Place manually created entities under template management

If you create a manual entity with a name that exactly matches an entity that a template would generate, you can place the manual entity under template management so the template controls it. This enables the template to edit, pause or remove the entity as feed data changes. Even if you set the entity to ‘unmanaged’ as long as the entity name matches a template’s output, the template may create new child entities beneath the existing entity.

Entities that can be managed by templates include the following:

• Campaigns
• Ad groups
• Responsive search ads
• Keywords
• Negative keywords
• Sitelinks

Example: Place manually created campaigns under template management

If you created manual campaigns before you decided to use template-generated campaigns, you can place the manual campaigns under template management by adjusting the name of the template to match a template output, or adjusting the template output to match the name of an existing campaign. The template will then manage the campaigns as if they were originally generated by the template.

Example: Place manually created ad groups under template management

If an ad group's name and its parent campaign exactly match the output of a template, you can place the manual ad group under template management. Even if you set the ad group ‘unmanaged’ as long as the name matches the output of an ad group template, the template may create new ads and other items within the unmanaged ad group.

Convert manual entities to template management

Before making large-scale changes to convert manual entities to template management, we recommend that you do the following:

1. Create a filter at the template level so you're working with only a small subset of the products you advertise.
2. Generate entities in the paused state through the option in “Status” at “Stage 1 Template settings” during setup.
3. When you've confirmed that the template will create entities that match your manual items, remove or change the filter to include all of the items that you want.

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

1. Sign in to your Search Ads 360 experience.
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 or Ad groups 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.