresses” will be displayed. Also, the default text will be displayed if the system fails to find a keyword that matches the request.

We motivate to place an order using a countdown timer

You can enable a countdown timer in your ad headline or text. As a result, users see the actual dates for the start of the event or the end of the action.

For example, let’s set up a countdown to the end of the promotion – add it to the second heading after the words “Until the end of the promotion”.

We indicate the date and time of the countdown, set the countdown period, set the time zone and the language in which the date and time will be displayed. For ads in different time zones, it’s best to set the user’s time zone.

A timer ad would look like this:

As you approach the end date, the number will also change: 3 days, 2 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes, etc.

Display the product name and price in the title

The bottom line is that if a user is looking for a specific model, he sees an ad with the exact name of the product and the current price. For this to work, you need to create a dataset and upload it to your Google Ads account.

Let’s start by creating a dataset.

Defining attributes

We enter the modifier data into the XLS file. Download template link…

Setting up custom attributes – this is the data that will be substituted in ads. Change the custom attributes to our own in columns A-E of the template. We delete the extra columns. Do not put spaces in attribute names.

We indicate attribute type for each column:

text – product name (text, numbers and symbols);
number – quantity of goods (only whole numbers);
price – the cost of the goods (any numbers, including decimal fractions);
date – date in the format YYYY / MM / dd hh: mm: ss.

An example of a completed file:

There are others standard attributes, in addition to the four discussed above. For example, you can specify preferred devices, start and end times for the display of the modifier, etc.

Setting up targeting

In the FH columns of the template, we indicate additional targeting settings. By default, the following targeting parameters are specified here:

Target campaign… The names of the campaigns to which the dataset belongs.
Target ad group… The ad groups to which the dataset belongs.
Target keyword… We indicate the keywords by which the data display is launched. For keywords, you can set match types

When working in multiple regions using targeting attributes you can set up geotargeting. Google identifies the user’s IP and substitutes the region in the header.

To configure, add a column with the Target location attribute to the dataset table.

The use of targeting attributes is not limited to geo. For example, you can specify the type of targeting that applies to locations (Target location restriction), specify the type of match for the keyword (Target keyword match type), and so on.

Upload the file to your account

We save the file in CSV or TSV format. The allowed size of tables for these formats is no more than 500 MB. If your spreadsheet weighs up to 50 MB, XLS or XLSX format is allowed.

Log into your account, open “Tools and Settings” and select “Commercial Data”.

Click + and select “Ad Modifier Data”.

We give a name to the dataset. Select the file and click “Apply”. That’s it – we’ve created a dataset for modifiers.

Adding modifiers to ad texts

To add a modifier to the menu, select “Ads Modifier”.

We want the title to display the name of the product model and its price. To do this, after the curly brace, put the “=” sign and indicate the name of the data set without a space.

In the list that appears, select the name of the attribute. We are interested in the “Model” attribute.

After saving in the ad, users will see the name of the product model and its price.

Check how the modifier works after embedding. If it displays incorrect data, check the feed.

Here are some useful links for working with ads:

How to quickly compose 1000 PPC ads from a YML file
How competitors are squeezing out your brand traffic on search: 10 ad examples
11 search ad examples you need to shake hands with
Ads not showing on Google / Yandex search: 15 possible reasons

How to pump ads using Google Ads modifiers [5 примеров]

What are ad modifiers and how are they useful?

Examples of using modifiers