Remarketing Audiences in Google Analytics Using Script

Introduction

PPC experts have lacked remarketing audience creation function for a while. After Remarketing with Analytics was released from a beta testing in Managment Analytics API such an opportunity has appeared. Earlier, experts needed a huge amount of time to create a big number of audiences. The new API function has changed a lot, so today Internet marketers can upload new audiences in a bulk.

General Solution

Dmytro Tonkikh, a contextual advertising specialist in Promodo, introduces the script that gets all the input data from the Google Spreadsheet file. Then, it accesses Analytics directly and creates a remarketing audience. It is possible to make dozens and hundreds of audiences with a various number of days of collection of cookie files and different conditions.

This script is configured to create a simple audience, according to the type of the visited pages. It is based on the principle of sending requests to Analytics. There is a quota for the creation of audiences which is rather small. If you need to make a lot of audiences, you can simply do a series of projects. To start making your audiences with ease, follow the steps below.

8 Steps to Make Your Audiences Using Script

1. Activate Analytics in the extended API.
2. Activate Analytics in the developer console using the link showed in the script’s logs.
3. Prepare a Google Spreadsheet.
4. Name the first column, so you will title your future audience.

Expert Tip: add for how long the cookie files should be stored in the name of the column.

5. Name the second column that is responsible for the address or the path of the page that will be created for the audience.
6. Determine the time of storage: enter the period over which the audience will be collected over, e.g. try 7 so that you will collect audiences over the last 7 days and further in Google Analytics.
7. Add information about the Google Analytics and Adwords account.
8. Use Account Explorer service to determine ID Analytics.

This script allows you to complete up to 500 audiences:

function main() {

   var settings = {'linkedView':"XXXXXXXX",

                  'linkedAccountId':"XXX-XXX-XXXX",

                  'accountId':'XXXXXXX',

                  'propertyID':'UA-XXXXXXX-X'};

   var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl('https://goo.gl/4ZAb7Z');

   var sheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName('Sheet1');

   var range = sheet.getRange(1, 2, sheet.getLastRow(), 3);

   var values = range.getValues();

  Logger.log(values.length);

   for(var i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {

    var name = values[i][0];

    var categoryUrl = values[i][1];

    var duration = values[i][2];

    var newAudience = Analytics.Management.RemarketingAudience.insert(

      {

        'name': name,

        'linkedViews': [settings.linkedView],

        'linkedAdAccounts': [{

            'type': 'ADWORDS_LINKS',

            'linkedAccountId': settings.linkedAccountId,

        }],

        'audienceType': 'SIMPLE',

        'audienceDefinition': {

          'includeConditions': {

            'daysToLookBack': 7,

            'segment': 'sessions::condition::ga:[email protected]' + categoryUrl,

            'membershipDurationDays': duration,

            'isSmartList': false

          }

        }

      },

    settings.accountId,

    settings.propertyID);

    Logger.log(i + ' Аудитория ' + name + ' создана');

  };

}

As a result, we get remarketing audiences created in bulk. They can be used as templates for remarketing, search, etc.

Pro Tips

The script is simple, yet it allows to create many remarketing audiences, e.g. people who visited a particular website page, in minutes. For more complex audiences, it is necessary to build segments using conditions. For further information, refer to Query Explorer service, pay your attention to the segments.

Make remarketing audiences without a hitch!

About the Authors

Dmytro Tonkikh

Сontextual advertising specialist in PPC Department

Dmytro is a PPC advertising specialist at Promodo. He has been creating content and launching PPC campaigns for Ukrainian and international companies for 3+ years. When not working, he studies German, plays football, and walks with his dog Naiki. Befriend him on LinkedIn or Facebook and communicate with Dmytro on github.com