Use the Optimization view

Optimize the performance of your insertion orders and line items

The Optimization view shows if your insertion orders and line items are on track to hit spend and performance goals. In the line item tables, the Optimization view will also show recommendations for changes to make to improve pacing and performance.

To get the most out of the Optimization view, make sure you've set performance goals for your insertion orders. Insertion orders can take up to 3 days to show optimization view data.

To see the Optimization view, choose Optimization from the view menu at the top of your insertion order and line item tables.  

How are insertion orders grouped?

The Optimization view in the insertion order table shows insertion orders grouped into the following categories:

  • Underpacing: Your insertion order is not on track to spend its entire budget by the end of its flight. This means its spending 99% or less of the spend rate (pacing) it needs to.     
  • Underperforming: Your insertion order is not hitting the performance goals you've set.  
  • Underpacing and underperforming: Your insertion order is both underpacing and underperforming.
  • On track: Your insertion order is on track to hit its spend and performance goals.
  • Inactive: Your insertion order is not serving. 
  • Pacing unknown: Pacing data is unavailable for the insertion order.

Optimize budgets and bids

Set better budgets

The Optimization view will show which line items are at risk of not spending their budgets, and also show you how to optimally distribute your line items' budgets in the Suggested budget column. 

To save time, you can apply all of Display & Video 360's suggested budgets to your line items in two clicks:

  1. Select the checkboxes for all of your line items.
  2. Click Action and then Apply budget suggestions to optimize all of your line items at once.
Display & Video 360's line item budget rebalancing is powered by the same algorithm used for automatic budget allocation.

Set better bids

Additionally, the Optimization view can show you suggestions for how to optimally adjust your line items' bids to get the most value out of your line items in the Suggested bid price column.  

Optimize performance based on other settings

You can use the Optimization view to see how well your line items perform along specific dimensions.

  1. Select Optimization from the view menu at the top of a list of insertion orders or line items.

  2.  Click the Segment by menu, and then select one of the dimensions to make your view more specific.

Download optimization recommendations

Click Export Performance Summary to download any "segment by" data in a CSV file for analysis outside of Display & Video 360. 

Exclude poorly performing environments, URLs, and days of the week

You can quickly exclude poorly performing segments from line items by following these steps.

  1. Navigate to the list of line items inside an insertion order.
  2. Select a line item.
  3. In the menu above the list of line items, click Segment by menu then choose one of the following dimensions:
    • Environment
    • URL
  4. In the list of segments, select the rows corresponding to the segments you want to exclude, then click ACTION  Add as exclusion in the menu bar at the top of the list of segments. 
  5. Click Exclude to exclude the selected segments from your line item.

Metrics in the Optimization view

The following metrics are available when you're using the Optimization view:

  Metric Definition Example

Flight

Days left

The number of full days between today and the end date, not including today.

8 days

Start date

First date of the flight.

Sept 1, 2018

End date

Last date of the flight.

Sept 30, 2018

Days elapsed

The number of days between today and the start date, excluding today.

22 days

Pacing

Budget

The amount of money Display & Video 360 can spend, or the number of impressions Display & Video 360 can purchase. This metric is based on the current budget segment only.

$100,000

Pacing The target amount to be spent over a given period of time. $175.00/day Even

Flight spend

The amount of revenue spent over the course of the flight.

$80,000

Budget at risk

The amount of budget at risk of not being spent, calculated as: 

(Budget) - (Projected spend)

$20,000

% Flight pacing

The actual rate of pacing, relative to the expected rate of pacing, expressed as a percentage, up to 100%, calculated as:

(% budget spent) / (% flight elapsed)

This is equivalent to Projected Spend / Budget.

13%

Projected spend

The amount of money projected to be spent, calculated as:

(Spend to date) +
((Avg. spend over relevant time window)*(Days remaining in flight))

$80,000

Potential spend**

The amount of money that could be spent, calculated as:

(Spend to date) +
((Potential daily spend)*(Days remaining in flight))

$90,000

Performance

Goal

The performance goal of your line item, as specified in your line item's insertion order.

$4 CPA

Compared to goal

Performance compared to the goal.

25% better than goal

Units

The number of clicks, conversions, impressions, or other events that relate to your performance goal.

1786 conversions

Primary KPI

The primary performance metric for your insertion order or line item.

$ 3 CPA

Secondary KPI*

The secondary performance metric for your insertion order.

0.05% CTR

Revenue

The amount of money spent over the specified date range.

$8,000

Suggested bid price**

Orig. bid price The existing bid price of the line item (at the time of the suggestion). $15
Suggested bid price The suggested bid for the line item.  $12

Suggested budget**

Suggested budget

The suggested budget of the line item (at the time of the budget suggestion).

$1000

Current budget

The current budget of the line item (at the time of the budget suggestion).

$1200

Insertion order budget

An adjustment to meet the insertion order budget proportionally across all line items.

-$15

Inventory Availability

An adjustment for better inventory availability across all line items.

+$40

Performance

An adjustment for better performance across all line items.

+$100

Interactions

Primary interaction

The number of times people interacted with or viewed your ad.

10,000 clicks

Avg.cost**

The average cost of each interaction, calculated as:

(Revenue) / (Primary interaction)

$10.00 per click

CPM

The average cost of a thousand impressions, calculated as:

(Total Spend) / (Impressions served / 1000)

$0.50

Viewable impressions

The percentage of viewable impressions out of all measurable impressions, calculated as:

(Viewable impressions) / (Measurable impressions)

75%

Impressions

Impressions

The number of times your ad was displayed on a webpage, in an app, or in any other medium.

1,000,000

Lost to budget

Number of impressions which weren't bid on because the budget had been spent.

500,000

Lost to bid

Number of impressions where Display & Video 360 bid, but didn't win an impression.

200,000

Freq. limited

Number of impressions that weren't bid on because your frequency cap had been met.  

100,000

Win rate

The percentage of impressions won out of all impressions bid on by Display & Video 360.

5%

  * Available in insertion order tables
** Available in line item tables

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