Google adds URL Contains targeting functionality to PMax

Google has launched the URL Contains targeting functionality on Performance Max.

The feature, which is also available on Dynamic Search ads (DSA), enables you to manually specify which URL to show your PMax ads to.

Here’s a preview of how to access the new tool on the platform, as shared by Google Ads expert Thomas Eccel on LinkedIn:

Explaining why this new feature could be super useful for advertisers, Eccel told Search Engine Land:

• “Since a Pmax campaign with the Final Url expansion turned on can basically re-direct users on every URL possible (for example, to your blogs, about us page etc), non-monetizable pages should be excluded.”
• “Now, with this new URL rule, I can tell PMax to only redirect users to pages that include them. For example ‘/shop’. Or if I run the PMax campaign for just one product category, let’s say Nike shoes, I can just include ‘/shoes’, for instance .”

Why we care. This feature provides marketers with more control over how their ads are served as you manually get to choose which tokens to target in order to reach a more specific and relevant audience for your brand.

How it works. You can use this functionality to target pages with URLs that contain a certain piece of text – also known as a “token”. Within URLs, a token is a piece of text surrounded by a limiter like “/” or ‘-” – among others.

This feature cannot be used in conjunction with URLs like “electronicsexample.com/servicesmenu/” because the word “menu” appears after the targeted keyword “services”. However, this feature can work for URLs like “electronicsexample.com/services-menu/” because the keyword “services” is separated from the word “menu” with the “-“. Other URL separators include:

• “:”
• “/”
• “?”
• “+”
• “&”

What has Google said? A Google told Search Engine Land:

• “This is a new feature rolling out for Performance Max.”
• “We are bringing the same URL Contains targeting functionality from Dynamic Search ads (DSA) into Performance Max to better support DSA use cases in PMax as part of the voluntary upgrade we announced in July.”
• “This feature works exactly as it does in DSA today.”

Deep dive. Visit the Google Ads Help Center for more information on the URL Contains in DSA.