How to Link Your Google Optimize with AdWords

Good news everyone! Another super feature from Google will allow you to enable the native integration of Google Optimize with AdWords. This is giving you a whole lot of new opportunities:

• Let your users see personalized content according to certain AdWords campaigns and keywords. Say, you’ve got multiple keywords leading to the same landing page. The integration will allow you to customize the page according to each specific keyword with its tail. This is exactly what we’ve done here, at OWOX BI, when creating a dynamic web page.
• Run a single Optimize experiment for multiple keywords from different ad campaigns. We’re already enjoying this, as we used to specify UTM parameters in Optimize that would trigger the experiment. But now we simply use the new Optimize feature to add the keywords we need, and the data automatically becomes available within the experiment.
• Test dialects and local slang, using Optimize geotargeting. For example, you can create a campaign with local memes or trends that can’t be found in the other parts of a target country.

For now, the integration only works for search and shopping ads, and for “Search Network with Display Select.” Though you’ll get data only on the search traffic for this campaign type. No worries, Google will add the support for display traffic along with other campaign types in the future. However, the already existing integration settings have done a lot of good for Spotify, providing the company with a 24% increase of premium subscriptions. Isn’t that a good reason to enable the integration for your business too? Here’s a simple manual on how to do that, enjoy!

To begin with

First, you need an existing Optimize or Optimize 360 account with its code already added to the HTML of the page you need. You can check out how to do that at one of our webinars, in case you missed it.

Next, link your AdWords and Analytics accounts, if not linked yet.

Finally, start setting up the integration of Optimize and AdWords. The coolest part is that you only need an AdWords account with admin rights for the linking process.

Enabling the integration

There are two possible ways of how to link Optimize with AdWords: enabling the integration for a single account, and for multiple accounts at once, using My Client Center. The steps for setting up the integration are the same for both options, though there’s a small difference in the MCC interface that we’ll show below. Let’s proceed to linking the accounts:

1. In your AdWords or MCC account navigate to “Setup” and choose “Linked accounts.”

   

2. Next, click on “Details” in the Google Analytics tile.

   

3. Finally, turn on Google Optimize sharing.

   

Here’s the only small difference in the MCC account that we’ve told about before:

Please be advised that turning on the Google Optimize sharing in MCC enables it for all of the accounts managed. However, if you add another AdWords account to your MCC, you’ll have to enable the Optimize sharing for the new account manually.

What’s next

1. To make sure the integration is on, open your Optimize account and create an experiment.

   

2. Scroll down until you see “Configuration”. Here you need to choose “Targeting”, then “Create rule.”

   

3. Click on “Google AdWords” in the side menu. These are the engaged integration settings we were looking for!

   

4. Choose the account, campaign, ad group or keyword you need, then save the experiment. You’ll be able to get back to setting up the experiment at any time later with the AdWords data already engaged. If you see the following picture, your integration is working fine.

   

   Though, you may see something else:

   

   No need to worry, you’ve probably chosen the wrong Optimize account. Simply get back to the Optimize “Accounts” page and select the one you’ve linked. Then you can proceed to creating an experiment and setting up targeting.

Yay! You’re all set and ready for new achievements! In case you’ve got questions, you know what to do. Simply leave a comment, and we’ll be happy to answer you ;) Oh, and another one, we’d be happy if you share your experience of using this integration. The best stories will get posted in our blog!