Custom Columns for More Effective Google Ads Management

Knucklepuck has leveraged a number of custom columns since Google Ads expanded their functionality in April 2022. With custom columns, we have been able to improve how we deliver data to our clients and inform ongoing paid media strategy.

Below, we will explain what custom columns are, how to create them, and some of our go-to combinations that can help simplify the management of any account you’re working on – from bidding to identifying trends to forecasting and more.

What are Custom Columns?

Custom columns, introduced by Google in 2014, are reporting columns that you can create in Google Ads to provide metrics and data based on your specific business. In other words, you can show clients more than the basic reporting that they can easily pull themselves.

In 2022, Google made major improvements to the custom columns functionality, including:

• Spreadsheet functions & formulas
• Dynamic date range comparison and calculation
• The ability to reference other custom columns within formulas
• Non-metric columns within formulas (ex. pulling campaign names or budgets)
• New column formats: “Date”, “Text”, and “True/False”

Since these updates, marketers have been able to access valuable insights more quickly, better monitor market trends, and more efficiently manage their Google Ads accounts.

Before we dive into our favorite custom columns, let’s review how to set up these features.

How to Create Custom Columns in Google Ads

1. In the Google Ads Interface, click ‘Campaigns’ in any account, followed again by ‘Campaigns’.
2. Click ‘Columns’, then ‘Modify Columns’.
3. Then, scroll down to ‘+ Custom Column’. Then begin customizing!

Knucklepuck’s Favorite Custom Columns

Now that we have gotten a refresher on how to create custom columns, below is a list of our favorite go-tos that we use.

Keyword Bid Recommendations

Anyone who has managed a Google Ads account before has wondered if they’re bidding too much on a given keyword. This is an even more prominent question if you use Manual Bidding and are adjusting keyword bids on your own. Two custom columns that can provide guidance on this age-old question are Headroom CPC and Bidding Suggestion.

1) Headroom CPC

The Headroom CPC custom column tells you the percent difference between what you’re bidding and what you’re actually paying. This is calculated using the below formula:

Formula: (Max_CPC – Avg_CPC) / Avg_CPC

2) Bidding Suggestion

Bidding Suggestion suggests ways on lowering your Max CPC bids based on whether or not your Headroom CPC is higher than 100%. For example, the column will say “bid down” if your keyword’s Max CPC is more than double its Average CPC.

Formula: if(and(Max_CPC > 0.20, ((Max_CPC – Avg_CPC) / Avg_CPC) >= 1), “bid down”, “-“)

Note: If you want to set a lower Headroom CPC threshold, simply change the “1” in the equation to your preferred percentage (ex: a 50% threshold = 0.5).

It’s also important to note that these columns are best used as a quick starting point. There are a number of other factors that contribute to whether or not you should decide to increase or decrease your bids. For example: if you’re technically “overbidding” on a keyword based on the columns above, but it’s a top-converter and has a low CPA, you may not want to lower your Max CPC bid and risk having that keyword be less competitive in ad auctions.

Screenshot of the Headroom CPC and Bidding Suggestion columns in Google Ads

Ad Spend Insights

Our Paid Media team receives questions daily about Google Ads budget and ad spend from our clients. Whether it’s forecasting, checking in on allocations, or making sure you’re on pace for the month, people want to know what’s happening with their money. This set of custom columns will help you respond quickly so you don’t have to spend time doing manual calculations.

3) Projected Spend

The Projected Spend custom column shows you the the forecasted monthly spend based on your month-to-date spend and spend over the past 7 days. This is very helpful if you want to know what you can expect to spend by the end of the month based on your current costs.

Formula: Cost.date_range(this_month) + ((Cost.date_range(last_7_days) / 7) * (days_between(offset_months(today(), 1), today()) – days_between(today(), month_start())))

4) Percent of Monthly Budget Spent

This custom column reports the percent of your Google Ads monthly budget that has been spent. This is a great column if you get questions about how well you’re pacing for the month and how allocation is spread across your Google Ads campaigns/ad groups/keywords.

Formula: Cost.date_range(this_month) / [insert your monthly budget] 

Note: The denominator (i.e., monthly budget) in this equation may fluctuate from month to month. For example, if your client has a budget of $20K one month and $25K the next month, you will need to manually update “20000” to “25000” in your formula.

5) Percent of Daily Budget Spent

For those who want to know how much of your daily budget has been spent in a given date range, this column is for you. It is a great indicator of whether you have hit your daily budget or not.

Formula: ((Cost / report_days_count()) / Daily_Budget) 

6) Percent of Spend on Search Partners

Do you ever wonder how much of your Google Ads spend budget goes towards search versus Search Partners? This custom column gives you that quick percentage.

Formula: Cost.network(partners) / Cost 

Although these columns are fairly simple, they allow you to get a quick snapshot of where your money is going, which helps inform more timely budget adjustments.

Screenshot of spend-related columns in Google Ads

Maximized Coverage

Another common scenario you might run into as a Google Ads account manager is someone asking you questions such as “How much would it cost to have 100% coverage?” or “What results can I expect if we increase our budget?” or “How much traffic could we drive if we weren’t limited by rank or budget?”

The next four columns can help you quickly answer those questions. However, keep in mind that these assume all other factors are staying the same (like CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate, etc.). It’s also important to set expectations that achieving a true 100% impression share may not be possible, especially for Non Brand or Competitor campaigns, due to factors outside of advertisers’ control (like Ad Rank and how the algorithm decides to serve ads to people).

7) Max Estimated Impressions

The Max Estimated Impressions column gives you a sense of the total search volume in your space. In more technical terms, it reports the maximum number of impressions you could have received if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.

Formula: Impr / Search_impr_share

8) Max Estimated Clicks

With this column, you can report the maximum amount of clicks you could get if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high.

Formula: (Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR

9) Max Estimated Cost

Max Estimated Cost is the maximum amount you could have spent if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high. In Other Words, this custom column gives you an idea of the total cost it would take to have 100% coverage (based on average costs per click), which can also be used to inform budget recommendations.

Formula: ((Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR) * (Avg_CPC / Search_impr_share)

10) Max Estimated Conversions

This custom column reports the maximum amount of conversions (based on your conversion rate) you could get if your budget and Ad Rank were sufficiently high. Google Ads calculates this with the following formula:

Formula: ((Impr / Search_impr_share) * CTR) * Conversion_rate

Additionally, you can take these one step further by dividing Max Estimated Cost by Max Estimated Conversions. That will give you a general idea of the CPA you might have with 100% impression share.

This column also helps you illustrate the importance of scaling your account strategically. 100% coverage doesn’t necessarily mean all of that traffic is relevant. If your Max Coverage CPA is significantly higher than your actual CPA, you may want to focus on other optimizations, like improving landing page conversion rates, before just throwing money at the problem.

Screenshot of Maximized Coverage columns in Google Ads

Recent Trends

The last three columns are particularly helpful for reporting and problem-solving, with quick-hit insights into common trends that can affect performance.

11) Competitor Presence

Competitor Presence helps you know when there is a possibility that competition is increasing based on your average cost per click and search impression share. For example, this column will say “Increased” if impression share decreased more than 5% and CPC increased more than 10% over a given date range.

Formula: if(and((Search_impr_share.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start) – Search_impr_share.between_dates(report_range_end, report_range_end)) > 0.05, ((Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_end, report_range_end) – Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start)) / Avg_CPC.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_start)) < 0.1), “Increased”, “-“)

Note: If you want to set different thresholds, change the “0.05” in the equation to your preferred percentage for impression share, and change the “0.1” for average CPC.

12) Search Volume Change

Search Volume Change reports the percentage change of impressions yesterday compared to the day before. Google Ads uses the following formula for this metric:

Formula: (Impr.date_range(yesterday) – Impr.between_dates(yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1), yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1))) / Impr.between_dates(yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1), yesterday.shift(0, 0, -1))

13) Conversion Trend

This custom column gives you access to the percentage change in conversions in the last 7 days vs the last 30 days. This is helpful if you want to know how much conversion volume has increased or decreased recently.

Formula: (((Conversions.date_range(last_7_days) / 7) / (Conversions.date_range(last_30_days) / 30)) – 1) 

Screenshot of trend-related columns in Google Ads

Summary

Google Ads custom columns can help you answer some of the most common questions you (or your client) may have regarding their paid media campaigns.

The 13 formulas listed above should give you a great starting point, and all of them can be directly copied and pasted into the “Text” section when creating a custom column in the platform. We highly recommend experimenting with these, and others, to make your account management easier!

• Note: If you run into any issues with copy and pasting the formulas above, try changing subtraction symbols from a dash to a hyphen, updating the quotation marks, etc.

screenshot of Custom Column creation in Google Ads

Interested in continuing this conversation? Looking for someone who can help you get started? For help managing your paid campaigns, contact Knucklepuck today!

Resources

• Ten Custom Columns Using the New Impression Share Column You Can Create Right Now in Google Ads
• 13 Custom Columns to Enhance Google Ad Reporting
• Custom Insights with Custom Columns