How can I use Dimensions to improve my paid search management?

Dimensions opens up an unlimited number of custom reporting opportunities for your paid search accounts. There are probably reports that you are creating today that can be streamlined by creating a new Dimension. Here are some other ideas for getting the most out of Dimensions.
 

• Brand vs Generic: Create a "Brand Dimension" to help understand the performance of branded keywords compared with generic keywords.
   
• Cross Geography Reporting: Using geo-targeting may require you to have multiple versions of the same campaign targeted at different geographies. Create a “Parent Campaign” dimension to roll up all geographies into a single version of each campaign.
   
• Product Category or Brand: Create a "Product Category" or "Brand" dimension to roll up performance by brand or product category.
   
• Watch List: Create a “Watch List” dimension for your most important keywords. Create a saved view on the keywords page that filters to just the keywords on your watch list.
   
• Creative Text: Analyze performance of creatives based on the text contained in the headline. Create a “Headline Text” dimension, then use the text filter to find creatives that contain key text phrases, for example “Buy”, “Free Shipping”, “Low Prices” and tag creatives in this dimensions with these values.
   
• Creative Testing: Launch multiple variations of creatives in several test ad groups. Tag these creatives in a “Creative Variation” dimension and view performance of the creatives across ad groups.
   
• Tasks: Create a “Tasks” dimension and tag campaigns or ad groups than you plan to work on, for example, expanding keywords or reworking creatives. Filter on the "Tasks" dimension to work through the list.
   
• New Keywords: Track the date added and/or source of new keywords added to your account to see how they have been performing as a group.
   
• Pause Reason: Create a “Pause Reason” dimension that lets you track why you paused certain keywords, whether it was “Seasonal”, “Poor Performance” or “Out of Stock”.

Is there a limit to the number of Dimensions I can create?

There are no limits to the number of Dimensions that can be created, however creating too many Dimensions may reduce usability. Most clients will have between 1-5 dimensions.

Is there a limit to the number of Tags for a Dimension?

No, each keyword can have its own tag. For example, it would be possible to create a SKU dimension where each keyword can be tagged with its own SKU.

Can a keyword be tagged more than once in a single Dimension?

No, each keyword can only have single value in each Dimension. For example, if you were to Tag a keyword “Running, Walking” it would not be rolled up with the other “Running” keywords, nor the “Walking” keywords. It would have its own row “Running, Walking”.

What is the difference between Dimensions and Strategies? Which one should I use?

Strategies remain focused on grouping keyword together for bidding. Dimensions should be used for all other reporting needs. Prior to Dimensions, clients may have used more Strategies than were required to facilitate reporting requirements. By creating new Dimensions it will be possible to consolidate Strategies while maintaining the precise reporting needs.

If I change the keyword tagging for a keyword/group/campaign, will the historical stats be associated to the old value or will they move to the new value?

When viewing a Dimension grid, the data will be entirely based on the current tag values. There is no record of a keyword’s tag over time.

Why does the Dimensions tab not reflect recent changes?

The system will re-calculate dimensions once a day when cost and revenue finish loading. Please wait at least twenty-four hours, then check the Dimensions tab again. If the data has still not populated correctly, please contact Support Services.

My destination URLs are not being updated with my dimensions. What is wrong?

One possible reason why dimensions are not updating is that the dimensions might be assigned at a lower level, such as at the keyword level. When the application is building URLs with dimensions via URL Builder, it will look at the lowest level. For example, if a dimension is assigned at the group level and at the keyword level, the keyword will take on the keyword-level dimension.

If you click into a keyword within the main Keyword tab and navigating to the section named Dimensions, you'll be able to see chart of dimensions set at the Account, Campaign, Group, and Keyword level.

To use a dimension in a URL at a higher level, you can either:

1. Clear out the dimension at the group and keyword level and then upload your Click Through URLs again.

or

2. Upload a new dimension at the keyword URL level with the Click Through URL column.

If this does not help please get in touch with our Support team via the Resolution Center.

There is a discrepancy between the Campaigns tab and the Dimensions tab. Why?

The data you see in the Dimensions tab is based on the data of your keywords or creatives, not your campaigns, groups or channels data. This means that if you tag a campaign with dimension A, but one of its child keywords has a dimension value of B, you would see data for value B in the Dimensions tab.

There is a discrepancy between the Keywords tab and the Dimensions tab. Why?

If you have content data and/or Product Groups data, and roll up your dimensions by keyword, your content data and/or Product Groups data will be included in the Keywords tab. However, this data will be excluded from the Dimensions tab if you filter for the dimension name (e.g. dimension contains/equals ABC). To workaround this issue, and to make the two tabs match each other, you need to filter for Keyword Match Type = Search using the options left of the main grid.

Why would dimension or total data be missing for yesterday?

This is usually because some of the Publisher Client Account (e.g. Google or Microsoft) campaigns are in a different timezone than the platform account. For example, PST. This will cause a delay for the PST campaign/account.

Data for the Keywords tab is different than the Dimensions or Groups tab when I filter by the same dimension value. Why?

Dimensions may be tagged at the group or campaign level and some of the groups may contain non-keyword objects such as PLAs (Product Listing Ads).

Why is my dimension upload not tagging objects in the platform?

Please ensure that you do not use a dimension name that's already a platform column header (such as Creative Type, Ad Type, or Bid Override). If you happen to create a dimension name that is already a platform column header, you will run into errors when trying to bulk tag your objects with that dimension name or the system may state that the dimension load 'succeeded', however the objects are still not tagged. This is because the system will think you are loading this value to the platform column header, rather than the dimension.

To fix this, please create a new dimension that is not already a platform column header. The re-tagging operation for the new dimension values should now process successfully.