Understanding Manually Removed Entities in Search Ads 360 Templates

This article explains how Search Ads 360 handles manually removed entities in the context of Templates. It covers the system's behavior towards manually deleted entities, the process of reinstating them, and the distinction between manual and automatic entity removal.

Manually removed entities vs. system removed entities

Manually removed entities are defined as entities deleted directly by a Search Ads 360 user, not by the Template system. Templates treats these differently when considering recreation, as the system assumes manual removal was intentional and should not be reversed automatically. If a template would create an entity identical to a manually removed one, the system prevents its creation.

To reinstate a manually removed entity, you must manually recreate that entity with a name that exactly matches what a Template would generate.

During the next evaluation, any template that would have created an entity with the same name will adopt the manually created entity under its management.

Entities removed automatically by the system using the "Remove managed entity" Status setting (when items are no longer present in the feed) will be automatically recreated by the Templates system when the feed item returns. Only manually removed entities are blocked from recreation.

How to find removed entities

Apply filters and add reporting columns to identify removed entities.

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a sub-manager account.
3. From the page menu, select either the Campaigns, Ad groups, Ads, or Keywords tab.
4. Click Add filter, under the "Attributes" dropdown select Status.
5. Check the box next to Removed then Click Apply.
6. Using the "Columns" button, add a column to your view for "Template name" under the "Attributes" dropdown. Optionally, you can also add "Template Management Status" and "Template ID".
7. Template names will now appear in the "Template name" column of the listed entities. You can use additional filtering to locate specific entities or Templates. For Template-specific filtering, you can use the fields "Template Name", "Template Management Status", or "Template ID.

Recreating removed entities and placing manually removed entities under template management

If an entity name exactly matches the output of a template, you can place the manually created entity under template management. Even if you set the entity "unmanaged", as long as the name matches the output of an existing template, the template may create new ads and other items within the unmanaged entity.

Recreating manually removed entities at scale

If you need to recreate a large number of manually removed entities, there are some workflows we suggest to simplify the process and reduce errors.

Instructions to locate removed entities

1. Using the "Columns" button, add a column to your view for "Template name" under the "Attributes" dropdown.
   • Optionally, you can also add "Template Management Status" and "Template ID".
2. Download a bulksheet of all the removed campaigns.
3. Change the "Action" column to "Add" in the downloaded report.
4. Remove the values in the "Campaign ID" column.
5. Re-upload the report through bulk upload to recreate the campaigns.

Convert manual entities to template management

To convert manual entities to template management, do the following:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a sub-manager account.
3. Set up a template that generates the same name as your manual entities.
4. Activate the templates by clicking Enable on the "Status" icon menu.
5. Wait for Search Ads 360 to evaluate the feed. Existing entities that match your templates are automatically identified.
6. Enable template management for manual entities:
   1. In the left page menu, click Accounts.
   2. Click the Campaigns, Ad groups, RSA, Keyword, or Sitelink options for a page that could contain items generated from a template.
   3. On this page, ensure the column which identifies whether page instances are "Managed" or "Unmanaged" is displayed by doing the following:
      1. Click Columns above the table.
      2. In "Attributes", click Template management status.
   4. To apply template management to "Unmanaged" items, do the following:
      1. Click the check boxes for the "Unmanaged" items for which you want to change the template management status.
      2. In the "Edit menu", click Change template management status.
      3. Select Enable management by templates. The applicable client account types are shown.
      4. Click Apply.