Adpulse Close Variant Checker – Spreadsheet Instructions

Welcome! We wanted to jot down some instructions to help you make the most of the free spreadsheet we provided the industry to support agencies and advertisers looking to understand how close variants are impacting their accounts (the good and the bad!)

In case you need to refer back to the link to the spreadsheet, you can find it here:
Click Here To Access Spreadsheet. It’ll immediately prompt you to create your own copy.

Reasons to use this sheet: 

• Close variant search terms generally see much poorer performance than true matched search terms, but they also uncover opportunities to expand your keyword list in a logical, impactful way. 
• This sheet will instantly give you that high-level understanding of close variant performance (good or bad).
• Understand exactly which ad groups need your attention and take action (in the Google or Microsoft Ads platforms) quickly.
• It’s completely free.

Additional close variant stuff you get inside Adpulse

• No manual data uploads
• Multiple accounts in one view
• Automation
• In-app bulk actions (adding keywords, adding negatives)
• An ‘allowed list’ for words and phrases that expand what is considered as true match
• All the other non-close variant goodies like budget pacing, safety alerts etc.

Definitions:

“True Match” = search terms that properly match your keywords (exact match = exact match, phrase match contains your keyword in the correct word order, and broad match searches contains all words in your keyword regardless of word order)

“Close Variants” = the search terms that are left over – these are the search terms that have been matched by Google or Microsoft on your behalf (misspellings, plurals, matched by similar intent etc)

How often should you run this?

For most accounts, running this analysis monthly should be sufficient.  If you have larger volume campaigns, it may be more appropriate to run it weekly or fortnightly instead.  

The return on your time is high since it only takes a few minutes to give the sheet the data it needs, and the performance outcomes of trimming wasted spend or expanding new keywords is potentially significant.  

Steps to populate data into the Keywords and Search Terms tabs:

The below steps you through what to do on each tab of the sheet:

Keywords Tab

1. Log into Google Ads
2. Navigate to Keywords list
3. Apply these filters, and remove any others so these are the only active filters remaining:
   1. Campaign type = Search
   2. Campaign = Enabled
   3. Ad Group status = Enabled
   4. Keyword Status = Enabled
4. Choose a date range (we suggest the Last 30 Days)
5. Download the keyword list as a CSV 
6. Open the download, then copy the Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword information into the Google Sheet, replacing the dummy data. No need to include the column headers, and don’t copy any metric data – just the list of Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Keywords.  The information required is for the green columns.

Search Terms Tab

1. Navigate to Search Terms in Google Ads
2. Remove any additional search term filters you may have previously added – the ones you applied when getting your keywords should still be active.
3. Make sure you have the following columns enabled in your view:
   1. Cost
   2. Clicks
   3. Conversions
   4. Conversion Value
4. Download search term list as a CSV
5. Open the download, then copy the information from your spreadsheet into the Google Sheet. The information required is for the green columns.
   1. Tip:  If you reorder the columns in your download to mimic the column order in the Google Sheet, you can then copy/paste those seven columns straight into your Google Sheet

Steps to run the script on the Results tab:

Results Tab

1. Go to Extensions > Macros and click “Adpulse_Close_Variant_Checker”.
   1. You will need to authorize the script to run:

2. If you see a scary-looking “Google hasn’t verified this app” message – you will need to click the link at the bottom of that message (it says something like “Go to Adpulse Close Variant Checker”) to push through the warning, otherwise, the script will not run.

3. Once you are through the warning, you might need to go back to Extensions > Macros and click the “Adpulse_Close_Variant_Checker” again

2. This will run the close variant macro and should populate two tables:
   1. The top table should show a summary of how much you are spending and what their performance is for variants vs true match search terms across your selected search campaigns 
   2. The second table should give you an ad group by ad group breakdown of the same metrics

How to use this information

Use the top summary table to identify if your close variants are performing well (or not):

Cost:

If your close variant cost is higher than your true match cost, it means that your keyword set could probably be expanded to cover any good-quality close variants. If it’s lower, it means that your keyword set is doing a good job at covering potential searches, meaning no (or limited) keyword expansion opportunities.  It’s still worth quality-checking the searches, however, just to make sure that you’re adding negative keywords to block low-quality traffic.

CPC:

Ideally, you want to see the CPC being reasonably similar between close variants and true matches.  If the CPC for close variants is lower than it is for true matches, then the platform (Google or Microsoft) is doing a great job at finding similarly priced traffic for you. If it’s substantially higher, then the platforms are chasing traffic that might be undesirable, so you may want to look for high CPC search terms in your list and critically consider if you really need to chase those searches.

#Conv:

If you have conversions in your close variants, you may want to consider adding those search terms as keywords.  

Cost/Conv (CPA):

Similarly to CPC, you’re looking for Cost/Conv numbers that are similar between your close variants and true matches.  If your close variant Cost/Conv is substantially higher than it is for true matches, it means that the platform is not doing a great job at finding searches that will convert for you at a reasonable cost, meaning an opportunity to weed out any searches that are low quality or expensive. A Cost/Conv in close variants that is cheaper than it is for true matches means some great opportunities to add those searches as new keywords.

Conv Value/Cost (ROAS):

If you are looking at ROAS as your primary performance metric, you’re looking for Conv Value/Cost numbers that are similar between your close variants and true matches.  If your close variant Conv Value/Cost is substantially lower than it is for true matches, it means that the platform is not doing a great job at finding searches that will convert for you at a reasonable cost, meaning an opportunity to weed out any searches that are low quality or expensive. A Conv Value/Cost in close variants that is higher than it is for true matches means some great opportunities to add those searches as new keywords.

The second table shows a detailed campaign + ad group breakdown of performance, so you can easily see which ad groups are wasting money or have new keyword opportunities in them.

Once you know which ad groups need your attention, you can use the filters in the Search Terms tab to zoom in on the search terms that are classified as Close Variants for that ad group.  In the platform interfaces, you can paste a bulk load of keywords or negatives once you’ve navigated to the ad group in question.

Understanding at a high level if you have an account expansion opportunity, or a poor traffic quality problem, then having the ability to drill down to the exact ad group to check the close variants is the key to more efficient account expansion or protecting against unwanted traffic.