To create or edit large numbers of items such as campaigns, ad groups, responsive search ads, responsive display ads, keywords, or custom dimensions in the new Search Ads 360, add the new or updated items to a specially formatted spreadsheet (called a bulksheet) and upload the bulksheet to the new Search Ads 360. This allows you to take immediate bulk action on errors and opportunities you observe in your data.
You can also schedule bulk uploads to run at the time and frequency that you choose.
Example:
Amy is an online retailer who sells sporting equipment. She has thousands of keywords spread across dozens of ad groups. In the past, she used spreadsheets and a proprietary formula to make changes to her bids, which she entered manually into her Search Ads 360 account. With bulk uploads, she can download a spreadsheet of her keywords, change her bids by applying her proprietary formula to the spreadsheet, then upload this same spreadsheet directly into her account.
When Amy uploads the edited spreadsheet, she can preview any changes, get details of possible errors, and apply all the changes when she’s ready in the same tab. She can even share her preview with colleagues if she wants a second opinion.
Bulksheet upload methods
The new Search Ads 360 provides the following ways to upload bulksheets:
- The Search Ads 360 UI: The new Search Ads 360 provides a single place to upload, review errors, and check the status. You can upload files in a variety of formats, including XLS, XLSX, CSV, TSV, or provide a link to a Google sheet. This is useful for performing “round tripping” by downloading the current data set, amending it as required, and then uploading the edited bulksheet.
- HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure): The new Search Ads 360 connects to a secure endpoint to retrieve the bulksheet to be uploaded from your server.
- sFTP (secure File Transfer Protocol): If you frequently upload bulksheets, you may want to use third-party software (called an FTP client) to upload bulksheets to an sFTP endpoint instead of manually uploading through the Search Ads 360 UI, or let Search Ads 360 connect to your sFTP server to retrieve the bulksheet Available options:
- In-UI Bulksheet within Search Ads 360: Learn more about the In-UI bulksheet and how to add and edit keywords and upload ads using it.
Regardless of how you upload, the overall process of uploading a file, validating the file, and fixing any errors is the same.
Upload process
Here's the general process for uploading a bulksheet:
- Create your bulksheet by scoping to the required entity page. For example, in your campaigns page, download an editable report, and make the required changes to the data. You can also create a bulksheet by downloading a blank template stating the supported values in each column and completing it based on your requirement.
- Define a single upload by specifying an upload source and any required connection details. Alternatively, you can schedule uploads to take place at a defined frequency and time. You can also use Google’s sFTP so that uploads take place automatically whenever you use a third-party software to upload a bulksheet to Google’s sFTP.
- If you choose to preview the sheet, Search Ads 360 will validate the uploaded bulksheet and report any validation errors. If errors are found, you can fix them or continue with the invalid bulksheet. Search Ads 360 will ignore the invalid items and continue with the valid items in the bulksheet.
- Search Ads 360 places the bulksheet in its processing queue. When processing begins, the new Search Ads 360 checks for any additional errors. Search Ads 360 will ignore any items that encounter processing errors and continue with the items that are successfully processed.
- If you've uploaded new campaigns or updated existing campaigns, ad groups, or other items in a campaign, Search Ads 360 traffics your changes to the client account.
- If there are validation or processing errors, you'll find an error bulksheet in the upload history. The error bulksheet contains only the items that didn’t validate or process, along with an explanation of the error. You can download the error bulksheet, make corrections, and upload the corrected bulksheet.
You can view the status and history of your uploads and upload errors at any time during or after this process.
Bulksheet schema
The Search Ads 360 bulksheet schema has changed. Some columns have been renamed, some have been removed, and new columns have been added. If you've used bulksheets to upload data to the previous Search Ads 360, you will need to make some changes to migrate those bulksheets to the new Search Ads 360. Learn how to Migrate bulksheets to the new Search Ads 360.
Learn more about the bulksheet schema changes in the new Search Ads 360.
Bulksheet file size, formats, and limits
- Spreadsheets must be in one of our supported formats (Google Sheets (not in sFTP), .xls, .xlsx, .tsv, or .csv).
- Spreadsheets must be 50MB or less in size.
- Spreadsheets must contain no more than 1 million rows.
Bulksheets tips
- If you are using a Search Ads 360 report as your bulksheet, you don't need to delete extraneous columns or the total rows.
- Non-editable columns or editable columns where no change has been made will be ignored.
- If you don't specify the "Action" column of a new item, the item will be enabled by default.
- When inputting URLs, the full URL is always required:
- Correct: https://www.example.com
- Incorrect: www.example.com
- When editing in Excel, change the cell format from "General" to "Text".
Supported delimiters in CSV and TSV files
- CSV: Comma only
- TSV: Tab only
Other characters, such as pipe or colon, can’t be used to separate (delimit) fields.
Upload to multiple engine accounts
If your bulksheet contains items that you want to upload to multiple client accounts, make sure the bulksheet includes the Customer ID column specifying the ID of each manager, sub-manager, or client account. For example, if you're creating campaigns in multiple client accounts, each campaign needs to specify the client account that Search Ads 360 should upload it to. Learn more about uploading to multiple client accounts.