Author: Nils Rooijmans

I’m wrapping up my new eBook “21 Must-Have Google Ads Scripts,” packed with free, ready-to-use, time-saving scripts for any PPC pro.

Before it goes live, I’m offering a free beta version to the first 20 responders who are willing to:

1. Read the eBook with the first 10 scripts (10 mins)
2. Install and test at least 3 scripts mentioned in the book (15 mins)
3. Provide feedback on the eBook (3 mins)
4. Give me a short testimonial (2 mins)

As a thank-you for the 30 minutes of your time and for your feedback, you’ll also get 80% off the final version.

Interested? Email me at nils@nilsrooijmans.com and say “Let’s test!” 🙂

Cheers,
Nils

Nolan’s Law is an aphorism often attributed to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, on the subject of video game design:

“All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.”

The same goes for Google Ads Scripts.

Getting started with scripts is easy to learn. And rewarding.

Writing advanced scripts from scratch (even with the help of AI) is hard to master. And rewarding.

Here’s the thing: the journey of scripts is rewarding every step of the way.

Start small. Install one or two “simple” scripts to get a feel of what is possible.

Increase complexity. Make some minor changes to the code and see what happens.

Challenge yourself. Create a very basic script yourself (with the help of ChatGPT).

Go play and have some fun.

Here’s a link to get you started on your journey:
https://nilsrooijmans.com/sitemap/

Happy scripting!

– Nils

Google is clarifying its Google Ads review process to explain how it detects policy violations. See details here: https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/7187501 

TL;DR:
The review process combines Google’s AI and human evaluation (and is constantly changing). Google disapproves ads, assets, destinations, accounts, and other content that violate Google policies.

In determining whether an advertiser or destination is violating their policies, Google reviews information from a variety of sources, including:

• ads
• accounts
• websites
• content
• user complaints
• consumer reviews
• regulatory warnings and rulings
• other third-party sources

Google’s enforcement technologies use Google’s AI, modeled on human reviewers’ decisions. The policy-violating content is either blocked from serving by Google’s automated models or by manual review. Where a more nuanced determination is required, content is flagged for further review by trained operators and analysts who conduct content evaluations that might be difficult for algorithms to perform alone (for example, because an understanding of the context of the ad and account is required). The results of these manual reviews are then used to help build training data to improve the machine-learning models.

Here’s the thing:
These automated procedures often make mistakes (AI generates “false positives“). Google often disapproves your ads for faulty reasons. You need to apply for a review when that happens — otherwise, your ads won’t show!

Luckily, I have a script which can help you detect when Google disapproves your ads. (Note that not all disapprovals get reported via notifications in the Google Ads UI.)

[Google Ads Script] Disapproved Ads Alerts

URL: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-disapproved-ads-alerts/

What it does:
This script checks all enabled ads in your enabled ad groups and campaigns and sends an email alert if any of the ads are disapproved. It will add the alert to a Google Sheet so you’ll have a clear overview of the issues.

Why you’d care: 
Ads get disapproved for numerous reasons, and not all disapprovals get your attention. Google uses its AI to review your ads, and this AI often makes mistakes and often disapproves ads that have been running for months without problems. When this happens, you want to be in the know. This script assures that you are.

– Nils

Here’s how to FIND the time to learn how to CREATE more time:

1. Decide the right time for automation of your PPC tasks is NOW.
2. Open your calendar application.
3. Create a recurring weekly appointment on Thursdays called SCRIPTING from 9am to noon.
4. Install/change/create at least one Google Ads Script (use my list and starting guide for inspiration).
5. There is no step 5.

Just try it.

Just Script It.

Once you get started, it’s easier than you think.

– Nils

“For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn”

…

Pause.

…

Read that headline above again.

…

There are two types of reactions to this headline: 

• Type 1 – I am crying. The baby never made it to the point where the shoes would fit. My heart is broken.
• Type 2 – Baby feet grow fast. They must have bought the wrong size. Let’s have ’em.

If your reaction was in camp 1, consider the power of the emotion it raised.

Can you write headlines that do the same?

– Nils

Today, I am sharing a request from our PPC friend and long-time member of the community Duane Brown:

Wow. 10 year mark. I don’t even know what to say as I just launched this as an off-the-wall idea 10 years ago. Thank you for making this possible. 

Companies make salaries a black box affair because they want to pay everyone as little as possible. I’ve been told more than a few times not to discuss what I made with others.

Learning what the industry pays your colleague or that new junior hire means that none of us are leaving money on the table. 

Even now as someone who runs an agency, I strongly believe this to be true.

Last year, we got 1,060 responses. Survey Closes Feb 28th, 2025 midnight PST.

Let’s give Duane a hand: fill out the PPC Salary Survey. 

Here’s the link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSex4uhXPCA18aaMDQ22b6XyFEhZWRv6uPPMMx5JBRByPgNtpw/viewform

Results will launch by March 22nd, 2025.

– Nils

Only half of PPC is working with numbers.

The other 90% is explaining why the numbers are wrong.

– Nils

Are you struggling to get ChatGPT to whip up that perfect Google Ads Script for you?

I’m prepping my next online workshop and offering you my help in return for your questions/challenges.

If you have a great script idea and have had a hard time getting ChatGPT to create it, answer these questions below and I will try my best to help you (for free).

1. What is your script idea? (The more detail, the better.)
2. What prompt(s) did you use to get ChatGPT to create it for you?
3. Where and how did you get stuck? (Again, the more detail, the better.)

I cannot promise that I will completely solve your challenge, but I can promise a response that will get you at least one step closer to script victory!

– Nils

I completely missed this one, and I think it is worth a mention:

I am a big fan of Google Tag Assistant, the Chrome extension to easily troubleshoot and resolve issues with Google Tag Manager and Google Tag implementations.

But then, Google did what Google does: the extension was marked as deprecated! It was replaced by the far less intuitive Tag Assistant Companion.

Oh no! The horror!

It haunted my nights. Sleep became a distant memory thanks to this.

Nah… not really.

There are lots of other ways to check my tags. 

But still, I loved the ease of using the Tag Assistant.

Luckily and surprisingly(?): Google has listened to user feedback and combined Tag Assistant Legacy and Tag Assistant Companion into a single, unified extension.

Yep, Tag Assistant FTW. 

You can quickly and easily test your tags with a single click on that lovely icon at the top of your browser.

All you have to do is UNINSTALL Tag Assistant Companion and re-install the Tag Assistant extension.

Here’s the link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tag-assistant/kejbdjndbnbjgmefkgdddjlbokphdefk

– Nils

Last week, I shared a little tactic to quickly and easily exclude all mobile apps from your PMax campaigns. You can find the details here: https://nilsrooijmans.com/excluding-all-mobile-app-placements-the-quicker-and-easier-way/

A long-time member of the list, Hana Kobzová (name shared with permission), sent a question that was asked often on LinkedIn and Reddit:

“Why do you recommend adding all those values from your list? Doesn’t ‘mobileappcategory::69500’ already cover everything?”

Great question! I also use ‘mobileappcategory::69500’ a lot for Display campaigns. It’s a quick way to easily add all mobile app categories to the placement exclusions in Display.

However, here’s the thing: Performance Max campaigns DO NOT have the option to exclude placement at the campaign level.

To exclude placements from PMax, you need to add the exclusion at the account level.

Also, the little trick of entering ‘mobileappcategory::69500’ in your placement exclusions does not work at the account level. Currently, the Google Ads UI throws this message when you try to save the exclusion: “An error occurred. Please try again or check your targeting options.”

So, as far as I know, copy-pasting all the Mobile App Placement Exclusions from this list and adding them at the account level is the quickest way to exclude all mobile apps from your PMax campaigns.

– Nils

PS: Want to always be in the know when Performance Max campaigns are showing your ads on bad placements?  Check out my Google Ads Script for PMax Placement Exclusions.

Have you ever wanted to add the same ad schedule to tens of campaigns?

I did. Today.

And trust me, the Google Ads UI makes it very hard to do this without you wanting to send your mouse on a one-way trip to the wall! You literally have to click each and every individual campaign, and add the ad schedules for each individual campaign… over and over again.

Luckily, there’s a quicker way: using Google Ads Editor.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Create your desired ad schedule in one campaign
2) Open Google Ads Editor
3) Download your campaigns
4) Select “Campaigns” in the type list
5) Select the campaign with the ad schedule you want to copy
6) Select “Edit” > “Copy shell”
7) Select all the campaigns where you want to paste the schedule
8) Click the Paste icon in the edit panel next to “Ad schedule”

That’s it. This saved my mouse from its funeral today.

– Nils

Two weeks ago, we talked about excluding Mobile App Placements in your PMax campaigns. (Remember? You don’t want PMax to show your ads on apps that only attract accidental clicks from the under-aged).

As we learned, excluding Mobile Apps at the account level is currently the only way to exclude them from your PMax campaigns. And, excluding them at the account level requires you to check 140 (!) Mobile App categories in the Google Ads interface.

140+ clicks just to protect your PMax campaigns from these dreadful placements that only waste your budget. Talk about time sinks…

Not anymore!

Thanks to a suggestion by fellow list member Maciej Ilczyszyn (name shared with permission), I learned about a quicker solution.

I created a script to pull all Mobile App Categories from the Google API and report them in a Google Sheet so we can use them to exclude them more easily!

Here’s how to quickly and easily exclude ALL Mobile App Placements from your account (and PMax campaigns): simply go to this Google Sheet, copy all the values in column B ‘Mobile App Placement Exclusions’, and add them to your exclusions.

That’s it! No more checking 140 boxes.

More details here: https://nilsrooijmans.com/excluding-all-mobile-app-placements-the-quicker-and-easier-way/

Note: the script automatically updates the list daily with the latest Mobile App Categories. This way, we are always up to date. 🙂

– Nils

PS: Want to always be in the know when Performance Max campaigns are showing your ads on bad placements?  Check out the latest version of my Google Ads Script for PMax Placement Exclusions.

A new year often means new targets. New targets for your clients, new targets for you, AND new targets for Google Ads Reps!

Already, the reps are reaching out like crazy to me and my clients.

If the same thing is happening to you, here’s the reply I would recommend:

Hey {name},

Thanks for reaching out, and all the best for the new year to you as well!

To kick off the new year, we want to focus on reducing wasted ad spend. For starters: can you enable the ‘Negative Keywords in PMax Campaigns’ feature in our accounts?

Next to that, if you have any other concrete suggestions to reduce wasted ad spend (based on our account’s data), please share them via email.

This will also enable us to see if scheduling your suggested call would benefit us both.

Thanks a ton already,

This reply will either get the rep off your back, or actually give you some meaningful result.

And, yes, you read that right! Google is (finally!) rolling out Negative Keywords for Performance Max campaigns (still in Beta). See details here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15726455

If you want to see what negative keywords you should add to your PMax campaigns to reduce wasted spend, run my script: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-pmax-non-converting-search-term-alerts/

If you want to learn how to add negative keywords to your PMax campaigns, read this:
https://nilsrooijmans.com/how-to-add-negative-keywords-to-your-performance-max-campaigns/

– Nils

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best and PPC success in 2025 🙂

A question for you:

What is the biggest PPC lesson you have learned last year? 

(Bonus question: how will you apply this lesson in the new year?)

Hit reply and let me know!

– Nils

Hey PPC pros!

How does a $425 ticket to THE AdworldExperience 2025 sound?

(Spoiler: it sounds amazing, and IS amazing… I’ve attended 8 editions and absolutely LOVED each one.)

I am thrilled to offer 3 free streaming tickets to my newsletter subscribers for the PPC event of the year, happening October 2-3, 2025.

Find out more about the event at: https://www.adworldexperience.it/en/ 

Here’s the deal to get a free ticket:

 Fill out this form.
 Sit tight until January 6 at 4:00 pm CET.
 Cross your fingers.

The winners will be announced on January 7 and will receive an exclusive link to stream the event for free!

Don’t miss your chance to join the lottery — it’s quick, easy, and could save you $425!

https://forms.gle/MgabyEKbLi4YoQVS8

Good luck!

– Nils

Your job is to reduce wasted ad spend.

Here’s why:

The ad platforms are, by themselves, forces that increase your spend.

They do a pretty good job at it.

The extra spend can be both good and bad.

It is your job to make the distinction.

– Nils

Here’s what I’ve been working on in the last few days:

[Google Ads Script] Performance Max Placement Exclusion Suggestions 

What it does:
This script suggests placement exclusions for bad placements where your PMax ads showed. If new placement exclusions are suggested, the placement exclusions are reported via email. The email contains a link to a Google Doc spreadsheet documenting all the placement exclusions suggestions.

Why you’d care:
PMax is notorious for showing your ads on placements that are not safe for your brand and/or only deliver fraudulent clicks and leads. (Seriously, try the script and check for yourself.)

Why I created it:
Countless PPC professionals from all over the world have asked me to create a script that would help them exclude bad placements from their PMax campaigns. Last Friday, Friday the 13th, was our lucky day: Google finally enabled the PMax Placement Report via Google Ads Scripts. This means we can now use Google Ads Scripts to help us get rid of some of the terrible PMax placements.

URL: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-pmax-placement-exclusion-suggestions/

NOTE: In the next few days, I’ll be releasing many updates to the script for free. Let me know if you have any suggestions on what to include.

Happy scripting!

– Nils

GRRRRR…

One of my clients F#$KED-up his conversion tracking. In the last 3 days, roughly 40% of conversions reported a conversion value that was roughly 135% of the real conversion value.

Don’t ask me who, why, or how. He doesn’t know. I don’t know.

But, as we all do know, Google Ads Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data to “help meet your goals.” Meaning, it needs accurate conversion data to predict the conversion value of a potential click and place your CPC bid.

Wrong conversion data -> wrong bid!

Wrong bid -> either too much traffic at a cost that will ruin our ROAS, or we get too little traffic because of CPC bids that are too low.

Luckily, Google offers an advanced tool to help with the kind of situation I was in these last few days. It’s called ‘Data exclusions‘ and it saved my client’s account from a dramatic drop in return on ad spend.

Google says: “You can use data exclusions to help reduce the impact that conversion tracking issues may have on Smart Bidding Performance.”

Here’s info about it from the horse’s mouth:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10370710?hl=en

The important part for you to realize is this: data exclusions apply to CLICKS. Your data exclusions must exclude clicks that could have had the affected conversions attributed to them. 

When these clicks are excluded, the associated conversions are also excluded.

So, here’s the thing: make sure to consider your conversion delay and exclude any days of clicks that may have been impacted. 

It’s a best practice to exclude 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data.

For example: if there was a conversion value tracking issue from Dec 9 to Dec 11, and 90% of conversions usually happen in 2 days, apply the exclusion as quickly as possible, including ALL days with impacted clicks. (In this case, you would exclude Dec 7 to Dec 11.)

Not obvious at all, if you ask me. However, smart bidding needs smart fixes.

Don’t hesitate to use data exclusions when your conversion tracking shows issues!

– Nils

The best way to tank your results is to blame Google for the situation your account is in — even if Google is doing evil:

• “Google defaulted to Broad Match campaign setting in my account. Look at all those clicks from completely irrelevant search terms!”
• “Google enabled Enhanced CPC on all my Manual bid campaigns after I created a new conversion action. My Avg CPC almost doubled, and not even a 20% increase in conversions!”
• “Google decided to auto-apply all its recommendations. Now look at this terrible ad copy that hurts my brand, for keywords it auto-added that didn’t make any sense!”

The best way to improve your account’s results is to acknowledge Google’s actions — and beat your competition:

• “So, Google is pushing PMax like crazy, having my competitors waste a ton of ad spend on non-converting clicks that are hidden by conversions that would have happened anyway. Let’s beat them with my Standard Shopping setup!”
• “Oookay Google! You’ve got my competitor’s non-brand phrase match keywords to start matching for my brand name. Let’s have this competitor waste buckets of coins on clicks from the prime spot by temporarily lowering the bids for my brand keywords!”
• “OiOiOi, Google added some more extremely fraudulent ‘built for AdSense’ websites to its Display Network. Let’s automatically exclude these terrible placements that only send click and lead fraud to me (and my competitor, who isn’t running any placement exclusion script)!”

– Nils

“What Google Ads scripts should I be using?”

It’s a question I get all the time, in all shapes and forms:

“Which are the best uses of Google Ads scripts?”
“What are the best scripts for Google Ads?”
“What Google Ads scripts do you use most?”
“What is your favourite Google Ads script?”

Sorry, there is no simple answer here. It’s a “how long is a piece of string” question and the only right answer is the infamous “it depends.”

I run over 40 custom-built scripts in my manager account that monitor my client account settings and performance. Some examples:

• monitoring conversion tracking
• spend versus budget alerts
• payment issues
• smart-bidding-gone-haywire alarm
• monitor campaign settings like ad rotation, search partners, etc.
• low QS keywords with significant spend alert

These scripts allow me to scale my business and still sleep well with the comfort of knowing that all things run smoothly. If any dramatic change happens, my scripts will alert me in no time.

Most of these scripts are custom-built by me, and not publicly available yet. However, I plan on developing a paid membership community that will let you have access to them soon, so stay tuned.

For now, I have created a short list of FREE scripts that typically benefit almost every account I come across:

1. Broken Link Checker
2. Negative Keyword Suggestions
3. Negative Keyword Conflicts Checker
4. Search Query Mining Tool (n-gram analyses)
5. Trending Search Terms Report

You can find the scripts here:

https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-scripts-faq/what-google-ads-scripts-should-i-be-using/

Happy scripting!

– Nils