Use a bulksheet to apply conversion goals to campaigns

In the previous Search Ads 360, advertisers can configure campaigns to optimize with adaptive
and bid adjustments features using a conversion goal. This feature is no longer available in the new
Search Ads 360 and therefore is being deprecated starting February 1, 2023.

If you aren't already using Search Ads 360 bid strategies to recommend or manage bid adjustments for various groups of campaigns, you might want to consider applying a conversion goal to your campaigns. A conversion goal uses the performance history of selected conversions to set or recommend device, location target, and remarketing target bid adjustments based on manually set keyword bids.

Additionally, Search Ads 360 can also use the goal to automatically subdivide (or adapt) location targets, product groups, and remarketing targets.

Learn more about conversion goals. 

A bulksheet enables you to specify a conversion goal and settings for many campaigns rather than applying and selecting the settings in each individual campaign in the Search Ads 360 user interface. 

You can use a bulksheet to specify following settings in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising campaigns:

• Apply conversion goals to manual campaigns or shopping campaigns.
• Turn on or turn off the adaptive location targets, remarketing target, and adaptive shopping campaigns features.
• Set the Device, Remarketing target, and Location target automated bid adjustment settings. If you select the bid adjustment check boxes, the conversion goal sets the bid adjustments. If you clear the bid adjustment check boxes, the conversion goal only recommends the bid adjustments.
• Turn on or turn off email notifications about adaptive changes in campaigns.

Conversion goals manage different bid adjustments and adaptive targets in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising campaigns. For example, the location target bid adjustment setting is applicable only in Google Ads campaigns. If you specify the location target bid adjust setting for a Microsoft Advertising campaign in a bulksheet, an error will occur when you try to upload the bulksheet.

Overview of steps to apply conversion goals to campaigns

Before you can apply conversion goals using a bulksheet, you are required to create conversion goals using the Search Ads 360 user interface. You can't use a bulksheet to create conversion goals.

The overall process for applying conversion goals to Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising campaigns is as follows:

1. In Search Ads 360, navigate to the Bid strategy opportunities tab to note the names of your conversion goals.

   1. In the left navigation panel of an advertiser, click Bid strategies.
   2. Click the Bid strategy opportunities tab
   3. Click the arrow ▼ next to Select conversion goal to display the list.
   4. Record the names of your conversion goals. 
      Note that you can display the list of conversion goals in the Search Ads 360 user interface until you finish updating the bulksheet.  
2. Download an editable bulksheet that contains the campaigns that you want to update.
3. In the downloaded bulksheet, edit the applicable conversion goal setting columns. 
4. Upload the bulksheet into Search Ads 360.

 

Tips for downloading campaigns to apply conversion goals and settings

• Download Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads campaigns separately to help you specify only the applicable conversion goal settings. That is, download a bulksheet that includes only Microsoft Advertising or Google Ads campaigns.
  A conversion goal can be applied to manual campaigns and shopping campaigns.
• Include only one type of campaign in a bulksheet. Download only  shopping campaigns or only manual campaigns in a bulksheet.
• If you're turning on the adaptive location targets feature in campaigns, also include location targets in the downloaded bulksheet to verify that at least one high-level location target such as a country or state is available for subdivision in the campaigns.

 

Download an editable bulksheet 

Download an editable bulksheet that contains campaigns:

1. Navigate to a Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising engine account.

   Steps for navigating to an engine account

   1. In the left navigation panel, click All accounts.
      What if the left navigation pane isn't visible?

   2. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

   3. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

   4. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser that contains the engine account.

   5. In the "Account" list, click on the engine account.

   6. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the engine account page.

2. Click the Campaigns tab.
3. Optionally use a filter to display only the campaigns you want to apply the conversion goal to or check the boxes of the campaigns that you want to update. 
   Add the Campaign type column to the report to ensure that you're downloading a single type of campaign. This can help ensure that you specify the relevant settings for the campaign type. For example, only in shopping campaigns would you turn on the adaptive product groups setting.
   You can also create new campaigns and specify conversion goal settings in the new campaign.
4. Click the download icon , which appears above the reporting table and make the following selections in the download panel:
   • Scope: Current selection in table
   • Columns: Editable columns (for re-upload)
   • Include types:
     • Campaigns
     • Campaign location targets. (Google Ads campaigns only) If you're going to turn on the adaptive location targets feature, you should also select the Campaign location targets check box to verify that the campaign includes a least one high-level location target that can be subdivided. Each location target is listed in a separate row in the bulksheet.
   • Filters: Include rows with no impressions
5. Click Download.

Search Ads 360 generates the report and either downloads the file to your browser's download directory or sends an email, depending on the delivery option you selected.

If you selected to download a report and the report is very large, it may take a while for Search Ads 360 to generate the report. You can still use Search Ads 360 while the report is generating. A status bar indicates the progress of the report generation. When it's complete, a Download link appears in the status bar. Click the link to download the report.

Apply conversion goals to campaigns

1. In the downloaded bulksheet, apply a conversion goal to a campaign.

   1. In the Action column, enter edit to update an existing campaign.  
      To create a new campaign, copy an existing row to a blank row. Enter create in the Action column and update other columns. Learn more about how to use a bulksheet to create new campaigns.

       

   2. In the Conversion goal name column, enter the name of a conversion goal.

2. Specify any of the other applicable conversion goal-related settings for the campaign.

   • A conversion goal must to applied to a campaign to set any of the other conversion-goal related settings.
   • In Google Ads campaigns, if you turn on the Adaptive location targets setting, we recommend that you also turn on the Location target bid adjustments setting.
   • In Google Ads campaigns, if you turn on the Adaptive remarketing targets setting, we recommend that you also turn on the Remarketing target bid adjustments setting.
   • You can't apply a conversion goal to a campaign that is already managed by a Search Ads 360 bid strategy. You can remove the Search Ads 360 bid strategy and apply a conversion goal.
3. Upload the bulksheet into Search Ads 360.

 

Conversion goal settings for campaigns

Column name	Description
Row Type	Enter campaign. Specifies the type of item that you're creating or editing.
Action	Enter edit to edit a campaign's settings. Enter create to create a new campaign and apply a conversion goal.  You can't use a bulksheet to create shopping campaigns. You edit shopping campaigns using a bulksheet.
Campaign	Enter the name of a campaign.
Campaign Type	Specifies the campaign type. You can apply a conversion goal to a Manual and Shopping campaigns. Use the column for information only, to ensure that you specify the relevant adaptive setting or bid adjustment for the type of campaign. For example, don't specify an adaptive product group setting in a manual campaign.
Conversion goal name	Enter the name of an existing conversion goal.  If the conversion goal name doesn't exist or if the name is incorrect, an error will be displayed when you upload the bulksheet.   To remove a conversion goal from a campaign, enter remove_content. You are also required to also remove any conversion-goal-related settings if specified. For example, if the conversion goal is being used to adapt location targets and set device bid adjustments, you should specify remove_content in those columns too.
Advertiser bid strategy	The Advertiser bid strategy column should be blank for the campaigns that you're applying the conversion goal to. If this column contains the name of a Search Ads 360 bid strategy, replace the name with (manual) to remove the Search Ads 360 bid strategy and set up conversion goal.
Engine bid strategy name	(Google Ads only)  The Engine bid strategy column should be blank or set to (manual).
Adaptive setting: Product groups	Specify on to turn on the adaptive product group setting in Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising shopping campaigns. Specify off to turn off the adaptive product group setting. This column should be blank for manual campaigns.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't turn off the adaptive setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.
Adaptive setting: Remarketing targets	Specify on to turn on the adaptive remarketing target setting in Google Ads campaigns. Specify off to turn off the adaptive remarketing target setting.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't turn off the adaptive setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.
Adaptive setting: Location targets	Specify on to turn on the adaptive location target setting in Google Ads campaigns. Specify off to turn off the adaptive location target setting.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't turn off the adaptive setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.
Adaptive notifications	Enter the email addresses of people who will be notified when Search Ads 360 subdivides or removes location targets, or product groups. Separate each email address with a vertical bar ( | ). If the row is blank, notifications are turned off.
Device bid adjustment setting	Specify on to let the conversion goal set device bid adjustments in Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising campaigns. Specify off to let the conversion goal only recommend device bid adjustments.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't remove the bid adjustment setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.
Location target bid adjustment setting	(Google Ads only) Specify on to let the conversion goal set location target bid adjustments in Google Ads campaigns. Specify off to let the conversion goal only recommend location target bid adjustments. This column should be blank for Microsoft Advertising campaigns.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't remove the bid adjustment setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.
Remarketing target bid adjustment setting	(Google Ads only) Specify on to let the conversion goal set remarketing target bid adjustments in Google Ads campaigns. Specify off to let the conversion goal only recommend remarketing target bid adjustments in Google Ads campaigns. This column should be blank for Microsoft Advertising campaigns.   If you're using a bulksheet to remove a conversion goal from a campaign and this setting is on, you're also required to replace on in this column with remove_content to remove this setting. If you don't remove the bid adjustment setting when you remove the conversion goal, an error will appear when you upload the bulksheet.

 

Example

In the following example, in row 1, the settings create a Google Ads manual campaign and apply a conversion goal with the adaptive remarketing target setting and bid adjustment setting turned on. When Search Ads 360 creates or removes a remarketing target, someone will receive a notification.

In row 2, the adaptive remarketing targets setting is  turned off in the shopping campaign. The conversion goal will only recommend remarketing target bid adjustments.

In row 3, a conversion goal is removed from the campaign. Because the conversion goal was used to create adaptive remarketing targets and set remarketing target bid adjustments, remove_content is specified to remove the settings from the campaign.

Row type	Action	Campaign	Conversion goal name	Campaign type	Adaptive setting: Remarketing targets	Adaptive notifications	Remarketing target bid adjustment setting
campaign	create	Campaign1	Conversion goal 1	Manual	on	[e-mail]	on
campaign	edit	Campaign2	Conversion goal 1	Shopping	off		off
campaign	edit	Campaign3	remove_content	Manual	remove_content		remove_content

*Not all required columns are included in the example.