When you set up filters or automated rules, you use pattern matching to specify just the campaigns, ad groups, ads, or biddable items that you care about. If your patterns are relatively straightforward, such as "Show campaigns that contain ' - GB Google Ads' in their names, you can use the basic pattern matching that Search Ads 360 provides. If your patterns are more complex, such as "Show campaigns with names that start with 'Google Ads' and end with 'GB' or "US'", you can use regular expressions.
Regular expressions is a powerful language for matching patterns of partial words, whole words, or even multiple words. While basic regular expressions are straightforward to use, you can create complex expressions that are powerful but may be difficult to predict and debug --- and may be difficult for other people in your organization to understand.
So the best practice is: start with the basics, and add complexity only if you have no other choice.
Set up a regular expression filter or rule
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Start creating a filter or automated rule.
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Select a setting or metric from the + Attribute or metric list.
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Select the Matches regular expression comparator and enter a regular expression.
See syntax and examples below. -
Select any additional criteria from the next + Attribute or metric list. The filter or rule will match only the items that match all criteria.
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Finish creating the filter or rule.
Start with filters, and build interactively. If you're planning on using a regular expression in a rule, start with filtering a report using the most basic expression and see what matches. Then add wildcards, anchors, or other parts of an expression and test each step of the way. Once you're happy with the filter, you can use the same regular expression in automatic rules.
For example, on the Campaigns tab, start with
^Google Ads\b
and confirm that you see only campaigns with names that start with "Google Ads".
Then change the filter to:
(^Google Ads\b).+(GB\b$)
and confirm that you see only campaigns with names that start with "Google Ads" and end with " GB".
Finally, change the filter to:
(^Google Ads\b).+(GB\b$ | US\b$)
and confirm that you see only campaigns with names that start with "Google Ads" and end with " GB" or "US".
Regular expression syntax
Here's a list of the operators and syntax you may find useful when using regular expressions in Search Ads 360:
Wildcards
. Matches any single character (letter, number or symbol) goo.gle matches gooogle, goodgle, goo8gle * Matches zero or more of the previous item The default previous item is the previous character. goo*gle matches gooogle, goooogle + Matches one or more of previous item gooo+gle matches goooogle, but not google. ? Matches zero or one of the previous item labou?r matches both labor and labour | Inclusive "or" a|b matches a or b, or both a and b
Anchors
^ Line starts with ^site matches site but not mysite $ Line ends with site$ matches site but not sitescan
Grouping
() Capturing group Thank(s|you) matches both Thanks and Thankyou [] Set or range of characters in any order [ogl]+ matches google, goooogle, or logic - Expresses a range of characters [A-Z] creates a list for the uppercase English alphabet
Other
\ Escape special characters mysite\.com keeps the dot from being a wildcard \s Space character \s+.* matches one or more whitespace followed by zero or more characters \d Digit \d65\d matches "265" not "256" \w Word character (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _) $\w matches any string starting with a word character, such as "Campaign" but not "@Campaign" \b Word boundary \bcity\b matches " city " not "scarcity"
Examples
| Expression | Description |
|---|---|
| (^Google Ads\b).+(GB\b$ | US\b$) |
Starts with "Google Ads" and ends with "GB" or "US"
Does not match:
|