Custom Columns Make Google Ads Management More Efficient

Knucklepuck has leveraged a number of custom columns since Google Ads expanded their functionality in April 2022.

Listed below are 14 powerful combinations that can help simplify management of any account you’re working on – from bidding to identifying trends to forecasting and more.

Keyword Bid Recommendations

Anyone who has managed a Google Ads account before has wondered if they’re bidding too much on a given keyword. This is an even more prominent question if you use Manual Bidding and are adjusting keyword bids on your own. Two custom columns that can provide guidance on this age-old question are Headroom CPC and Bidding Suggestion.

1) Headroom CPC

• Description: Provides insight into the difference between a keyword’s Max CPC and Average CPC.
  • In Other Words: this column tells you the percent difference between what you’re bidding and what you’re actually paying.

• Formula: (Max_CPC – Avg_CPC) / Avg_CPC

2) Bidding Suggestion

• Description: Provides guidance on lowering your Max CPC bids based on whether or not your Headroom CPC is higher than 100%.
  • In Other Words: this column will say “bid down” if your keyword’s Max CPC is more than double its Average CPC.

• Formula: if(and(Max_CPC > 0.20, ((Max_CPC – Avg_CPC) / Avg_CPC) >= 1), “bid down”, “-“)
  • Note: If you want to set a lower Headroom CPC threshold, simply change the “1” in the equation to your preferred percentage (ex: a 50% threshold = 0.5).

It’s also important to note that these columns are best used as a quick starting point. There are a number of other factors that contribute to whether or not you should decide to increase or decrease your bids. For example: if you’re technically “overbidding” on a keyword based on the columns above, but it’s a top-converter and has a low CPA, you may not want to lower your Max CPC bid and risk having that keyword be less competitive in ad auctions.

Screenshot of the Headroom CPC and Bidding Suggestion columns in Google Ads

Ad Spend Insights

In my Paid Media consulting career, I’ve answered hundreds of questions about budget and ad spend. Whether it’s forecasting, checking in on allocations, or making sure you’re on pace for the month, people want to know what’s happening with their money. This set of custom columns will help you respond quickly so you don’t have to spend time doing manual calculations.

3) Projected Spend

• Description: The projected monthly spend based on your month-to-date spend and spend over the past 7 days.
  • In Other Words: this column lets you know what you can expect to spend by the end of the month based on your current costs.

• Formula: Cost.date_range(this_month) + ((Cost.date_range(last_7_days) / 7) * (days_between(offset_months(today(), 1), today()) – days_between(today(), month_start())))

4) Percent of Monthly Budget Spent

• Description: The percent of your Google Ads monthly budget that has been spent.
  • In Other Words: this column gives you insight into how well you’re pacing for the month, as well as allocation across campaigns/ad groups/keywords.

• Formula: Cost.date_range(this_month) / [insert your monthly budget] 
  • Note: The denominator (i.e., monthly budget) in this equation may fluctuate from month to month. For example, if your client has a budget of $20K one month and $25K the next month, you will need to manually update “20000” to “25000” in your formula.

5) Percent of Daily Budget Spent

• Description: How much of your daily budget has been spent in a given date range.
  • In Other Words: this column tells you if you’re reaching your daily budget or not.

• Formula: ((Cost / report_days_count()) / Daily_Budget) 

6) Percent of Spend on Search Partners

• Description: How much spend has come from the Search Partners Network in a given date range.
  • In Other Words: this column tells you the percent of your budget going towards Search vs. Search Partners.

• Formula: Cost.network(partners) / Cost 

Although these columns are fairly simple, they allow you to get a quick snapshot of where your money is going, which helps inform more timely budget adjustments.

Screenshot of spend-related columns in Google Ads

Maximized Coverage

Another common scenario you might run into as a Google Ads account manager is a client or boss asking something like “how much would it cost to have 100% coverage?” or “what results can I expect if we increase our budget?” or “how much traffic could we drive if we weren’t limited by rank / budget?”

The next four columns help provide quick answers to those questions. However, keep in mind that these assume all other factors are staying the same (like CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate, etc.). It’s also important to set expectations that achieving a true 100% impression share may not be possible, especially for Non Brand or Competitor campaigns, due to factors outside of advertisers’ control (like Ad Rank and how the algorithm decides to serve ads to people).

7) Max Estimated Impressions

• Description: The maximum number of impressions you could have received if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.
  • In Other Words: this column gives you an idea of the total search volume in your space.

• Formula: Impr / Search_impr_share

8) Max Estimated Clicks

• Description: The maximum amount of clicks you could get if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.
  • In Other Words: this column gives you an idea of the total traffic you might be able to drive (based on your CTR) with 100% coverage.

• Formula: (Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR

9) Max Estimated Cost

• Description: The maximum amount you could have spent if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.
  • In Other Words: this column gives you an idea of the total cost it would take to have 100% coverage (based on average costs per click), which can also be used to inform budget recommendations.

• Formula: ((Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR) * (Avg_CPC / Search_impr_share)

10) Max Estimated Conversions

• Description: The maximum amount of conversions you could get if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.
  • In Other Words: this column gives you an idea of the total conversions you might be able to drive (based on your conversion rate) with 100% coverage.

• Formula: ((Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR) * Conversion_rate

Additionally, you can take these one step further by dividing Max Estimated Cost by Max Estimated Conversions. That will give you a general idea of the CPA you might have with 100% impression share.

• This column can also help illustrate the importance of scaling your account strategically. 100% coverage doesn’t necessarily mean all of that traffic is relevant. If your Max Coverage CPA is significantly higher than your actual CPA, you may want to focus on other optimizations, like improving landing page conversion rates, before just throwing money at the problem.

Screenshot of Maximized Coverage columns in Google Ads

Recent Trends

The last three columns are particularly helpful for reporting and problem-solving, with quick-hit insights into common trends that can affect performance.

11) Competitor Presence

• Description: Helps you know when there is a possibility that competition is increasing based on your average cost per click and search impression share.
  • In Other Words: this column will say “Increased” if impression share decreased more than 5% and CPC increased more than 10% over a given date range.

• Formula: if(and((Search_impr_share.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start) – Search_impr_share.between_dates(report_range_end, report_range_end)) > 0.05, ((Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_end, report_range_end) – Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start)) / Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start)) < 0.1), “Increased”, “-“)
  • Note: If you want to set different thresholds, change the “0.05” in the equation to your preferred percentage for impression share, and change the “0.1” for average CPC.

12) Search Volume Change

• Description: The percentage change of impressions yesterday compared to the day before.
  • In Other Words: this column indicates how much search volume increased or decreased yesterday.

• Formula: (Impr.date_range(yesterday) – Impr.between_dates(yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1), yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1))) / Impr.between_dates(yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1), yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1))

13) Conversion Trend

• Description: The percentage change in conversions in the last 7 days vs the last 30 days.
  • In Other Words: this column indicates how much conversion volume has increased or decreased recently.
• Formula: (((Conversions.date_range(last_7_days) / 7) / (Conversions.date_range(last_30_days) / 30)) – 1) 

Screenshot of trend-related columns in Google Ads

Summary

Google Ads custom columns can give you quick answers to some of the most common questions you (or your client) may have. The 13 formulas listed above should give you a great starting point, and all of them can be directly copied and pasted into the “Text” section when creating a custom column in the platform. We highly recommend experimenting with these, and others, to make your account management easier!

• Note: If you run into any issues with copy and pasting the formulas above, try changing subtraction symbols from a dash to a hyphen, updating the quotation marks, etc.

screenshot of Custom Column creation in Google Ads

Interested in continuing this conversation? Using any other custom columns that have been particularly valuable? Reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn! For help managing your paid campaigns, contact Knucklepuck today!

Resources

• Ten Custom Columns Using the New Impression Share Column You Can Create Right Now in Google Ads
• 13 Custom Columns to Enhance Google Ad Reporting
• Custom Insights with Custom Columns