Contents
- Measure results
- Automate bidding
Measure performance
See how your ads perform at different times of the day, and use DS to automate your response
You can use hourly reporting in DoubleClick Search (DS) to identify time-sensitive trends and behaviors that otherwise would go unnoticed. Once you identify, analyze, and understand what's causing the trends, you can create automated rules that send email when sudden spikes occur, or that change bids or make other changes. For example, you can create an automated rule that runs in the mornings to boost bids, then create another rule that runs at noon to return bids to normal.
Automate bidding
Clarifying the behavior of DS keyword position bid strategies
Keyword position bid strategies set bids to keep your ads as close to a specific position as possible. For example, you can create a DS bid strategy that adjusts bids as needed to keep ads in position 3.
To simplify the way you set up a keyword position bid strategy, and to clarify behavior, DS has made a few changes to the options you use when creating a position bid strategy.
How you used to specify settings in position bid strategies
Previously when you set up a keyword position bid strategy, you'd specify a position range with a bottom and top position.
However, specifying the target position as a range led to some confusion because position bid strategies always set bids so that the average position is the highest position in the range. For example, if you set the bottom position at 5 and the top position at 2, DS always aimed for an average position of 2.
The bottom position of the range simply acted as a trigger: if your maximum bid constraint prevented DS from reaching the bottom position, you could instruct the bid strategy to either:
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Place a bid at the maximum bid constraint. (Show the ad as high up as possible.) This was the default behavior.
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Place a bid at the minimum bid constraint. (Spend as little as possible.) This was optional, and was set up as a bid strategy constraint.
This behavior was not as obvious as it should have been, so we've introduced a change to make our bidding decisions more transparent.
How you specify settings now
Now, instead of specifying a position range, you specify a target position.
DS will find the optimal bids for keeping your ads as close to the target position as possible. The options for specifying how the bid strategy should respond when it's constrained by the maximum bid have changed slightly:
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If the maximum bid constraint prevents the ad from reaching the target position, DS places a bid at the maximum bid constraint. If your bid is accepted, your ad will be in a lower position than your target while spending your maximum amount for a click.
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You can optionally set a low-position constraint. If the maximum bid constraint prevents the ad from reaching the specified lowest position, DS places a bid at the minimum bid constraint. If your bid is accepted, you'll be in a lower position than targeted, but your spend will be lower and the chances that there will be any click at all are decreased.
Migration for existing bid strategies
To keep existing DS bid strategies behaving the same as they were before this change, all existing keyword-position bid strategies have been automatically updated as follows:
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The previous top position in the target range is now the position target. DS will find the optimal bids for keeping your ads--on average--at or near this target position.
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In bid strategies with the default behavior of using the maximum bid if the maximum bid constraint prevented DS from reaching the bottom position, the previous bottom position in the target range has been removed. If the maximum bid constraint prevents the ad from reaching the target position, DS places a bid at the maximum bid constraint.
Old:
New:
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In bid strategies that were previously set up to use the minimum bid if the maximum bid constraint prevented DS from reaching the bottom position, the previous bottom position in the target range is now the low-position constraint. If the maximum bid constraint prevents the ad from reaching this lowest position, DS places a bid at the minimum bid constraint.
Old:
New:
