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Welcome to the help center for Search Ads 360, a platform for managing search marketing campaigns.  While the help center is available to the public, access to the Search Ads 360 product is available only to subscribing customers who are signed in. To subscribe or find out more, contact our sales team.

Create a manual campaign

Create an ad

Search ads are the marketing messages displayed to prospective customers on the search engines. You can create and manage your search engine ads in Search Ads 360. You can traffic as many ads through Search Ads 360 as the search engine limits allow.

Each ad consists of a title, one or two lines of description (depending on the search engine), and a display URL. 

Before you can create an ad, you need to create an ad group that you can assign the ad to.

Create an ad

  1. Navigate to an ad group.

    Steps for navigating to an ad group
    1. In the left navigation panel, click All accounts.
      What if the left navigation pane isn't visible?

    2. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

    3. In the "Agency" list, click the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

    4. In the "Advertiser" list, click the advertiser that contains the engine account.

    5. In the "Account" list, click the engine account that contains the campaign.

    6. In the "Campaign" list, click the campaign that contains the ad group.

    7. In the "Ad group" list, click the ad group.

    8. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

    Search Ads 360 displays the ad group page.

  2. Click the Ads tab.
    The table displays the existing ads for the ad group.

  3. Do the following depending on the account type:

    • Google Ads only: In the toolbar above the reporting table, click New ▼, and then click Text ad.
    • Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo! Japan, Baidu, and Yahoo! Gemini: In the toolbar above the reporting table, click + New ad.
  4. Enter the settings for the new ad as described in the sections below.

    You can enter each setting line by line in the boxes that appear, or you can paste an entire ad, including the URLs, onto the Headline. The text automatically fills in the correct lines if each line of the ad is on a separate line. For example for a Google Ads ad, you can paste the following text in the Headline:
    Headline
    Description line1
    example.com
    pathfield1, pathfield2

  5. Click Save.

Creating a large number of ads? Use a bulksheet to upload ads.

Ad settings

Google Ads ad settings

Responsive search ad settings

Ad copy in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive.

  • Headline: Between 3 and 15 are required, each with a limit of 30 characters.
  • Descriptions: Between 2 and 4 are required, each with a limit of 90 characters.
  • Ad destination URL: The URL that your ad will direct customers to upon clicking your ad.
  • Path and Path 2 (optional): The URL path that will appear in the ad. The path you specify here is combined with the domain name from the ad’s destination URL. This field gives potential customers an idea of where on your site they’ll land after clicking your ad. It doesn’t have to be the exact destination URL where they’ll land.
  • Ad tracking URL template (optional): The Search Ads 360 URL template for the ad.
  • Final URL suffix (optional): Parameters that are attached to the end of your landing page URL.
  • Custom parameters (optional): Defines parameters and values you can add to the ad's landing page URL or URL template. If custom parameters defined at a higher level use the same name as the ones you define here, the parameter values here override the values from the higher level.
Expanded text ad settings

Ad copy in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive.

  • Headline 1 (required), Headline 2 (required), and Headline 3 (optional): Enter the headline of the ad.
    Character limit: 30 characters each

    To make your ads more relevant to customers, you can insert keywords in your ad text that will dynamically update with the keyword a customer used when performing a search. For example,  if a customer searches for "red summer sandals", your ad dynamically updates to say,  Red summer sandals 20% off.  
    Enter the headline as follows: {Keyword: Red shoes} 20% off.
  • Description line 1 (required) and Description line 2 (optional): Enter more details about your product or service.
    Character limit: 90
  • Destination URL (required): Specifies a page on your site that describes the service or product in the ad. Google Ads calls this the final URL. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.
    Select a prefix (http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.
  • Path (field 1 and field 2) (optional): Enter a URL path to include in the ad's display URL. The path you enter here is combined with the domain name from the ad's destination URL.

    The fields give potential customers an idea of where they will end up on your site once they have clicked your ad. Your path text doesn’t have to match the exact text of your destination URL, but it should help the user understand what to expect from your landing page.

    Character limit: 15 characters each
  • URL Template: Specifies a Search Ads 360 URL template for the ad.

  • Custom parameters (optional): Defines parameters and values you can add to the ad's landing page URL or URL template. If custom parameters defined at a higher level use the same name as the ones you define here, the parameter values you define here override the values specified at the higher level.
As of January 31, 2017, Google Ads no longer supports creating new standard text ads. You can still target, pause and resume, and report on existing standard text ads, but any new ads you create are required to be expanded text ads.

Soon, you’ll no longer be able to create or edit expanded text ads in your Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Yahoo! Japan Ads campaigns. The engines will continue to serve expanded text ads, and you'll still see reports on their performance going forward.

We strongly encourage you to transition to responsive search ads in your campaigns and ad builder and inventory management templates.

Microsoft Advertising ad settings

Expanded text ad settings

Ad copy in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive.

  • Headline (required), Headline2 (required), and Headline3 (optional): Enter headlines for the ad.

    Character limit: 30 characters each

  • Description line 1 (required) and Description line 2 (optional): Enter more details about your product or service.

    Character limit: 90

  • Destination URL (required): Specifies a page on your site that describes the service or product in the ad. Microsoft Advertising calls this the final URL. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.

    Select a prefix (http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.

  • Path (field 1 and field 2) (optional): Enter a URL path to include in the ad's display URL. The path you enter here is combined with the domain name from the ad's destination URL.

    The fields give potential customers an idea of where they will end up on your site once they have clicked your ad. Your path text doesn’t have to match the exact text of your destination URL, but it should help the user understand what to expect from your landing page.

    For example, if:

    • Destination URL is https://example.com?pid=23455

    • Path 1 is hiking-boots

    • Path 2 is mens

    The display URL in your ad would be:
    example.com/hiking-boots/mens

    Character limit: 15 characters each.
    If you use dynamic text to generate text for this field, the dynamic text formula can be up to 50 characters long, but when Microsoft Advertising evaluates the formula, the output is required to be 15 characters or less.

  • URL Template: Specifies a Search Ads 360 URL template for the ad.

    Why create a template for an ad? If you're using a third-party tracking service that uses a redirect URL, engine accounts with shared templates require you to put the redirect URL in a URL template. All landing page URLs are required to refer to a page on the advertiser's site.

Microsoft Advertising deprecated creating and editing standard text ads on July 31, 2017. Learn more about the end of support for creating new standard text ads.

 

Yahoo! Japan ad settings

Expanded text ad settings

Ad copy in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive.

  • Headline and Headline2 (required): Enter headlines for the ad.

    Character limit: 30 alpha-numeric characters each, or 15 double-byte characters (such as Kana) each

  • Description line 1 (required): Enter more details about your product or service.

    Character limit: 80 alpha-numeric characters, or 40 double-byte characters (such as Kana)

  • Destination URL (required): Specifies a page on your site that describes the service or product in the ad. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.

    Select a prefix (http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.

  • Path (field 1 and field 2) (optional): Enter a URL path to include in the ad's display URL. The path you enter here is combined with the domain name from the ad's destination URL.

    The fields give potential customers an idea of where they will end up on your site once they have clicked your ad. Your path text doesn’t have to match the exact text of your destination URL, but it should help the user understand what to expect from your landing page.

    For example, if:

    • Destination URL is https://example.com?pid=23455

    • Path 1 is hiking-boots

    • Path 2 is mens

    The display URL in your ad would be:
    example.com/hiking-boots/mens

    Character limit: 15 alpha-numeric characters each

  • URL Template: Specifies a Search Ads 360 URL template for the ad.

    Why create a template for an ad? If you're using a third-party tracking service that uses a redirect URL, engine accounts with shared templates require you to put the redirect URL in a URL template. All landing page URLs are required to refer to a page on the advertiser's site.

Allowed characters

Yahoo! Japan restricts some characters from appearing in ads. For example,  you can't use these bracket symbols [ ].

Click here to download a Yahoo! guide that details the character restrictions in Yahoo! Japan ads. Learn more about ad editorial guidelines on the Yahoo! help.

As of March 22, 2017, Yahoo! Japan no longer supports creating new standard text ads. You can still target, pause and resume, and report on existing standard text ads, but any new ads you create are required to be expanded text ads.

Baidu ad settings

Ad settings

Each Baidu ad consists of a title, two lines of description, and display URLs for mobile and non-mobile devices. You'll also need to specify landing page URLs for mobile and non-mobile devices.

  • Ad title: The headline of the ad.
    Note that the ad copy in Search Ads 360 is case-sensitive.
    Character limit: 50

  • Ad description / Ad description line 1: A concise summary of the ad.
    Character limit: minimum 9, maximum 80

  • Ad description line 2: A detailed summary of the ad. Optional for Baidu.
    Character limit: minimum 9, maximum 80

  • Display URL: The URL that will appear in the ad when the ad displays on non-mobile devices.
    The value doesn't need to start with http://.
    Character limit: 36

  • Ad landing page URL: The landing page for the ad when the ad displays on non-mobile devices. While this is required for Baidu, Search Ads 360 only uses this landing page in the rare instance when there is no keyword landing page. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.
    Select the proper prefix (such as http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.

  • Mobile Display URL: The URL that will appear in the ad when the ad displays on mobile devices. This is an optional field. When Baidu serves the ad, it substitutes the mobile display URL defined for the keyword.
    The value doesn't need to start with http://.
    Character limit: 36

  • Mobile ad landing page URL: The landing page for the ad when the ad displays on mobile devices. This is an optional field. When Baidu serves the ad, it substitutes the mobile landing page URL defined for the keyword. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.
    If you do specify a URL for the ad, select the proper prefix (such as http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.

The URL domain that you specified when you registered for a Baidu account is the only domain that Baidu accepts for your ad and keyword landing pages. You can specify different subdomains. For example, if you registered example.com, your ads and keywords can specify example.com and m.example.com.

Maximum ads per ad group

Each Baidu ad group can contain up to 50 ads.

 

Yahoo! Gemini ad settings

Starting March 2022, Yahoo! Gemini engine accounts within Search Ads 360 will be migrated to engine track accounts. Learn more.
Standard text ad settings
  • Headline (Ad title): The headline of the ad.
    Character limit: 50
  • Description line 1 (Ad description): Enter a description of your product or service.
    Character limit: 150
  • Display URL: The URL that will appear on the ad.
    The value doesn't need to start with http://, but should start with
    Character limit: 35
  • Sponsored by (Company name): Enter the name of your business. The ad displays your business name as the sponsor of the ad.
    Character limit: 25
  • Image URL (optional)Specify the location of a square image (627 pixels by 627 pixels) that will display with your ad. For example, example.com/image.png. This size is recommended for mobile phones.
  • High quality image URL (optional):  Specify the location of a large rectangular image  (1200 pixels by 627 pixels) that will display with your ad. For example, example.com/highqualityimage.png. This size is recommended for desktops.
  • Destination URL: Search Ads 360 only uses this landing page in the rare instance when there is no keyword landing page. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.
    Select the proper prefix (such as http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.
    Character limit: 1024
Expanded text ad settings
  • Headline and Headline2 (required): Enter headlines for the ad.

    Character limit: 50 characters for Headline, and 30 characters for Headline2
    The second headline may be used when you ad appears in the Search or Search partners network. For the Native network, Gemini will continue displaying the first line of title.

  • Description line 1 (required): Enter more details about your product or service.

    Character limit: 150 characters

  • Display URL: The URL that appears in the ad.
    The value doesn't need to start with http://, but should start with
    Character limit: 35

    If you leave this field empty, Yahoo! Gemini will generate a display URL using the domain name from the ad's Destination URL.
  • Sponsored by (Company name): Enter the name of your business. The ad displays your business name as the sponsor of the ad.
    Character limit: 25
  • Image URL (optional)Specify the location of a square image (627 pixels by 627 pixels) that will display with your ad. For example, example.com/image.png. This size is recommended for mobile phones.
  • High quality image URL (optional):  Specify the location of a large rectangular image  (1200 pixels by 627 pixels) that will display with your ad. For example, example.com/highqualityimage.png. This size is recommended for desktops.
  • Destination URL: Search Ads 360 only uses this landing page in the rare instance when there is no keyword landing page. Learn more about URLs for text ads and keywords.
    Select the proper prefix (such as http:// or https://) and then enter the rest of the URL.
    Character limit: 102
You can create expanded text ads or standard text ads in a Yahoo! Gemini account. After Yahoo! Gemini deprecates standard text ads (date not announced), you'll only be able to create expanded text ads. Learn more about the end of support for creating new standard text ads.

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