AdWords Explorer

Overview The AdWords Explorer (right) is the main BidForce window from where all actions originate. It consists of a menu and tree display. The tree shows the MCC and member accounts. Navigate Navigate around the Campaigns, Ad Groups and Keywords by double clicking on a node or clicking on the + sign to expand a branch. Right Click Right clicking on a tree node will bring up a context sensitive menu for that item allowing you to either run the Bid Optimizer or adjust the Bid Settings.

AdWords Explorer Menu Items

File -> Load Keyword History

Loads the Keyword click history from the local file. Will also check to see if any updates need to be downloaded from Google. If you don't manually do this, the dataset will be loaded when required and the account node in the tree will turn blue. The first time you try to load the keyword history for any account, will prompt for how many days history you want. Go for the maximum if available.

File -> Unload Keyword History

Unload the Keyword click history from memory. This is useful if you wish to optimize a number of accounts and have limited memory available. Large accounts could consume all available memory and will need to be unloaded before a new account can be loaded.

File -> Refresh Selected Item

To conserve credits and increase operation speed, BidForce caches each AdWords account locally. If you change anything outside of BidForce such as CPC bids, adding or removing campaigns/groups/keywords etc., you must remember to 'refresh selected item' to delete the local cache of those items. Only the selected explorer item (and its children) are refreshed. This action can also be done by right clicking on an item in the explorer.

File -> Refresh Account List

All accounts in an MCC are cached locally to conserve credits and increase operation speed. This cache must be deleted for new accounts to show in the explorer.

Tools -> Bid Optimize

Will open the Bid Settings window ready for Bid Optimization on the path selected in the explorer tree. If a date range is selected in the Conversion History Graph, it will use that date range for calibration (even if the graph window has been closed). Otherwise the entire click history will be used for calibration. If you have more than a few months of history, this is not recommended. Better to open the Conversion History Graph and select a calibration date range first.

Tools -> Bid Settings

Will open the Bid Settings window with the path selected in the tree. Bid Settings are hierarchical, so if no settings are available for a Keyword, the Ad Group settings will be used instead, then then Campaign settings, then account settings. See Bid Settings for more.

Window -> Conversion History Graph

See conversion history and other key metrics. Use this graph to select a date range to calibrate the Bid Optimizer. See Conversion Graph window for more info.

Window -> View Bid History

Bid history selection window allows you to get results of previous bid optimization updates. Click View or double click to see a previously committed Bid Change Graph.