Naming conventions - What are they, anyway?
Many know how to build a campaign and also have rich knowledge in campaign management, but few manage to understand what in the campaign brings success. A proper naming structure will allow separating the factors and identifying the common denominator among successes.
A few examples from different worlds:
Naming conventions are very common in the software development world – it is a written convention for the order of dimensions
Where each part of the name meets specific conditions
What does a proper naming structure give us?
Granular details
More accurate data
Conclusions on cross-cutting elements across all campaigns
OCD
And the highlight – the ability to generate automated reports
The Vision: Maximum results with minimum effort – what are the benefits of automated reports?
Saving time
Focusing on work that requires a human touch
Increasing reporting frequency to clients
Increasing output
Early detection of issues
The workflow
Compose a meaningful name
Download data
Deconstruct and analyze
Run campaigns
Constantly run tests
Add to the activity
Strategy Phase - Think before you act
The planning phase includes:
Creating a Mockup
Which reports will we want?
What do they tell us?
Which metrics will we need?
Which dimensions?
Checking the Connections
What can/cannot be exported?
What plugins/add-ons are needed?
What permissions are needed?
Checking the connections
Modular Thinking
Everything is decomposable and modular
Unique names
Use of indexes
Example campaign ad name:
pic21_txt3_aud-lal-1p_prdct8
The data in the name:
Image #21 – Boy rushing on a bicycle
Text #3 – The sale ends today!
Audience type is lookalike
Lookalike size – 1 percent
Product #8 – “Zoom” brand sneakers
Naming conventions
Deconstruction and Assembly
Impeccable order is the key to automation – and automation is the key to impeccable order
Excel functions allow turning a table into a string and vice versa
Data Analysis
In a single UTM field, you can pass 5 data points – and much more
utm_content=pic21_txt3_aud-lal-1p_prdct8
Meaning you can now see in Analytics the conversion rate of each element
and perform additional analyses (time on page, etc.)
And you can also pass additional information – metadata
Text position in image, text color, background color, image number.
Top white, blue 21 Bottom yellow white 22 Middle red green 23
Connecting data layers allows you to gain completely new insights
CPA,CVR,CTR
Text position in image
42 ₪ 3.3% 1.3% Top
44 ₪ 3.2% 1.2% Bottom
48 ₪ 3.2% 1.1% Middle
Basic formulas for self-study
AVERAGE Returns the numerical average value in a dataset, ignoring text.
IF Returns one value if a logical expression is true and another if it is false.
MAX Returns the maximum value in a numeric dataset.
MIN Returns the minimum value in a numeric dataset.
NOW Returns the current date and time as a date value.
SUM Returns the sum of a series of numbers and/or cells.
TODAY Returns the current date as a date value.
ROUND Rounds a number to a certain number of decimal places according to standard rules.
“text1”&”text2“ -> “text1text2”
Must-know logical functions: OR, AND
Mathematical: ABS (absolute value), EVEN (rounds to the nearest even integer), MOD (remainder of division),
Must read – The Google Sheets cheat sheet
Additional Key Formulas
iferror – An absolute must in every formula (default – without it we will get lots of DIV/0 errors)
Sumifs – Summing relevant cells according to multiple criteria
Averageifs – The same for average
IMPORTRANGE – Imports a range as-is from another workbook (from another tab you import like this: {TabName!a1:n200} )
SUMPRODUCT – Weighted average between two arrays
Split / Text to Columns – Splits combined text back into columns
Vlookup, Hlookup – Looking up a matching value from a table
Date – Assembles a date back from day, month, year
IFS – Like a nested IF but much smarter, and there is also SWITCH which evaluates cases and responses
IFS(A1>90, “A”, A1>80, “B”, A1>70, “C”)
All Google Sheets functions in one place (searchable) https://support.google.com/docs/table/25273?hl=en
A bit more for advanced users - for self-study
TRANSPOSE – Rotates a column to a row and vice versa
EOMONTH – Returns the last day of the month (when combined with today())
WEEKDAY – Returns the day of the week for a specific date
FILTER – Filters a range by criterion (returns it filtered)
SORTN – Sorts a range and returns its TOP N (great for leaderboards – top 10 headlines by CTR)
UNIQUE – Returns unique values only (a single empty cell will also be returned if there are several)
ARRAYFORMULA – Allows performing operations on entire columns
DETECTLANGUAGE – Identifies the language of the text, GOOGLETRANSLATE translates between languages
IMAGE – Displays an image
QUERY – Allows using the full power of the SQL language within Google Sheets (crazy powerful, worth learning)
SPARKLINE – Generates a small chart from a column (inside a cell!)
ISEMAIL – Checks email validity
ISNUMBER – Checks if there is a number in a cell or formula output (works great with a search that returns a number – when you want to know if a cell contains text)
CORREL – Checks if there is a correlation between two arrays
CONCATENATE – Concatenates several text strings
JOIN – Combines multiple text strings with a fixed delimiter between them (the counterpart to SPLIT – the former is used to merge fields into a single name using _ or – as a delimiter, and the latter to parse into tables by that same delimiter)
LEFT – Returns the N leftmost characters. There are also RIGHT and MID
LOWER – Converts entire text to lowercase only (important when generating UTMs since Analytics is case-sensitive)
REGEX – There are some really cool and powerful tricks here towards the end
To watch the webinar we held on the topic:
About the author:
Eran Diei, an industrial engineer working as a Team Leader at K-Logic. He successfully combines analysis and campaign management. In addition, he serves as a moderator in Israel’s largest digital community Digital Advertising Professionals.
