A naming convention gives every campaign, ad set, and ad a predictable, structured name. Use it to organize, analyze, filter, and group performance data into actionable insights, and to manage an ad account as it scales across every channel you run: Google, Meta, Pinterest, Display, SMS, email, and anything you add later.
This document explains the thinking behind the framework and previews what each level covers.
What a naming convention does for you
- Creates a manageable ad environment. Anyone on the team can scan a name and understand what’s running.
- Supports analysis. Consistent identifiers let you filter and compare ads by variable that actually matters: offer, creative type, customer profile, funnel stage, and so on.
How a name is built
Every name in this framework is built from two kinds of identifiers.
Standard identifiers describe the permanent facts about a campaign, ad set, or ad: its channel, objective, customer profile, offer, and so on. Every campaign, ad set, and ad carries its full set of standard identifiers, in the same order, every time.
Testing identifiers describe a hypothesis you’re currently running, for example a creative format test. They’re optional, and only appended to the ads that are part of that test, for as long as the test runs.
What each level covers
Campaign
Channel, placement type, objective, budget type, bid type, and funnel position. These describe a campaign’s strategy: which platform it runs on, what it’s optimizing for, and where it sits in the funnel. Not every channel uses every category; a Google Search campaign leans on bid type, while a Meta campaign with budget optimization turned on leans on budget type instead. If the campaign is part of an active test, append the testing identifier here to. See Campaign naming conventions.
Ad set / ad group / variant
These fields describe who the ads reach and where the customer profile came from. Include date, customer profile type, customer profile seed, geo, language, and device. For accounts that use list-based targeting, segment-based targeting, or separate email and SMS sends, include list or segment type as well. If the set / ad group / variant is part of an active test, append the testing identifier here to. See Ad set / ad group / variant naming conventions.
These fields describe the creative itself: what it looks like, what it offers, and where it sends someone. Include creative name, ad type, offer, CTA, and destination. For channels with fixed creative dimensions, mainly display, include the ad format or size as well. If the ad is part of an active test, append the testing identifier here too. See Ad naming conventions.
Name jamming (short identifiers)
Name jamming means packing as many identifiers as possible into a name using their short form. For example:
instead of:
Name jamming keeps names short enough for automated reporting and platform character limits, at the cost of being harder for a person to read at a glance. Some teams name-jam everything; others only jam the fields that push a name past a platform’s limit. Both work as long as the choice is applied the same way everywhere, or both names are accounted for in filters and analytics.
If you name-jam any identifier, log its short form next to the long form in that category’s table, in the relevant SOP. That way anyone on the team can look up what a short code means, and reporting can map short and long forms back to each other.
Never rename or remove an identifier once it’s used in a live or historical campaign. Add new identifiers to the list instead. Renaming fragments your data, since reporting can no longer group the old and new names together. Removing loses the record entirely.
