Use promotions in Google Custom Search

With Google Custom Search (GCS), it is possible to use promotions, which are special results triggered by a particular search query or set of queries. To use promotions:

1. Go to Google Custom Search Engine. If you're not already logged into Google at IU with your department's shared Google account, select Sign in To Custom Search Engine, and then log in through IU Login and Two-Step Login (Duo) using the group account credentials associated with your department's shared Google account.
2. Under "Edit search engines", find the search engine you created, and choose its name.
3. From the menu on the left, select Search features, and then, on the Promotions tab, next to "Enable promotions", toggle the switch ON. Optionally, you may toggle ON the "Enable promotions inside Autocomplete" switch.
4. To add promotion-triggering queries, select Add, and then, in the "Add promotion" window:
   • In the "Promotion triggering queries" field, enter the query terms users need to type to trigger the promotion. You can enter multiple query terms with up to 100 characters each (separate each query term with a comma).
   • To enable regular expressions, check the Regular expression box. With regular expressions enabled, an exact match of the query term is not required to trigger a result.
   • In the "Title" field, enter a title for the promotion; this will be hyperlinked using the URL you provide below. To capture and automatically add the user's query text to the title, include $q in the title; for example, if the query "deposit" triggers the promotion with the title CrimsonCard: $q, the promotion title will be displayed as "CrimsonCard: deposit" in your search results.
   • In the "URL" field, enter the URL of the web page where your promotion should direct users. You can add $q to the end of the URL to capture and automatically add the user's query term to the URL as it is displayed at the bottom of the promotion. (This affects only how the URL is displayed; adding the query term to the URL does not break the link to your web page.)
   • Optionally:
     • In the "Description" field, enter a description (200 characters maximum).
     • In the "Thumbnail image URL" field, enter the URL for an image file you want displayed as a thumbnail alongside the promotion title.
     • Use the calendar and time widgets to specify a start and end date for your promotion.
5. When you're finished, select OK to save your promotion.

Alternatively, to upload a pre-existing XML file containing a series of GCS promotions, choose Upload/download XML, select Upload, and then use the "Upload a promotion file" tool to choose a file to upload from your workstation or a networked drive.

To download your promotion(s) in XML format, choose Upload/download XML, select Download, and then choose a location on your workstation or a networked drive to save the file.