Google Ads Editor – basics and useful tips

How many times have you encountered a situation where you needed to quickly create a dozen campaigns within one account? Or you wanted to work and make changes to your campaigns, and as luck would have it, the Internet wasn’t working and you didn’t have access to wifi?

If such experiences are still ahead of you, get out in front of them and get acquainted with a free tool from Google – Google Ads Editor as soon as possible. This is an application to manage changes to your Google Ads account in an efficient and fast way. The ability to make changes collectively will save you a lot of time during your daily work, and best of all – a big advantage of this tool is that you can use it offline.

What is the Google Ads editor used for?

You don’t need special permissions or an appropriately sized Google Ads account to use the Editor. It is available for free to anyone, and the easiest way to download it is from the official site You will find it most useful for:

• the need to make many changes quickly
• export and import files from accounts to share the changes made or their proposals
• view statistics of all or part of your campaigns
• manage and edit multiple accounts at once
• search and replace text in ad groups or ads
• when you need to copy or move items between campaigns or ad groups
• make changes to the draft version even before uploading to the account

Google Ads editor interface

The main editor panel is divided into several main sections. These are:

1. Application menu: located at the top of the interface – you will find there such options as: account, edit, tools, data and help
2. Toolbar: just below the Application Menu. Here you have the ability to download the selected Google Ads account, check the latest changes, publish previously made changes to your account, and check statistics.
3. Tree view: at the top left, you can select which campaign or ad group/resource group you want to view or edit.
4. Type list: is located below the tree view. There you will find all the elements in your selected campaign (ad groups, ads, keywords, ad targeting, extensions, and recommendations).
5. Data view: constitutes the main, central part of the interface. This is where all the elements that have been selected from the “list of types” are located.
6. Editing panel: this is the next (and also the last) large block in the Google Ads Editor. Here you have the ability to edit previously selected items from “data view”.

Working with Google Ads Editor – how to get started?

To start any activity in the Editor application, you need to download an account where you will make changes. To do this, click on “Accounts” in the toolbar, then click on the “Add“ option. Now log into the Google Ads panel using one of two options: through the browser or through the app.

After logging in, you will have a list of accounts to choose from connected to the email address with which you logged in. Once you have selected the appropriate account to import, the option to select a campaign will appear: “all campaigns“, “campaigns downloaded” and “selected campaigns“.

What is the difference and which option to choose? “All campaigns” you download if you want to have an overview of your entire Google Ads account. “Downloaded campaigns” you use when you have already downloaded some data and at the same time no new campaigns were added in the online panel. While the last option you can choose when you operate a very large account and have many campaigns on it, and you want to work on only a few without slowing down the work of Google Ads Editor with all the rest.

Remember that you can safely work offline on the downloaded accounts, but if any changes have been made to the Google Ads panel in your browser since you downloaded the account (or selected campaigns from the account), you will again need to import the data by clicking in the toolbar on the option “Download latest changes“.

Create your first campaign!

You already know the basics, now it’s time to practice – create your first campaign in the Editor.

To do this, select “Campaigns” from the list of types, and in the data view click on “+ Add new campaign“. You can choose the type right away – if you do not, a search network campaign will be created by default. Now complete all the necessary settings for your campaign.

Add ad group – from the list of types select “Ad Groups” and click “+ Add Ad Group“. As with the campaign – here too, in the panel on the right you need to configure the settings of the ad group: rates, ad schedule, etc. You do exactly the same thing when you want to create ads in your campaign. In the list of types, click “Adverts“, select which type of ad you want to create and click “Add“. Then in the editing panel you can complete each element of the ad.

Next, you similarly specify the targeting methods. From the list of types you can choose: keywords, audiences, locations and destinations. Next, in the data view, find the icon with a plus and the name of the item and click to add it. Then go to the edit panel to edit that element (do the same for ad groups and campaigns).

Now all you have left to do is to add ad extensions to your campaign. Again, return the cursor to the list of types, click “Ad Extensions” and then select the extension you are interested in. In the data view, click “+ Add” and completed the required fields for the selected extension.

You’ve probably already noticed a certain analogy in the progression of the next steps, right? Every time you create a campaign and the elements inside it, you proceed exactly the same way:

1. In the type list panel, you select the element you want to add (campaign, ad group, ad, etc.)
2. You go to the data view, where you click the “+” sign and add the appropriate element
3. Finally, in the edit panel you configure all the settings of the selected element

Bravo! Your campaign created in Google Ads Editor is now ready! Finally, you should still use the option “Check changes“, which is located in the toolbar. This will allow the system to verify that all the elements you have entered are in order.

If everything checks out and you are satisfied with your campaign, then now just select “Publish“ from the toolbar and publish the changes you have made to your Google Ads account in your browser.

Overview-of-useful-editor-functions

1. Copy campaign elements

This is one of the features you’ll probably use most often 🙂 This solution will work perfectly when, for example, you need to create an identical campaign in your account to the one you already have, but with ads targeting a different location. For example, – we have a hair salon campaign targeting Gdansk, but the client opens a new salon in Torun. Instead of creating everything from scratch, in Google Ads Editor with a few clicks you can copy an existing campaign and change the necessary elements in it. In addition, the editor’s features also allow us to copy ad schedules.

“This is nothing new” – you’ll think. Sure, you can still do it in the Google Ads panel, but from our experience we can advise you that by far the better solution is the Editor. You will do it much faster and without worrying that the panel will refuse to serve you during the copying process.

2. Aggregate changes

With the function “Find and Replace” we have the ability in the copied campaign to make collective changes on the element of interest. Let’s return here to the hair salon mentioned above. We copied the campaign, but we see that it has seven ad groups, each with two – three ads, and we need to correct the names of the ad groups, edit the keyword sets and the ads themselves by changing our location everywhere. If it weren’t for Google Ads Editor, we would have said goodbye to at least an hour’s work long ago, but with this tool at hand, all we have to do is use the “replace text” function, and every “Gdańsk” is replaced with “Toruń”.

3. Eliminate duplicate keywords

Duplicate keywords can negatively affect its effectiveness and visibility, as they will compete with each other, and this will significantly affect the cost per click. To prevent this, Editor will help us take care of their optimization, especially for large accounts or accounts taken over from a client or from previous agencies. All we have to do is use the option “Find duplicates” and we can choose whether the application should search the same ad group we are in, the same campaign or other campaigns of our choice. Other options for finding duplicates that we can choose are: word order and match types (including even exclusion match).

4. Ability to filter by type and campaign status

Function useful when you use an account with a lot of different types of campaigns, and a large part of them are already paused, for example. In the search bar in the data view, after clicking “create filter” you will then develop a long list with items by which you can filter your set of campaigns (you can also apply a filter on groups of resources). Sorting also turns out to be a very helpful feature – you can instantly sort the view by state or by campaign name. To use the sorting feature, all you have to do is click three steps in the tree view (top left) and select the sorting method you want.

5 Useful shortcuts you need to know

When using the Editor application, it is useful to know some keyboard shortcuts that will greatly speed up your work. They refer to basic options and commands in the program, such as:

• Ctrl + N (add new item)
• Ctrl + A (select all)
• Ctrl + C (copy selected items)
• Ctrl + V (paste)
• Ctrl + X (cut selected items)
• Ctrl +Z (undo changes)
• Ctrl + Shift + Z (redo)
• Ctrl + T (download changes)
• Ctrl + P (publish the changes made to your account)

6. Clear statistics overview

Another example of how you can make your job easier! All we need to do in the Google Ads Editor is to click “statistics“, then select the data, the date range relevant to us and the information we want to include in the statistics and click “ok“.  We will be shown a summary of all, the most relevant information, and best of all – if we download the data in advance, we will be able to work even in offline mode. 

7. Import ready-made campaigns from Excel (or from Google Sheets) 

When using the Editor, it’s a good idea to make friends with Excel as well. This will allow us to build a campaign structure and import it into Google Ads with a few clicks “copy – paste”

In the Google Ads Editor, select the appropriate campaign and then the ad. Copy the ad using the shortcut “Ctrl + C” and paste it into an Excel sheet or Google Sheets. All columns will immediately be named elements that your campaign consists of, which will make your further work much easier. If, for example, you need to create 20 ad groups within a single campaign, you simply drag the row “ad group 1” nineteen consecutive rows down. You then complete all the columns by entering headlines, ad text, etc. You select the sheet you have created, go to the Editor and in the upper left corner click “account“, then “import” and “paste text“. In the window that appears to you, press “paste from clipboard“ and then “process” and you’re done! Using “copy – paste” you have created an elaborate advertising structure! 

Google Ads Editor will significantly reduce your work time!

Our experts use the Editor on a daily basis, through we work more efficiently and the campaigns bring equally great results. Contact us today and we will help you realize the full potential of your Google Ads campaigns.

Let’s talk!

I hope that even if you weren’t convinced about this tool at first, after this short tutorial you have a better understanding of the basics and have noticed how you can make your daily work easier by using Google Ads Editor. Whether you’re working with campaigns privately at home or together with your team at agency, you’ll encounter this tool many times on your way, so it’s definitely worth knowing how to use it.