Create a seasonality adjustment event

Seasonality adjustments can be used to inform bid strategies of expected changes in conversion rates for future events like promotions or sales.

How it works

When you create a seasonality adjustment, you're scheduling a conversion rate adjustment (an increase or a decrease), which accounts for estimated changes due to an upcoming event.

For example, if you’re expecting conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, you can create a seasonality adjustment that increases the conversion rate by up to 50% for those 3 days. At the end of the sale, automated bidding can instantly go back to pre-sales behaviour without the need for a ramp down.

We recommend that you create a seasonality adjustment event only if your sales or promotional event is longer than 6 hours and if you expect a significant change in conversion rate (more than ±30%). See more best practices.

Seasonality adjustments are currently available for Search, Standard Shopping and display campaigns using target ROAS and target CPA bid strategies, as well as Smart Shopping, Performance Max and App (beta) campaigns using all bid strategies.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. On the toolbar, click the tools and settings icon .
3. Under 'Shared Library', click Bid strategies.
4. In the left navigation panel, click on Advanced controls.
5. Click on the Seasonality adjustments tab.
6. Click the plus button to add a new seasonality adjustment event.
7. In 'Settings', type a name for the seasonality adjustment event.
8. (Optional) Enter a short description of the seasonality adjustment.
9. Enter start and end dates and times for the seasonality adjustment.
   • The time range should be between 1 hour and 14 days.
10. In 'Scope', select campaigns and devices for this adjustment. Video and app campaigns aren't available. You can filter using one of the following options:
    • A campaign type within all accounts currently linked to this manager
    • Specific campaigns (in 'Select campaigns', the account name will be displayed in the picker)
    • In the reporting table, the 'Scope' column will show the number of campaigns affected and will link to those campaigns.
11. Select the devices (Computers, Mobile phones, Tablets) for this adjustment.
12. Under 'Conversion rate adjustment', enter the estimated conversion rate change during the event.
    • For example, if you expect conversion rates to increase by 50% during a 3-day sale, add up to a +50% conversion rate adjustment. This adjustment will help you optimise your bids.
13. Confirm the new seasonality adjustment event by ensuring that all the information is correct, as this will alter your bid strategies.
14. Click Save.
15. To view your new seasonality adjustment event, wait for a few minutes for the page to reload.

If you set a seasonality adjustment event directly in an external account (such as in Google Ads), that event will take precedence over any seasonality adjustments you set in Search Ads 360. So, we recommend managing all seasonality adjustments in Search Ads 360 to ensure performance as expected during the event's timeframe.