Hoot Legacy | Product FAQ's
How do I see deactivated dealers?
On the dealer dashboard, toggle "active only" to see all inactive dealers
Does Hoot utilize SRP or VDP for Search ads?
SRP, unless utilizing Auto templates. Auto templates are powered by feeds that can be landed on VDP pages.
Is there a way to pause ad groups within an active campaign?
You can utilize the IM_Exclude label to pause ad groups and campaigns. The label will force the Hoot review process to ignore the entire ad group until the label is removed.
What are labels used for?
Hoot utilizes labels to identify objects within the Google interface that we should include or exclude during our nightly processing. These labels are typically attached at the campaign level but can go as far into the campaign to include ad groups or ads.
IM_Include - Identifies objects/targets we should be processing
IM_Exclude - Identifies objects/targets of objects we should skip or not include
I don't have data in my ad customizer feed?
Can I set up the feed without data?
Ad customizer data feeds are only populated when ad groups are enabled, users should set up/schedule the ad customizer data feed prior to data populating. The provided feed link by Hoot can be used for initial set-up as it is also used to identify the columns needed for passing the values from Hoot to Google.
Why don't I see ad customizer values in my Google ad previews?
Ad customizer data is pulled into the variable upon delivery of the ad. Previews will commonly not be shown until ads have been running for an extended period of time. Even at this point, the preview will not reflect the live price until the ad is served.
Does Hoot utilize SRP or VDP for Display ads?
Hoot send Display ads directly to the vehicles or product detail page
Can Hoot control Facebook carousel ad record order?
How does the system know what models to show in the carousel?
The ad serving and selection of vehicles to display within ads is handled by Facebook. For dynamic remarketing campaigns, Facebook will always attempt to display a vehicle that matches the VIN for a previously viewed VDP. In addition, they will show “similar” vehicles in the carousel. Similar vehicles are determined by browsing behavior of all site visitors. It works very similar to the method Amazon uses for “people who looked at this patio chair also looked at these other patio chairs.” For non-remarketing campaigns, Facebook will simply pull the necessary number of vehicle records from the feed without any consideration of user behavior. This is why you would want to create a custom feed of only new Ram trucks if you were targeting a new Ram shopper in-market audience.
Why are there no new/used vehicles in my feed?
In many cases vehicles are filtered out because of channel pre-requisite. One example if that Facebook requires vehicles to contain a price value. If the vehicle has no price it is suppressed from the Facebook feed. This can be corrected by replacing an empty price value with $1.00 but the client must ensure pricing is removed from the FB ads. The Facebook feed settings screen has an option to allow the user to place this $1.00 replacement for all vehicles missing a price. Simply select the check box in the feed settings and the feed will automatically update.
Other causes include:
CMS change
Client added filters that returned no vehicles
Why is this vehicle in my feed, but not on the site?
The most common reason is that the vehicle was sold/removed from the site between the nightly scrape/update of the site. The record should be removed on the next advertiser processing.
Why is this vehicle On my website, but not in the feed?
The most common reason is that the vehicle was not present on the site when the scrape/update of the site occurred. The record should be added on the next advertiser processing. We do see 2-3% discrepancies when dealers receive inventory so missing inventory is not unexpected on a daily basis. If for some reason there is a specific vehicle that remains unavailable in the feed please contact support for review.
How do I control image size?
What changes can Hoot make to images?
Hoot does not host the images related to the vehicle inventory. The images are source from with the CMS platfrom or the external data source in which we are pulling information from. All image adjustments need to be handled directly with the CMS provider or the person managing the external data source.
Will Hoot remarket to non-vehicle pages within a site?
What pages are used in remarketing Campaigns?
When Hoot installs the dynamic pixel, we code it so it only fires on VDPs. Your standard remarketing pixel may be firing on all website pages, but the additional ViewContent event that passes a vehicle ID only fires on VDPs. Therefore, only visitors that viewed a VDP will be eligible to served a dynamic remarketing ad.
How can I check my Facebook Pixel to confirm it is firing properly?
My GTM Container is not yet installed, can I request a script installation?
The dynamic remarketing script installation can be completed, but it will not go live because the Google Tag Manager (GTM) container has not been installed on the dealer's website. In most cases, you will want to contact the website vendor's support department to request GTM installation.
When the container is live the script will start working immediately. Once you have corrected the above issues, please reach out to support so they can verify the scripts are installed properly.
I don't have a GTM installed, can I request a script installation?
The dynamic remarketing script installation can be completed, but it will need to be implemented by the website provider. Our team can assist with providing the script needed but it will require the CMS provider to install.
Do you support YouTube?
We currently do not have an active, automated solution for YouTube. However, we are in the process of developing this solution. Stay tuned for updates
How can I customize my video template?
Your template can be customized in several ways.
Choose from one of our pre-formatted library templates and make all style choices in the interface.
Choose the "custom" option instead and provide initial details in the "special requests" section.
What is the difference between a video template and an ad version?
Template: The creative shell or base for the dynamic ad. Does not contain any inventory (or other) data.
Ad version: Template + Filtered Data = Ad Version. Ad versions are your final video ad output, when a template is associated with some kind of selection criteria.
What is the turnaround time when making a template adjustment?
Adjustments are typically complete within 24 hours
How do I generate a vehicle impression report?
Navigate to video ads tab
Click on the chart graphic.
specify whether or not you want the report at the ad version or advertiser level
Click and choose a date range.
What is the difference between DSP and ad server?
Ad Servers: Used to store and serve ads. DSPs: Used by advertisers to connect to the programmatic advertising ecosystem (to buy ad inventory automatically).
How does Hoot’s Max CPC option work?
Hoot applies max cpc bids ad the ad group level when passing the value from the Hoot Monitor to AdWords. We have two options when passing this value.
The first option is to always push the max cpc value. This means that upon creation and ad group updates we will push the max cpc value. This means that any manual or automated changes inside Google will be over-written every time the templates run in our system.
You have the option to only pass this value when we create a “new” ad group. This means that you have made a decision to manually or through automated bid changes update bids on your own. So we will only pass this value when a new ad group is created.
Why can I not see the max cpc option inside the Hoot template?
When using any of Google automated bid strategies we suppress the max cpc. The reason this happens is because Googles automated biding actions function and make changes at the keyword level and the ad group level control of max xox is no longer a valid option. So to ensure there is no confusion on who is making bid changes we hide this field from user view as we are not currently passing ad group updates. We will still apply a default values when creating new ad groups but the continuous updates and changes are not visible when using these bidding strategies.
If for some reason you are using these bidding strategies and need to edit the default values then you must update the bid strategy to manual cpc, make the changes and then revert back to your original bidding strategy.,
In short if the max cpc is not visible inside the Hoot interface the campaign settings are set to a Google Automated bid strategy.
Can you use an alternate data source to create inventory feeds instead of scraping a website?
Yes alternate sources can be utilized the most common is a published Google sheet, pusblished as a .csv file. It is important to note that most platforms require the destination URL (VDP or similar) for each product. This URL must be included in the data provided.