Naming Conventions
The maximum character length for a campaign name is 128 characters for sellers and 116 characters for vendors. The maximum character length for an ad group name is 255 characters.
The following are all valid characters for campaign and ad group names.
! $ " ' # % & ( ) * + , . / : ; < = > ? @ \ \ [ ] _ ` | { } ~ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ® Á É Í Ñ Ó Ú Ü á é í ñ ó ú ü Ä Ö Ü ß ä ö ü À Â Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Î Ï Ô Ù Û Ü Œ Ÿ à â æ ç è ê ë î ï ô ù û ü ÿ œ \b
It is strongly recommended to have a standardized naming convention across your campaigns and ad groups. We recommend the following system.
Use a set of standardized acronyms to represent ad type, targeting type, campaign strategy, targeting method and ad format.
Then string those together in hierarchical order to create campaign and ad group names.
If you follow this system you will be able to identify the key attributes of a campaign or ad group by simply looking at the name. In addition you will be able to filter your campaigns by attributes such as campaign strategy, using the search bar.
There is definitely an argument to be made against this system. For example if the management of the account changes hands frequently and the new manager is not familiar with the naming convention, it would be confusing. If you don't believe in your ability to transfer this knowledge between maintainers, choose something more semantic. But have a system!
Standardized Acronyms
Feel free to modify these acronyms to suit your needs. In these examples we keep the acronyms as short as possible to leave as many characters as possible for product name. You may wish to make them longer and more semantic. Either way, we recommend that you save/print them and distribute them to your team so that everyone is on the same page.
Ad Type
P - Sponsored Products
B - Sponsored Brands
D - Sponsored Display
Targeting Type
Only relevant for Sponsored Products, as that is the only ad type that has auto targeting available.
A - Auto
M - Manual
Campaign Strategy
Review the Campaign Strategy section for more information on these strategies.
DS - Discovery
HQ - High Quality Targets
NET - Catch All
OFF - Brand Offense
DEF - Brand Defense
VAR - Product Variant Targeting
2L - 2nd Language
DB - Dynamic Bids
Targeting Method
KT - Keyword Targeting
PT - Product Targeting
AT - Auto Targeting (if within a Sponsored Products campaign) or Audience Targeting (if within a Sponsored Display campaign)
CT - Contextual Targeting
Ad Format
Ad format acronyms are uneccessary for Sponsored Products names as there is only one ad type (product listing).
PCO - Product Collection
SSP - Store Spotlight
VID - Video
IMG - Image
Campaign Name
Then you can string these together in hierarchical order to create campaign names. You could use many different characters as a seperator such as -, :, > but we use |.
Format
Ad Type | Targeting Type | Product Group | Campaign Strategy
Samples
P|A|Sandals|DS : Sponsored Products campaign with auto targeting, for the sandals product group, using the Discovery campaign strategy.
P|M|Sandals|DS : Sponsored Products campaign with manual targeting, for the sandals product group, using the Discovery campaign strategy.
P|M|Sandals|HQ : Sponsored Products campaign with manual targeting, for the sandals product group, using the High Quality Targets campaign strategy.
P|M|Sandals|2L : Sponsored Products campaign with manual targeting, for the sandals product group, using the 2nd Language campaign strategy.
B|Sandals|DS : Sponsored Brands campaign, for the sandals product group, using the Discovery campaign strategy.
B|Sandals|HQ : Sponsored Brands campaign, for the sandals product group, using the High Quality Targets campaign strategy.
B|Sandals|VAR : Sponsored Brands campaign, for the sandals product group, using the Product Variant Targeting campaign strategy.
D|Sandals|DS : Sponsored Display campaign, for the sandals product group, using the Discovery campaign strategy.
D|Sandals|HQ : Sponsored Display campaign, for the sandals product group, using the High Quality Targets campaign strategy.
Catch all campaigns do not need to list the product name as they should be including all products. You can use the * symbol to represent a wildcard (any/all).
P|A|*|NET : Sponsored Products campaign with auto targeting, using the Catch All campaign strategy.
P|M|*|NET : Sponsored Products campaign with manual targeting, using the Catch All campaign strategy.
B|*|NET : Sponsored Brands campaign, using the Catch All campaign strategy.
D|*|NET : Sponsored Display campaign, using the Catch All campaign strategy.
Ad Group Name
Format
Ad Type | Targeting Type | Product Name (shortened) | Campaign Strategy | Targeting Method | Ad Format
Samples
P|M|Sierra Sandal|DS|KT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Discovery campaign strategy, using keyword targeting.
P|M|Sierra Sandal|HQ|PT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the High Quality Targets campaign strategy, using product targeting.
B|Sierra Sandal|DS|KT|VID : Sponsored Brands ad group, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Discovery campaign strategy, using keyword targeting, using video ad format.
B|Sierra Sandal|DB|PT|SSP : Sponsored Brands ad group, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Dynamic Bids campaign strategy, using product targeting, using store spotlight ad format.
D|Sierra Sandal|DS|AT|IMG : Sponsored Display ad group, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Discovery campaign strategy, using auto targeting, using image ad format.
D|Sierra Sandal|DS|CT|VID : Sponsored Display ad group, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Discovery campaign strategy, using contextual targeting, using video ad format.
Catch all ad groups should list the product name, as products and targets should still be grouped by ad group in Catch all campaigns.
See Campaign Strategies > Catch All for more information on this.
P|M|Sierra Sandal|NET|KT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Catch All campaign strategy, using keyword targeting.
P|M|Sierra Sandal|NET|PT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Sierra Sandal, using the Catch All campaign strategy, using product targeting.
P|M|Denali Pant|NET|KT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Denali Pant, using the Catch All campaign strategy, using keyword targeting.
P|M|Denali Pant|NET|PT : Sponsored Products ad group with manual targeting, for the product Denali Pant, using the Catch All campaign strategy, using product targeting.