Create A Consistent PLA Naming Convention

PPC managers with multiple clients will save precious minutes every day in Google Analytics if all clients' Product Listing Ads campaigns (PLAs) have the same name, i.e., "PLA" or "Product Listings" or "Product Listing Ads", etc.  Here's why:

1. You can create one "shareable" Advanced Segment in Google Analytics that will be available no matter which clients' account you're working in, providing at least a portion of each client's PLA campaign has commonality.  (see visual tutorial below)
   
   Caution:  Advanced Segments are "sticky" across all client reports and even across different client accounts (which is actually a good thing!).  So, just make sure you remember to remove the Advanced Segment or else you'll start to see some really funky results!
   
    
2. You can create one "shareable" Custom Report in Google Analytics with an include filter for Campaign>Exact>PRODUCT-LISTING-ADS or an include filter for Campaign>Regex>PRODUCT-LISTING|.  (note the pipe at the end of the regex filter)
   
   The Regex filter catches any PLA campaign that contains the identified text.  So, let's say you haven't been consistent with your naming convention and have a campaign PRODUCT-LISTING-ADS-USA and one named PRODUCT-LISTING-UK, and you want to incorporate both of them into one custom report.  Use Campaign>Regex>PRODUCT-LISTING to catch both.
   
   You can then either "share" the custom report with any client by editing your report and selecting the "Additional Profiles" at the bottom.  Or, in the Custom Report Overview section, click the Actions dropdown for "share" which will generate a url that you can then email to a colleague. They will click on the URL in the email which launches their Google Analytics, allowing them to save the report to the appropriate profile.
   
   You can also click the "copy" link from the report Overview area to replicate the report for the same client, and quickly rename.  This would be helpful in the above example where I might create a report just for my PLA-US campaign and want an identical campaign just for my PLA-UK traffic.  So, I would copy the report, rename it PLA-UK and just update my include filter for that specific campaign name.

Need help with your Product Listing Ad campaigns or with Google Analytics Customization?  Contact Us to schedule a free 15 minute consultation!

Visual Tutorial:

Advanced Segment filter includes only Product Listing Ads data (click for larger image)

 PLA Advanced Segment Creation

Google Analytics Custom Report Regex Filter for PLA 

Analytics Custom Report Share/Copy Report Option

Google Anaytics Custom Report Sharing for Multiple Client Profiles