A/B Test Setup Strategy Overview

Creative testing is broken into five steps: Identify test goals Identify test themes Define and build test structure Run test and measure results Iterate We'll talk about each step in more detail in the sections below. Read on to learn more. Identify Test Goals The test goals will have a significant impact on how each test will be structured. You ma...

Ad Scheduling (Day Parting)

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offer the ability to adjust keyword bids by day-of-week or time-of-day. These adjustments are entered as a percent of the keyword bid and are used to optimize for conversion rates that vary by time or day. This allows the advertiser to increase volume during periods of higher conversion rates and save cost during lower ...

App Extensions

App Extensions allow you to directly promote downloads of your apps on both Google and Microsoft. When this type of extension is served, each one is optimized depending on the operating system and device being used to view it. How To  Log into Marin.  In the Navigation Bar, click Accounts > Ads. Click the down arrow icon just to the right of Ads ...

Creating, Editing, & Deleting Objects Via Single & Multi-Edit

Using Marin's editing functionality, you can now edit objects at all levels of the account hierarchy, without ever leaving the tab in which you're currently working. Both editing and deleting can be done in single edit mode (one object at a time) or in multi-edit mode (multiple objects at once).  In this article, we'll walk you through the editing f...

Creative Testing [Marin Search]

The Creative A/B testing tool automatically analyzes performance to identify any creatives over/under performing relative to the ad group average, based on user settings. The success criteria and settings for creative AB tests (testing the performance of different ad copies) and landing page AB tests are determined at the level of the Marin account....

Geo Targeting

Geo targeting (sometimes known as location targeting) is a way to target your ads to appear in certain locations or, conversely, exclude your ads from appearing in certain locations. In this article, we'll walk you through how to use geo targeting in Marin.  Overview  Marin offers access to search engine geo-targeting capabilities provided by each p...

Getting Ready for Black Friday: Campaign Best Practices

In preparation for one of the busiest times of the year, we have compiled some additional campaign best practices to help with your digital strategy during the holiday season. Landing page changes  It is recommended that you not make major changes to your website right before Black Friday. The week leading up to Black Friday should be spent performi...

Getting Ready for Black Friday: Marin Best Practices

To make the most of your Black Friday sales, here are some tactical best practices to make sure that your campaigns are running smoothly during Black Friday week. Ad and keyword creations Bulk uploading holiday ads and keywords in paused status at least a week before Black Friday will allow enough time for publisher editorial review. On average, obj...

Keyword Expansion

Marin's Keyword Expansion tool identifies new keywords and negatives based on your existing set of keywords for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft publisher accounts.  In this article, we'll walk you through how to use keyword expansion in Marin and where to find your keyword expansion settings.  How To  Log into Marin. Navigate to the Accounts module in...

Modifying Deleted Objects

When attempting to modify or re-activate certain objects within Marin, you may encounter the following error (or some variation thereof): Keyword/Creative/Group/Campaign has been deleted and can not be modified. This error occurs when trying to edit or create objects that have been deleted in the past either in Marin or the publisher. Objects That C...

Negative Keywords

As you may know, negative keywords are a way to refine your targeting strategy by excluding specific keywords that do not work well to drive conversions or revenue for your business. Negative keywords are an important part of any keyword targeting strategy and can help you improve performance and refine your targeting.  Want to learn more about mana...

Pausing, Resuming or Deleting Objects

You can pause, resume, and delete various objects in Marin, including campaigns, groups, keywords, creatives, and more. How To Pause, Resume, Or Delete A Campaign To pause a single object or multiple objects: select the check-boxes next to the objects and select the Pause button above the grid.   To resume a single object or multiple objects: select...

Setting Up Landing Page Tests Using Dimensions

This article explains the methodology behind testing landing pages and outlines a few different ways to approach your tests. These instructions are independent from Marin's built-in Landing Page Testing tool, as some Marin users prefer to set up their own test that does not rely on Marin's methodology for determining test winners and losers. If you ...

Setting Up Network and Distribution Targeting

Google campaigns, Yahoo! campaigns, and Microsoft groups have a Network setting that determines where creatives will be displayed. The three options are: Search: The search engine results page. Search Partners: The search engine results page of other publishers such as AOL and Ask. Display or Content: The syndicated group of contextual publisher web...

Sizmek Campaign Management Workflow Visualization

The workflow image below lays out the specific campaign management workflow that occurs between our platform and Sizmek. The visualization details the workflow from campaign creation all the way to the campaigns going live, for publishers like Google and Microsoft. Workflow Visualization Click the image below to see a full-resolution version of the ...

Targeting Mobile Apps Only (AdMob Network)

There may be occasions when you want your campaigns to target only mobile apps. Google’s AdMob network forms part of the Display Network and is comprised solely of mobile applications that allow ads to be run within them. You can choose to target only the AdMob network by following the steps outlined below. How To Target Mobile Apps To specifically ...

The Copy Tool

The Copy Tool gives you the ability to easily copy objects, including campaigns, groups, keywords, creatives, and placements. We'll explain exactly how to use the Copy Tool below.  Please note: The Copy Tool can only be used to copy and create objects within one Marin client account. You cannot use the Copy Tool to copy and create objects across dif...

"Account is Using Redirects, Upload using Click-Through URL"

When bulk uploading keywords/creatives, you may encounter an error message such as this: Account is Using Redirects, Upload using Click-Through URL You can find the message under the Result column header in the error file in the Activity Log. What Causes The Issue? If the URL Builder is configured to Build redirect URLs, this problem is caused by us...

"An Input Error Whose Real Reason was Not Properly Mapped" (Google Error)

You may encounter a failed creative upload failed with the following error message: An Input Error Whose Real Reason was Not Properly Mapped What Causes The Issue This problem occurs when there is a space in the URL of the creative(s) being uploaded. How To Fix The Issue Navigate to the job ID that has the error. Open the Error file and filter the r...

"Could Not Find Active Group with Name" or "Could not find active Campaign with name" Error Message

This problem can affect any active group or campaign. When attempting to upload changes via bulk sheet, the operation will fail and you will be presented with either of the following error messages: For groups: Could not find active Group with name: GROUPNAMEHERE. For campaigns: Could not find active Campaign with name: CAMPAIGNNAMEHERE. What Causes...

"Item has a pending change that is being posted or is in Held status. Please post or cancel held changes before making further edits."

When uploading creatives in the platform, you may sometimes encounter this error message: Error: Item has a pending change that is being posted or is in Held status. Please post or cancel held changes before making further edits. What Causes The Issue? This error is a result of an edit trying to be made to an object that is already in Held or To be ...

"Keyword has been Deleted and Can Not be Modified"

When editing keywords via bulk upload, you may encounter the following error message: Keyword has been deleted and can not be modified What Causes The Issue? This issue is most commonly caused by at least one of the keywords in the bulk sheet having a status of  Deleted . Any keyword that has been deleted from the platform cannot be edited, so the p...

"No Target Currency Specified for Currency Conversion"

When attempting to create campaigns within publisher accounts, you may encounter the following error message in the Activity Log after receiving a Failed status message: No target currency specified for currency conversion What Causes The Issue? The most likely explanation for the occurrence of this error message is that the currency account setting...

"The Status Could Not be Updated for XX Creatives"

When attempting to pause creatives within the grid, you may be presented with the following error message: The status could not be updated for XX creatives due to bid and/or status issues. Please edit the creatives individually. The 'XX' represents the number of affected creatives. You may also notice that the affected creatives have a status of Pau...

Application is Slow to Upload Creatives

When bulk uploading creatives, you may notice that the process is taking longer than expected – or that the operation simply won't complete at all. What Causes The Issue? This problem is most commonly caused by having an invalid character such as � in the headline and/or the description line in your bulk sheet. You can check if that's the case by op...

Canceling Deletion of a Campaign

You may accidentally delete some campaigns in the platform that you don't want deleted in the publisher. When trying to stop the operation, the campaigns get stuck in Sync Error with an error message such as this: Trying to edit a campaign with the same name Below you'll see how you can cancel the deletion process for campaigns which you don't want ...

Copying Campaigns Fails

When copying campaigns from a publisher to Microsoft, for example: copying Google campaigns to Microsoft, the copy fails. What Causes The Issue? If you're experiencing this issue, it may be because you have mixed set of Destination URLs or Creative Level Tracking. Microsoft is not currently able to manage a mixed set of URL data. How To Fix The Issu...

Creating and Editing Creatives Frequently Asked Questions

You will find some of the most commonly asked questions below regarding management of your creatives – both within the platform and the publisher interfaces. Frequently Asked Questions  If I Make Changes To A Creative In The Publisher Interface Then Sync Back To The platform, Will Tracking Be Affected?  There may be times that you want to make chang...

Editing Keywords Results in Creation of New Keywords

When attempting to make changes to existing keywords within the platform, you may find that new keywords are created rather than edits being made as expected. This issue is most commonly seen during bulk uploads of keywords. What Causes The Issue? Here are some of the most common reasons: Keywords have been created within the platform but not on the...

Invalid Characters or Punctuation in Keyword, Creative, or URL

Sometimes you may experience errors when trying to push new objects to the publisher, that suggests that there is an invalid character or punctuation within the keyword text, creative, or URL. Please search for this exact error within our Help section first to see if a more detailed article is available that explains the issue and how to correct it....

Keyword Expansion Frequently Asked Questions

Below you'll find some of the most common questions we receive regarding Keyword Expansion and their answers. Frequently Asked Questions From What Date Range Is The Data Being Displayed? For keyword suggestions from the Search Query Report, the system pulls the 30-day search query report from publishers every three days. And then we do aggregation, ...

Keywords Upload with Errors in the Activity Log

When uploading keywords, the upload looks successful but you may encounter the following error message: Operation needs to be re-sent to publisher because of the following processing errors: [A concurrency problem occurred as two users were attempting to modify same object. Please re-try your action.] What Causes The Issue? This problem is most comm...

Landing Page Does Not Match Destination URL

When clicking on a Destination URL within the grid, the landing page you are directed to is different from the URL in the Click Through URL column. This issue can occur within grids containing keywords, creatives or placements. What Causes The Issue? The most likely cause of this problem is that there is some form of redirect happening when the user...

Missing Object Troubleshooting

Here is a check-list that you can use to help locate missing objects in your account. Each section outlines the most common explanations for missing objects. You can also read why new objects do not appear in the platform in this Help article.  Missing Keywords In The Keywords Tab Check the filters on the left side of the grid . Are you looking at a...

Renaming a Campaign to one already assigned

Trying to modify the name of a campaign to one that is already assigned to another campaign you may encounter the following error messages: Google Google Error: Error: GOOGLE, DUPLICATE_NAME, operations[0].operand.name,, it_IT Microsoft Error: An attempt was made to create a duplicate of a campaign that already exists. What Causes The Issue? There a...

Unintended Keywords are Edited When Filtering with Multiple Browser Tabs

If you have multiple tabs open when filtering and making edits within the platform, you may discover that making edits to filtered objects also makes the changes to other objects in a different tab. What Causes The Issue? Making edits on filtered keywords in multiple tabs will often cause the platform to not retain the filters, and therefore will re...

Ad Find & Replace

In Marin, the find and replace functionality allows you to quickly make changes to your ads without having to edit each one individually – or even in bulk. Simply input the text you'd like to find and the text you'd like to replace it with, then Marin will handle the rest. This can save a lot of time and effort when managing large campaigns with man...