Workflow: Pause and send email alerts for ads with 404 errors

This article will walk you through creating a process that checks for 404 errors and pause those campaigns.

1. On the PPC Samurai dashboard, select the client you want to build a process for.

2. From within the Client Account section, click on Ad. 

3. On the Ad Processes section, click on the + button.

4. On the New Process modal, enter a title for the process. Then, click on Save.

5. Select which campaigns you wish to run this process on.

6. In the Automate section, click the Enable automatic run checkbox to run this process automatically. Select how often you want to repeat this process, the start date, end date and run time.

First, we're going to make sure that the ad status is active. If it's not, then we'll ignore that ad.

7. In the Metrics Group section, Click on Ad Status under the Other submenu.

8. In the Condition: Ad Status modal, change the settings to the following and click Done.

9. Click and hold the dark square in the Start element, then drag it down and drop onto Ad Status element.

10. In the Actions section, click on Ignore Ad.

11. Click and hold the N button Ad Status element, then drag it down and drop onto the Ignore element. 

Next, we want to check for 404 errors. If there is a 404 error, we want to pause the ad and label it with "404 Error". If there is no 404 error, we ignore the ad and remove the "404 Error" label.

12.  In the Metrics Group section, Click on Page Code under the Other submenu.

13. Change the settings to the following and click Done.

14. Click and hold the Y button Ad Status element, then drag it down and drop onto the Page Code element. 

15. In the Actions section, Click on Pause Ad.

16. Change the settings to the following and click Done.

17. In the Actions section, Click on Add Label.

18. In the Add Label modal, enter 404 Error in the textfield.

19. In the Actions section, Click on Ignore Ad.

20. In the Actions: Ignore Ad modal, click Done.

21. In the Actions section, Click on Remove Lbl.

22. In the Remove Label modal, select Is in the Condition and enter 404 error in the Text field.

23. Click and hold the Y button Page Code element, then drag it down and drop onto the Pause Ad and Add Label element. 

24. Click and hold the N button Page Code element, then drag it down and drop onto the Ignore Ad and Remove Label element. 

Finally, we want to send an email alert if a 404 error exist in an ad. 

25. In the Metrics Group section, Click on Page Code under the Other submenu.

26. Select 404 - Not Found in the Page Code dropdown menu and select Show only unique url's in result in the Url grouping dropdown menu.

Note that the URL group is different from the other Page Code element because we only want to receive one email for each unique URL.

27. Change the settings to the following and click Done.

28. Click and hold the Y button Ad Status element, then drag it down and drop onto the Page Code element. 

29. In the Actions menu, click on Email.

30. Change the settings to the following:

  • Enter email address in the Email to field
  • Enter [Client] - ALERT - Ads have been paused due to broken URL in the Subjectfield.
  • Enter Please see attached spreadsheet for a list Adgroups with 404 errors in the text field.
  • Check the Aggregate data in spreadsheet checkbox.

31. Click Save.

32. Click and hold the Y button Page Code element, then drag it down and drop onto the Email element. 

33. In the Actions section, click on Ignore Ad.

34. Click and hold the N button Page Code element, then drag it down and drop onto the Ignore Ad element. 

Congratulations - you have completed this process!