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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.

Target devices in Google Ads campaigns and ad groups

Use a bulksheet to set device targets in multiple campaigns and ad groups

Set device bid adjustments in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising

Campaigns and ad groups target all device types. The default bid you enter applies to desktop computers, mobile, and tablet devices unless you enter bid adjustments for the devices. The bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease every bid in your campaign or ad group to bid more or less competitively for searches occurring on the devices.

You can use a bulksheet to set and edit the device bid adjustments (also referred to as bid modifiers) for mobile, tablet, and desktop in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising campaigns and ad groups.

In Google Ads, you can also:

Ad groups inherit the campaign's device targets unless you specify device targets for the ad group.

Specify mobile, tablet, and desktop targets in a bulksheet

To target devices, you can set a bid adjustment for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops at the campaign and ad group level.

By default, ad groups inherit campaign device bid modifiers. You can override campaign bid modifiers by specifying ad-group level device bid modifiers.

Account type Device bid adjustment ranges
Google Ads

-90% to 900%  (- 91% to -99% are excluded)

Specify -100% to disable bids on the device.

Microsoft Advertising

-100 % to 900%. 

Specify -100% to disable bids on the device.

Specify 0% to use the default bid.

 

Overview of steps to use a bulksheet to set device bid adjustments

  1. Download an editable report of selected campaigns or ad groups.
  2. Specify, edit, or remove device bid adjustments in the bulksheet/report.

 

Download a bulksheet to set device bid adjustments 

  1. Navigate to a Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising account or campaign that contains the items that you want to edit.
  2. Click the Campaigns or Ad groups tab.
  3. Do either of the following to select the items that you want to update:
    • Select the check boxes of the campaigns or ad groups.
    • Filter the reporting table to include only the campaigns or ad groups that you want.
  4. Download an editable report.
    1. Click the download icon Download icon, which appears above the reporting table.
    2. On the Download report tab, do the following:
      • Report name. Enter a report name or use the default name.
      • Scope. Use the default selection which is either Current selection in table or Current scope.
      • Format. Click the arrow and select a file format. Excel 2007 (.xlsx) is selected by default. 
      • Columns. Don't change the default option which is Editable columns (for re-upload).
      •  Include types:
        •  Select the Campaigns or Ad groups check box. 
    3. Optional. Select other options.
    4. Click Download.

Specify the device bid modifiers and upload the bulksheet

  1. In the downloaded report, in a campaign or ad group row, specify a bid adjustment in any of the following device columns:

    • Mobile bid adjustment %
    • Tablet bid adjustment %
    • Desktop bid adjustment %
    • To remove a bid adjustment, enter remove_content in each device bid adjustment % column. You can only remove all of the device bid adjustments or specify all of the device bid adjustments. You can't remove only one of the device bid adjustments.
    • If you want the ad group to inherit the campaign's bid adjustments, enter (inherited) in each of the device bid adjustment columns.
  2. Save the changes.
  3. Upload the bulksheet.

Example

Row Type Action Campaign Ad group Mobile bid adjustment % Desktop bid adjustment % Tablet bid adjustment %
campaign edit Camp1   20% 0% 0%
ad group edit Camp2 AG2 0% 0% -30%
ad group edit Camp1 AG1 (inherited) (inherited) (inherited)

 

 

Effective device target columns in bulksheets

Each targeting column in a bulksheet is accompanied by a read-only effective column. These columns display the targeting that is currently in effect for each campaign and ad group.

Because ad groups can inherit the device targeting setting from the campaign or from a Search Ads 360 bid strategy that is applied to a keyword, an ad group’s effective columns display the value that’s being inherited or the value that is set for the ad group.

Account type Device-targeting columns (read-only)
Google Ads
  • Effective device
    Effective device columns contain Mobile | Pc | Tablet, when the campaign was synced from Google Ads, including ad groups that inherit the setting from a campaign.  
    This column is included in Google Ads campaign and ad group bulksheets.
  • Effective suggested mobile bid adjustment % 
    Effective suggested tablet bid adjustment % 
    Effective suggested desktop bid adjustment % 

    These columns are available in ad group bulksheets and contain the effective recommended bid adjustment if a conversion goal is applied to a campaign or if a Search Ads 360 bid strategy is applied to the campaign, ad group, or keyword.
Microsoft Advertising
  • Effective mobile bid adjustment %
  • Effective tablet bid adjustment %
  • Effective desktop bid adjustment %

These columns are included in Microsoft Advertising ad group bulksheets.

Additional Google Ads device target columns in bulksheets

The following read-only device-targeting columns are included in Google Ads campaign and ad group bulksheets:

  • Device
    The Device column contains Mobile | Pc | Tablet when the campaign was synced from Google Ads. At the ad group level, the Device column displays (inherited). The column is always empty for campaigns that you created in Search Ads 360.
  • Suggested device type bid adjustment %

    The following columns contain a recommended bid adjustment if a conversion goal is applied to the campaign or if Search Ads 360 bid strategy is applied to the campaign, ad group, or keyword.

    If a bid strategy that is applied to a keyword is configured to set device bid adjustments, the keyword's bid strategy sets the ad group's device bid adjustments and recommends the campaign's device bid adjustments. Learn more about adjusting adjusting device bids with a Search Ads 360 bid strategy.
    • Suggested mobile bid adjustment %
    • Suggested tablet bid adjustment %
    • Suggested desktop bid adjustment %

 

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