Monitor and adjust a Search Ads 360 bid strategy for new items

When you apply a Conversions, Revenue, or Advanced targeting bid strategy to brand new biddable items without performance history, the bid strategy applies what is referred to as the "cold start" behavior for the biddable items (indicated in the table by the blue icon , which will take a few hours to appear). The cold start behavior stops, (and the icon is removed) once the biddable item has received enough clicks, or the item is older than two weeks.

During cold start, a Search Ads 360 bid strategy attempts to reach a balance between getting enough traffic to observe performance, and spending an appropriate amount on the biddable item with unknown potential by keeping the item within a temporary position range. 

The Search Ads 360 bid strategy only applies cold start behavior to brand new biddable items. For example, if you add a keyword that is a year old but has no performance history because it was paused or has a very low bid, the bid strategy doesn't apply the cold start behavior.

During the data collection period, the cold start behavior:

• Overrides the bid strategy's primary goal, such as CPA, ERS, ROAS, position, and any monthly spend amount set for the bid strategy.

• Does not override min/max bids or campaign budgets.

If necessary, you can adjust the temporary position range for keywords. 

Adjust the temporary position range for biddable items

During cold start, the default position for keywords is 3-5. If needed, you can adjust the cold start behavior by changing the default position. For example, if you want to hold down the cost of incorporating new biddable items, you might decrease the top and bottom positions.  Be aware that changing the default position during cold start could result in spending more than needed or in taking longer to bid appropriately on new biddable items.

If you change the cold start behavior for biddable items at the bid strategy level, keep the following in mind:

• Avoid setting an aggressive top position (for example, a top position of 1) because you might spend more than is needed during this temporary data-gathering stage.

• Avoid setting a tighter position constraint (for example, a bottom position of 3 or 4) because it will cause a larger short-term deviation from the primary bid strategy goals.

• You can lower the cost of incorporating new items by decreasing the top and bottom positions (for example, changing the default range of 3-5 to 6-8). However, while this lowers the cost, it will also slow down the rate at which the new biddable items gain conversion data. It might mean some items won’t get sufficient clicks within the two weeks to be bid on effectively.

• Your bid strategy may not operate at its true performance level for up to two weeks after adding new biddable items. If you add a large number of items at once, the initial performance may differ greatly from what the performance will be after the temporary constraint is removed.

Follow these steps to change the cold start behavior for new biddable items:

1. Navigate to the Search Ads 360 bid strategy.

   Steps for navigating to a bid strategy

   1. Navigate to an advertiser.

   2. In the left navigation panel, click Bid strategies.

   3. Click a bid strategy name from the reporting table.

      Alternatively, you can do the following:

      1. Click the more icon at the end of the navigation bar to display navigation options.

      2. In the Agency list, click on the agency that contains the bid strategy. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

      3. In the Advertiser list, click on the advertiser that contains the bid strategy.

      4. In the Bid strategy list, click on the bid strategy.

      5. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the bid strategy page.

2. Under the bid strategy's name, click the bid strategy settings icon .

3. In the bid strategy settings panel, click Advanced Configuration.

4. Under Temporary position constraint for brand new keywords, update the position range and then click Save bid strategy. 

   The temporary position constraint applies to new keywords and new biddable items.