Release date 3/24/2021

Release Summary

This release focused on the use of negative lists and communicating better when templates skip vehicles because of missing values. The most common issue with missing values is when vehicles do not contain a trim value but clients utilize this placeholder in ad copy or keyword sections of a template.

Search Templates: Shared Negative List for Clients

Clients can now create and share negative lists across multiple templates and advertisers. These lists can be hand-generated or simply export your current negative lists and upload them in bulk for easy application.
To get started

• To get started navigate to the Campaign Builder section of the Hoot Interface

• You will see a new section for Auto Templates called Negative Keywords

• Open the section and Create your First List

• You will create the “Title” of the list first

• Once the Title is created you can then manually enter keywords or upload a bulk file for ease of use.

Once the list is created you can apply the list at the campaign level

• Open the edit screen of any template
  
  

• Navigate to the “Campaign Settings” Section of the template and select the intended list

• Multiple lists can be applied just select all that apply before saving the template

• Once Template is Saved it will automatically push the updates to Google when we run through the daily processing.

• If you want the negative keywords to go right away simply hit “Save and Apply”

See A quick how-to here:

Auto-Template filtered data warning

We have been receiving many support tickets alerting us of errors or missing vehicles inside a search campaign. In many cases what we are finding is that the reason the vehicles are missing from the final campaign output or campaign build is that it is missing a value the client has asked to use in the template.

What do we mean?

For example, let’s say a client has ad copy and keywords that use the following placeholders:
AD Copy: New [Make] [Model] [Trim]
Keyword: New [Model] [Trim]

Let’s say we have the following 5 vehicles in inventory
Toyota Camry LE
Toyota Camry
Toyota Highlander Limited
Toyota Prius
Toyota Sequoia SR5

Because the template is asking for us to use [Trim] the template skips the 2nd Camry and the Prius. This is done because there are certain circumstances passing an empty value would cause keywords to populate unintended traffic or ad copy to read incorrectly.

We introduced a solution for this last year with the introduction of “Default Text” values so clients could include these vehicles. If you have not had time to review the use of Standard text see more here:

Because clients might not be aware of all features at times the Standard Text Feature is skipped so we wanted a better way to alert clients that there are vehicles that were skipped because of these missing values. Now when an auto template runs there is now an alert section indicated skipped vehicles in both the template alerts section and the email notification (If the user has opted in for email alerts)

Below are highlights of the missing value alerts:

Minor Bugs & Tasks
3895 Updates to Client Registration Form
3921 Libraries: Update layout of library import/export to match upload requirements
3930 Libraries: Libraries will not update new Models
3917 Aged Inventory Validation not working