About custom dimensions

Custom dimensions add extra information to your campaigns, ad groups, product groups, keywords, or ads. Each custom dimension defines a new table of data (that is associated with campaigns, ad groups, etc.). Each table row includes a primary dimension value and optionally one or more secondary dimension values. You can use custom dimensions to automate optimization (e.g., keyword optimization), when you create conditions for automated rules, when you generate ads with ad-group-based responsive-search-ad templates, and when you examine reporting data.

In the previous Search Ads 360 experience, a similar feature is called business data.

Why use custom dimensions?

The following examples show how you can use custom dimensions to create categories of campaigns, ad groups, key words, or ads and then summarize reporting data for each category.

Retailers organize their marketing efforts into product lines within larger departments, similar to a traditional department store. For each product line, the retailer has separate campaigns for brand and non-brand marketing, and has a few campaigns for specific promotions. While reporting at the campaign, ad group, and keyword level is useful for tactical decisions, the retailer also needs a way to view and compare performance at the product-line level. So the retailer creates a "Product line" custom dimension and then associates each campaign with a product line, such as "Outdoor furnishings", "Living room", "Audio", and so on.

For example: Reports can show the overall performance for each product line.

Product line Clicks
Outdoor furnishings 1,500
Living room 1,000
Computers 1,200
Audio 300


For deeper insight, the retailer segments the "Product line" report by campaign:

Campaign Product line Clicks
Campaign 1 Outdoor furnishings 550
Campaign 2 Outdoor furnishings 50
Campaign 3 Outdoor furnishings 400
Campaign 4 Living room 800
Campaign 5 Living room 200

What can I apply custom dimension to?

You can apply custom dimensions to any of the following entities in Search Ads 360:

  • Campaigns
  • Ad groups
  • Keywords
  • Ads
  • Product groups (inheritance only)

Adding a secondary dimension

Secondary dimensions provide additional details, and are attached to the primary dimension that you apply to your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, or product groups.

For example, each retail product line belongs to a retail department, so a retailer could expand the "Product line" dimension by adding a secondary dimension named "Department". Then the retailer would add values such as "Furnishings" and "Electronics" for each secondary dimension.

Product line Product line department
Outdoor furnishings Furnishings
Living room Furnishings
Computers Electronics
Audio Electronics


Just as reports can show overall performance for each product line, reports can also show overall performance for each department.

Product line department Clicks
Furnishings 2500
Electronics 1800

Inheriting custom-dimension values

When you create a child item, such as an ad group or keyword, it inherits the custom dimension values of its parent. For example, if you apply custom dimensions to a campaign, all ad groups, keywords, ads, and product groups in the campaign inherit the custom-dimenson values.

You can override these values later by assigning a new value to the child item. However, because custom dimensions are inherited, you cannot exclude them from a child item when creating them.

Compare labels with custom dimensions 

Use labels for Use custom dimensions for

Quick, informal annotations.


For example, use labels to keep track of campaigns you recently updated with new audience targets.

Long term annotations that reflect key categories of your business or marketing strategy.

Annotations that don't require uniform naming conventions.

For example, if you create labels like

  • Shirts: long sleeve: blue
  • Shirts: long sleeve: red

a simple typo could ruin the naming scheme, and you might not notice until you've created and applied many of these labels.

Annotations that imply multiple levels or hierarchical relationships.

Instead of creating complex naming conventions, you can use secondary dimensions to add structure to your annotations.

Annotations that don't need to be applied to all campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads.

If your labels are long, or if you've applied a large number of labels, it can be difficult to see which entities might be missing a specific label.

Annotations that you need to apply consistently across your campaigns, ad group, keywords, ads, or product groups. 

You can add a custom dimension column to a reporting table and apply a filter or simply visually scan to see which entities aren't yet associated with a custom-dimension value.

Annotations that are not mutually exclusive. You can associate multiple labels with a single entity (campaign, ad group, etc.).

For example, if you created labels for different cities in which your campaign was taking place, you can associate more than one of those labels with the campaign.

If you apply multiple labels to a single entity, then reporting data for that entity includes data for each label.

Annotations that apply a single exclusive value to the entire campaign, ad group, keyword, or ad.

For example, if your custom dimension is "hotel", multiple campaigns may each have a value for "hotel", but each campaign can have only one value for "hotel". (Each campaign can have values for more than one custom dimension.)

If you apply a custom dimension to an entity (e.g., a campaign), then reporting data for that entity includes only data for that custom dimension.

 

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