At PPC Ninja we have a bias for efficiency. Our goal is to help you ditch clunky .csv based operations, and we are getting closer to this goal with every feature release. Why deal with these file-based operations that are so error prone and so hard to use, when you could match all of their powerful benefits through simpler, time-saving alternatives?
How to Ditch the CSV?
There are a few reasons why sellers and agencies have traditionally turned to Amazon's .csv files:
1) Downloading Advertising Reports
2) Discovering new keywords and targets from search term reports
3) Making bid adjustments at scale with bulk files 4) Creating new campaigns, keywords and ads
Let's see how we can be MORE efficient at achieving these goals with time-saving UI based operations that PPC Ninja provides.
1) Advertising Report Downloads
While Amazon's advertising reports contain some priceless information, having to download clunky .csv reports on a regular cadence is a chore no one really has the time for. But there is this constant pressure to grab your data before Amazon locks it away, forever.
Thankfully, signing up for a PPC Ninja account instantly solves that problem. Your advertising report data is automatically pulled in from Amazon on a daily basis, cleaned, stitched together (normalized) and available for analysis across flexible date ranges, through a powerful Excel-like UI.
Moreover, your data is available for posterity, easily exportable for the keeping should you ever decide to move on. Using PPC Ninja for this purpose alone can more than pay for a VA that you might have hired for this task. But there is more...
2) Data Discovery and Segmentation
Where would you go to look for good keywords to harvest? The Search Term Reports, right? This report helps you find keywords that meet a few different criteria such as Sales greater than some amount, Clicks greater than some number and ACoS less than a certain value. These filters are easy to construct with PPC Ninja's powerful Excel-like query operators.
Excel-Like Filter Operators
With PPC Ninja's new tables, you can create up to 2 rules per data column with an AND or OR clause. For numeric columns your choice of operations include:
Greater than
Not equal
Less than
Less than equal to
Greater than equal to
In range
For example, you could easily find all the campaigns with an ACoS > 50 with 2 clicks.
2) Text Based Filter Operators
For text fields, you can easily locate keywords or campaigns using text pattern matches with precision. Text based operators include:
Contains
Not Contains
Equals
No Equal
Starts with
Ends with
For example, let's say you want to file all long tail keywords that contain the words "garlic press" AND do not equal "garlic press." You can do it easily with this simple filter.
The most powerful aspect of filters is that you can cut across ALL campaigns and AdGroups if needed, or can be applied to pinpointed campaigns only. If you are following a campaign naming convention you can even filter based on parts of the name that you know very well. (Read more about good campaign naming conventions)
3) Bulk Operations
Once you've built a filter, the resulting data set can be exported for offline work. But the more interesting use-case is making sweeping bulk changes right within the UI.
For example, you want to manually implement day parting and reduce your bids or budgets across the board every Friday because your conversions are the worst over the weekend, you can apply these bulk operation easily in under 30 seconds!
PPC Ninja's Excel-like UI mimics the .csv bulk operations and at scale, helping you adjust bids, budgets, bidding strategies, placement modifiers with a few simple clicks, cutting across structural hierarchies such as campaigns or ad groups.
Here is an example of the available bulk operations at the keyword level.
And here is the list of bulk operations you can carry out at the Campaign level.
Wrap Up
The reason why agencies and consultants have traditionally opted for csv bulk operations up until now is that this was arguably the fastest, most efficient way available for making bulk changes. But PPC Ninja's powerful UI is disrupting all of that.
When it comes to creating new campaigns, keywords and ads in bulk, we still don't have a great way of accomplishing this at scale with just our UI, and .csvs might still be your best bet. But this is on our roadmap and we are getting there!
If you are not a user yet, definitely sign up for our 14-day free trial to check out these powerful features first hand. Sellers and agencies who do not want to give up control to a fully automated AI software, are loving our new features.
Did this post spark your curiosity or trigger a question? Comment below or email us at support@ppcninja.com. We'd love to hear from you!
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