You can create a Video campaign that captures the intent of people likely to convert. When you set up a Video campaign with either the “Sales”, “Leads”, or “Website traffic” goal, you can allow Google Ads to optimize bids for conversions based on the average amount you’re willing to pay (Target CPA), or allow Google Ads to automatically set bids to get you the most conversions within your budget (Maximize conversions).
In this article, you’ll learn tips for optimizing your Video campaigns for conversions.
Before you begin
If you’re new to Video campaigns in Google Ads, review the steps for creating a Video campaign in Google Ads.
Set up and launch your Video campaign
Required
Conversion tracking
Set up conversion tracking on your website and make sure the global site tag is working properly. Optimize for lightweight conversion events (such as “add to cart” or “site visit”), and choose a conversion counting option that makes sense for your campaign. This provides valuable signals to our systems so that you can achieve your desired results faster.
Budget
Your budget settings affect how quickly we can optimize your campaign for conversions. For campaigns using Target CPA bidding, it’s recommended to set a budget that’s at least 15 times your target CPA. Use the chart below to understand how long it takes to optimize your campaign depending on the current budget.
Budget setting | Optimization time |
---|---|
More than 15 times your target CPA | 7 to 8 days |
10 to 15 times your target CPA | 2 weeks |
5 to 10 times your target CPA | 3 weeks |
For campaigns using Maximize conversions bidding, the daily budget should be at least 10 times your expected video CPA.
Recommended
Bidding
If you have a video CPA in mind, start with Target CPA bidding. (If you don’t know your video CPA, follow the bid guidance recommendations that appear in Google Ads when setting up your campaign.)
If your primary goal is to drive as many conversions as possible in a seasonal or promotional campaign, start with Maximize conversions bidding.
Audience
Start with custom audiences (based on search keywords), Customer Match audiences, remarketing audiences, or similar audiences. In addition to these audiences, you should opt-in to audience expansion to show your ads to more people who are likely to convert.
If you’re using custom audiences (based on search keywords), use 10-15 of the highest converting search keywords.
Creative
Add sitelink extensions or run multiple creative variants (at least 5 if possible, with a different call-to-action button, headline, or video asset for each creative).
Have a clear call-to-action: Use phrases like: “Learn more”, “Sign up”, or “Buy now”. |
Grab attention from your audience: Captivate people in the first 5-10 seconds of the ad with a problem statement and show how your product or service solves it. |
Repeat what you’re offering: Echo the call-to-action in the voiceover or include it in superimposed graphics. |
Ready to start?
Get more conversions
If your campaign is meeting your goals, and you’re seeing at least 5 conversions per day for the last 14 days, follow these best practices to expand the impact of your campaigns.
Budget
If your campaign is constrained by its budget, increase the overall budget. Follow the budget guidance recommendations that appear on the right in Google Ads when setting up your campaign.
Audience
Make sure that at least one campaign in your Google Ads account is targeting in-market audiences. If your campaign has demographic targeting layered, then remove the demographic audience layering in at least one ad group per campaign.
Networks
Enable Google video partners in your campaign settings to capture more conversions efficiently. Google video partners are high-quality publisher websites and mobile apps where you can show your video ads to viewers beyond YouTube.
Measurement
Use attribution reports to understand your customer’s conversion journey across networks.
Creative
Use Video experiments to identify your best performing creative strategies for new creatives and consider optimizing your ads.
Campaign type
Capture even more conversions by running Discovery campaigns in addition to Video action campaigns.
Best practices for campaigns using Target CPA bidding
Monitor the performance of your campaign for at least 7-14 days before making changes. If the campaign has performance issues with the target CPA (tCPA), here are some recommendations for improving campaign performance.
Scenario | Recommendation | Bid |
---|---|---|
The campaign is under-spending and meeting the tCPA | Expand your audience. Create ad groups for new audiences to manually find users more likely to convert, or add an ad group with no targeting, giving tCPA the widest possible audience to capture conversions. | Slowly increase the tCPA bid in 10% to 15% increments to improve delivery. |
The campaign is under-spending and overshooting the tCPA | Change your audience. Create ad groups for different audiences to find users more likely to convert. If you’re trying to create awareness for your product, use the campaign-level conversion setting to optimize for that audience. | Keep the tCPA bid the same. |
The campaign is spending evenly and overshooting the tCPA | Narrow your audience. If the current audiences are broad, consider layering on audiences that you believe may be more likely to convert. | Slowly reduce the tCPA bid in 10% to 15% increments while monitoring conversion volume. |
Best practices for campaign using Maximize conversions bidding
If Maximize conversions is your bidding strategy, wait at least a week (3-7 days) before making changes to your campaign. If your campaign has issues with conversions, budget, or CPAs, here are some recommendations for improving campaign performance.
Scenario | Recommendation |
---|---|
The campaign isn’t seeing any conversions |
|
The campaign isn’t spending its budget |
Add new ad groups for Customer Match audiences, similar audiences, or in-market audiences to expand your audience. |
The CPAs are too high |
Remember that it can take 7-14 days for auto-bidding to reach efficiency. If CPAs are still too high after 7-14 days:
|
Next steps
Use our checklist for driving online conversions with YouTube ads.
Take a Skillshop course on managing Video campaigns.