Understanding and managing Smart Bidding performance
Smart Bidding includes target CPA, target ROAS, maximise conversions and maximise conversion value. In this article, we evaluate the performance of maximise conversion value with target ROAS.
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Assess bid strategy performance
Once you have activated value-based bidding, you can assess and manage bid strategy performance with the following tools. When managing your bid strategy, adjusting bid targets and budgets are the best levers to pull to control performance.
Bid strategy report: You can use the bid strategy report to gain deeper insight about bidding performance and troubleshoot issues. It can show you how your bid strategy is performing on average against the set target (if applicable), and when your strategy might need attention. A good first step is to set a time frame that includes at least 2 full conversion cycles. It can be helpful to assess over longer periods of time, like a month or at least 50 conversions, for a clearer perspective. Learn more about bid strategy reports and how to find your bid strategy reports.
- Some campaign performance variance is normal due to auction dynamics and no action is required in these cases. Sustained spikes or drops may be a sign that other elements are impacting the performance.
- The bottom of the bid strategy report performance graph will highlight considerations like conversion delay or conversion reporting outages.
- You can also consult explanations within campaign reporting for more information.
Bid Simulator: To understand how the auctions works and to see how your target ROAS target will affect the performance, use Bid Simulator. For example, if you’re using target ROAS bidding and want more conversion volume, use Bid Simulator to see how you can lower your ROAS target to get the desired results. Learn to use bid simulators.
- Only evaluate relevant metrics.
- For example, if your campaign is using maximise conversion value with a target ROAS, look at your average actual ROAS performance compared to the average target ROAS within the bid strategy report.
- Don’t look at trailing, dependent metrics like cost per click and impressions.
- While evaluating performance, wait for changes.
- Account for conversion delays (the time from click to the time the conversion is shared back to Google Ads). Some conversions take more time than others – in some cases up to days or even weeks. If you compare recent performance with past performance, your recent performance might not look as strong because of conversion delay. Learn how to find a report on your conversion delay
- If you make significant changes to your campaign, give the bid strategy time to adjust. This could take a few days for smaller changes and up to 2 conversion cycles for larger changes.
Manage performance using these features
Adjusting bids and budgets is the best way to control performance
- Adjust targets: When using value-based bidding with a target ROAS, if you want to increase conversion volume, consider gradually reducing the target ROAS. This allows the bid strategy to enter more auctions and generate more volume. Alternatively, if you want to increase conversion value, you may raise the target ROAS. When you change targets, the bidder will react immediately but will need some time to hit the new target (give it 1–2 conversion cycles). Account for bid changes when assessing performance by assessing ROAS performance over time versus average target within the Bid Simulator. Learn more about how to make target adjustments with Search Smart Bidding.
- Set a target ROAS that’s right for you :
- Before transitioning to value-based bidding, ideally you will be already bidding to the desired conversion goal using a tCPA bid strategy. Make sure that you report values across all relevant campaigns for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles (whichever is longer) before determining your ROAS target and activating value-based bidding. Learn more about changing biddable conversion goals.
- Your ROAS target should be at or below the ROAS compared to your historical performance.
- To find this, select 'Modify columns' from the 'Columns' drop-down and add the Conv. value/cost column from the list of 'Conversions' columns. Then, multiply your conversion value per cost metric by 100 to get your target ROAS percent.
- Ensure that the time frame of your ROAS evaluation excludes the most recent conversion delay period to get an accurate view of campaign performance.
- Target recommendations can also be found in the Recommendations tab, during campaign construction, within the Bid Simulator or while creating a strategy at the campaign or portfolio levels.
In the event that you are anticipating a change in conversion rates due to seasonality or have encountered conversion issues, please consider the below features
- For low conversion rates, please check for any conversion tracking issues
- Seasonality adjustments: If you’re anticipating a major temporary change in conversion rates due to a promotion, sale or an increase in demand, you can use seasonality adjustments to inform Smart Bidding in advance of these expected changes. Learn more about seasonality adjustments.
- Data exclusions: Data exclusions may help to mitigate some performance fluctuations that ensue due to data outages. Data exclusions apply to clicks, so make sure that you include any day that might have been impacted by an outage. Data exclusions for Smart Bidding are available for Search, Display, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
- Example: If you had a data upload issue from 15–18 October, and the conversion delay is 5-days long. It’s recommended to apply the exclusion as quickly as possible, and make sure that you cover any days with potentially impacted clicks. So, we’d exclude 10–18 October. Avoid backfilling the data.
- Learn more about data exclusions and ensure that you follow all best practices.
For additional ideas on optimisation, please review this Help Centre.
