Your rules

What is Your rules?

When you give a reason with a decision on Triage or Search terms ("we sell this", "searches in other languages are fine"), Adintel keeps your reason as a note and files it into a rule for the account, not a verdict on that one search. Your rules is where those rules live: what each says, which searches it covers, the notes it rests on and what it has done since it was filed. You can edit a rule, retire it, leave a search out of it, or remove the negatives in Google Ads that it contradicts.

How does a note become a rule?

Shortly after you save a decision with a reason, Adintel reads your note beside the account's rules and files it in one of four ways:

• it says what a rule already says, so it joins that rule;
• it sharpens a rule (narrows, widens or clarifies it) without reversing it;
• it reverses a rule, so the old rule is kept under Replaced and retired and the new one takes over;
• no rule covers it, so it starts a new one.

Each rule keeps the words of your notes that state the principle, a one-line summary in Adintel's words, what it covers, the words that mark its searches (Marked by:, such as "spiderman" or "hello kitty") and the decision it makes: Keep, No action, Not as a search theme or Exclude. Under each note, How Adintel filed it says why it was filed that way. A note in the same words as one already filed joins its rule without being read again, unless that rule was retired or replaced. Reasons typed in Decide several at once are filed too. A note that could not be filed is tried again up to three times; after that, under Notes it reads Not filed yet. with File again.

What does a rule cover?

A rule covers every search holding one of its marking words, and every search it names, not only the one you wrote it on. Each is matched however the search is written: spaced, joined or hyphenated (spider man, spiderman, spider-man), singular or plural. A search arriving later is covered the moment it holds a marking word. A rule also covers a search the sorting says it followed the rule for, which is then added to the rule.

What does a rule decide?

When triage sorts a waiting search a rule covers, the rule's decision stands, whatever the model would have said: a Keep rule never lets it become a negative, a No action or Not as a search theme rule marks it No action, and an Exclude rule makes it a negative. A converting search stays No action under a No action or Not as a search theme rule, and becomes a judgment call under an Exclude rule. You still confirm a negative or an opportunity before anything is sent to Google Ads.

Searches you have already decided keep your decision. Your newest note wins any clash: with another rule, with a decision you made on one search before it (that decision no longer teaches the sorting), or with a line of your business context.

A competitor search is always yours to decide. No rule decides one, even a rule that covers it.

What does the page show?

The line at the top says how many rules you have, from how many notes, which is newest and what they have done since: searches sorted again under them and negatives removed. How rules work opens a short explanation.

Rules lists every rule in use, ordered by the day of each rule's newest note, newest first. Under each rule are the words that mark its searches, or No marking words: only the searches it names. Each row shows its decision, how many searches it covers, how many notes it rests on and whose they are, the day of its newest note and what it has done since it was filed; on a narrower screen some of these columns give way, and an opened rule shows them all. The chips filter by decision, by Disagrees with Business context and by Negatives to remove, and Find searches each rule's number and words, including its marking words. Notes lists every note, newest first, with the searches it was given on, the decision it was given with and the rule it is in; Find there searches a note's words and its searches. Replaced and retired keeps every rule that no longer decides anything.

How do I sort the rules?

Click a column heading to sort by it, and click again to reverse the order. The first click puts the highest figure or the newest day first, names A to Z, and Keep first for the decision. Sort by offers the same orders wherever a heading is not shown, on a phone and on a narrower screen. A reload or a link keeps the order. Ticks stay when you sort.

What opens from a rule?

Click a rule to open it in place: what it says and covers, then Searches it covers, Notes it rests on and Since this rule. Since this rule lists when it was filed, each note that joined or sharpened it, each edit, and each time it sorted waiting searches again or had negatives removed. On a phone each rule is a block with its figures labelled.

How do I edit, retire or use a rule again?

Edit and Retire are on each rule in use, on its row and inside it when you open it. Edit opens the rule in an editor where you can change what it says, what it covers, its marking words or its decision; leave the marking words empty and Adintel suggests them. When you save, Adintel checks which searches the rule covers and sorts the waiting ones again; if that check cannot be made, nothing is saved. An edit dates the rule today, so as your newest word it governs what it covers. Retire stops a rule deciding anything; the decisions it stood behind teach the sorting as they did before the rule. Until you change the view, the rule stays where it was, marked Retired, with the outcome, Undo and Use this again on its row. Undo puts back the rule's latest change, an edit included.

Under Replaced and retired, Use this again brings a rule back, with Undo beside it. A replaced rule used again is dated today, so as your newest word it governs what it covers. A retired rule put back keeps its own date.

How do I retire several rules at once?

Tick each rule you want to retire; the box in the column heading ticks every rule on the page of the list. While any are ticked, the bar at the foot of the screen names them, in place of the review bar. Its Retire button retires them together, all or none, and Clear unticks them. Each stays where it was, marked Retired with Use this again, and the outcome sits at the top of the table with Undo all, which puts back every one you have not changed since. Ticks clear when you change the view, a chip, Find or the page of the list. Editing is one rule at a time.

How do I leave a search out of a rule?

Under Searches it covers, the cross beside a search leaves it out of the rule, and the rule no longer decides it. Undo, or Put back beside it under the searches, puts it back in.

What are the negatives to remove?

When a newer rule keeps a search that a negative keyword in Google Ads still stops, the negative is listed on the rule, whether Adintel added it or someone added it in Google Ads. Review and remove opens the list: each negative with where it sits, who added it and when (for one added in Google Ads, the day Adintel first saw it). Untick any you want to keep, then remove the rest. You see Google's own check of each removal before anything is sent, and the removals are sent together.

Once its negative is removed, a term's card reads No action under the rule instead of going back to To do. Each removal is on the Timeline. Undo puts one negative back, or all of them together, at the same level and match type, with each card's decision as it was.

A negative whose words name a competitor is never listed: a competitor search is always your call.

What if a rule disagrees with business context?

When a rule says the opposite of a line in business context, both places say so. Whichever is newer governs. If the rule is newer, it decides the searches it covers, though while the line stays the sorting and the audit still read it. If the line is newer, the rule stands aside and decides nothing until it is newer again. A line written before Your rules existed counts as older than every rule. Remove the line in Business context takes you there.

What happens to the notes I left before rules existed?

The notes already on an account are filed together into rules that decide nothing until you review them. The page opens on To review: edit or retire any you disagree with, then start using them from the bar at the foot of the screen. A note you give after they are filed is filed shortly after you save it, even while the others wait for your review, and a rule it starts is in use at once.

Who sees what?

Everyone with access to the account sees the same rules. A teammate with view access reads them and changes nothing. In the demo the rules show Adintel's own summary of each, never the notes' words or anyone's name, and the buttons that would change something are switched off.