Google Ads Script to Receive High CPC Bid Alerts

“You’re spending tons of my money every month, you better be damned proficient at what you do. Failure is not an option!”

CPC bid errs are human. I’ve had them happen to me many times. I’ve seen them happen to others even more.
And I DO NOT want any of my clients or team members to catch me making this mistake EVER again!

So I thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could get an alert if CPC bids raise above a certain level?”
Yep. That would be nice.

The next steps were easy. Here’s what I did:

• Step 1: Determine CPC bid threshold
• Step 2: Create a new Google sheet
• Step 3: Decide upon an email address to receive email alerts
• Step 4: Write a Google Ads script to monitor CPC bids of all enabled keywords.
  Let’s have the script report alerts in the Google sheet and send me an ALERT email if issues occur.
• Step 5: Schedule the script to run hourly

No more surprises, no more CPC bid f#$kups.
You can have the same.

➥  ACTION: Block Facebook for the next ten minutes and install the script.

Peace of mind is your BONUS.
(Don’t worry if you have never run a script before. You do not need any coding skills. It is as simple as copy-paste.)

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INSTRUCTIONS:

1. See the script code below. Install the script in your account.
   Don’t worry if you have never done this before. You do not need any coding skills. It is as simple as copy-paste. Simply follow these instructions on how to set up and schedule Google Ads scripts.
2. Create a new Google Sheet
   (tip for chrome users: simply type ‘sheets.new’ in the address bar)
3. Add the complete URL of the spreadsheet  to the script (line 1)
4. Add your email address to the script
5. Set your CPC limit
6. Preview
7. Schedule to run hourly.

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var SPREADSHEET_URL = "YOUR_SHEET_URL_GOES_HERE" ;  //insert a new blank spreadsheet url

var CAMPAIGNLABEL= ""; // use this to only monitor campaigns with specific label

var CPC_THRESHOLD = 5.00; // set your highest cpc limit

var EMAIL_ADDRESSES = "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_GOES_HERE"; //insert your email
var EMAIL_SUBJECT = "[ALERT] - Google Ads - HIGH CPC Bid Keyword(s)"
var EMAIL_BODY = ""; // add any text you would like to add to your email alerts
    
function main() {

  //prepare the Spreadsheet
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(SPREADSHEET_URL);
  var sheet = ss.getActiveSheet();
  sheet.clear(); //remove earlies alerts
  var header = [
    "Campaign Name", 
    "AdGroup Name",
    "Keyword ",
    "CPC Bid" 
  ];
 

  // create list of campaigns to check
  var campaignSelector = AdWordsApp.campaigns()
    .withCondition("Status = ENABLED");
  if (CAMPAIGNLABEL!="") {
    campaignSelector=campaignSelector
       .withCondition("LabelNames CONTAINS_ANY ['"+CAMPAIGNLABEL+"']");
  }
  var campaignIds=[];
  var campaignIterator = campaignSelector.get();
  while (campaignIterator.hasNext()) {
    var campaign = campaignIterator.next();
    
    // add campaigns with Manual bidding to list of campaigns to check
    var campaignBiddingStrategy = campaign.getBiddingStrategyType();
    if(campaignBiddingStrategy=='MANUAL_CPC') {
    	var campaignId = campaign.getId();
    	campaignIds.push(campaignId) ;      
    }
  }
  Logger.log(" Nr of campaign to check: "+campaignIds.length);
  

  // check for issues
  var issues = [];
  if (campaignIds.length > 0) {
    issues = checkKeywords(campaignIds);
  }

 
  // report issues 	
  var totalNrOfIssues = issues.length;  
  if (totalNrOfIssues > 0) { // there is at least one issue

    Logger.log("Total NR of Issues: "+totalNrOfIssues);
    
    var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();

    // write issues to sheet
    var range = sheet.getRange(lastRow+1, 1, totalNrOfIssues, header.length);
    range.setValues(issues);
    sheet.sort(3, true); // sort by Keyword asc
    sheet.insertRows(1);
    range = sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, header.length);
    range.setValues([header]);

    // send the email
    var emailBody = 
      "Number of issues: " + totalNrOfIssues + "\n" + 
      "See details: "+ SPREADSHEET_URL + "\n" + EMAIL_BODY;

    MailApp.sendEmail(EMAIL_ADDRESSES, EMAIL_SUBJECT, emailBody);
  }
} 



function checkKeywords(campaignIds) {
  
  var cpcThreshold = CPC_THRESHOLD * 1000000; // AWQL queries take Money micros values for CpcBid metrics;  20000 == 0.02 EUR
  var issues = [];
      
  var awq="SELECT CampaignName, AdGroupName, Criteria, Id, CpcBid FROM KEYWORDS_PERFORMANCE_REPORT WHERE CampaignId IN ["+campaignIds.join(",")+"] AND AdGroupStatus='ENABLED' AND Status='ENABLED' AND CpcBid > "+cpcThreshold ;  
  
  var rows=AdWordsApp.report(awq, {
       includeZeroImpressions: true,
       returnMoneyInMicros: false,
       }).rows() ;  
  
  while (rows.hasNext()) {
    var row = rows.next();
    var campaignName = row['CampaignName'].toString().trim();
    var adGroupName = row['AdGroupName'].toString().trim();
    var keyword = row['Criteria'].toString().trim();
    var keywordBid=row['CpcBid'].toString().trim() ;
    issues.push([campaignName, adGroupName, keyword, keywordBid]) ;
  }
  //Logger.log(issues.length+" issues");
  return issues;
}

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