Review and set allocations in a single budget plan

This article is about creating or editing the budget for a single budget plan. For information about creating or editing the allocations for multiple budget plans at once, see Review and set target spends for multiple budget plans.

By default, the budget allocation table displays estimated cumulative spend amounts and estimated cumulative performance (conversions, clicks, or revenue, and CPA, CPC, ROAS or ERS) for each week of a budget plan. Performance estimates are italicized for future date segments.

You can switch between cumulative and individual amounts, and also change the date segments from weeks to individual days.

If you are required to spend a specific amount for a certain week or day, you can set the amount in the "Custom spend" column. The other columns recalculate future amounts to factor in the custom allocation. Learn more about custom allocations.

The numbers in the table reflect, and also change, the budget pacing chart that is shown above the allocation table. That is, allocations in the "Custom spend" column may change the graph in the budget pacing chart. Similarly, changing the target spend in the budget pacing chart causes the allocations in the table to update.

Actual spend and revenue update automatically

During a plan, the numbers in the table and the budget pacing chart update because the actual spend and performance numbers are included with or replace the estimates. For example, for a current week in which 3 days have passed, the amount shown in the "Spend" column is $1000. The actual spend for the 3 days $400. The estimated spend for the remaining 4 days is $600.

Learn more about how the table works.

Manual spend estimates in allocation table

A plan (the budget) can be manually managed or managed by a budget bid strategy (automatic). This difference is reflected in the table by the inclusion or omission of a column labeled "Target spend". If the budget is manually managed, the allocation table includes the column that shows estimated (suggested) allocations based on campaign performance history. If the budget is managed by a budget bid strategy, the column isn't included.

The "Target spend" column lets you compare the initial target spend estimates with the amounts that you actually spent by manually setting budgets and bids.

Search Ads 360-calculated allocations for a specific week (or day).  

Estimates include seasonality

Search Ads 360 looks for differences in daily spend when analyzing the historical budget and conversion performance of a group of campaigns and embeds these differences, known as seasonality, in estimates and recommendations. Rather than allocating the same amount for every week or every day of a week of a plan, a larger amount may be allocated to, for example, week 2 of a plan than week 1 or Mondays.

Budget allocation table columns

• Date range  Displays the date segments of a plan. By default,  the plan's time range is segmented by week. You can change the segments to list each date.
• Target spend (manual plans only) Displays an estimated (or recommended) allocation for each date segment. The amounts in the "Target spend" column recalculate when you set a custom allocation, specify a different total target spend, add or remove campaigns from the budget group, or change how the spend is allocated.
  If cumulative amounts are shown, the total in the last date segment matches the plan's target spend.
  During and after a plan, you can compare target and actual spend columns to assess performance.
• Custom spend  Displays an allocation that you specify for a date segment. This column is blank by default. If a budget bid strategy is managing spend, amounts in this column override the strategy and can impact the strategy's ability to adjust the daily or weekly spend to spend the targeted amount. Learn more.
• Adjusted target  Initially displays recommended (for manual bidding) or target (for budget bid strategies) allocations, in italics, for each future date segment. During a plan, a current date segment shows the sum of actual and target spend. Throughout a plan, the allocations for future date segments are updated to show updated amounts. 
  When a date segment has passed, the "Adjusted target" column is blank.
  If cumulative amounts are shown, the total in the last date segment matches the plan's target spend.
• Spend  Displays only the actual amount that has been spent in a date segment. Initially, this column is blank. 
• Performance (volume and efficiency) Performance is represented by the volume and efficiency metrics as defined by the plan's goal. It can be measured in the number of clicks and CPC amount, the number of conversions and CPA amount, or the amount of revenue and ROAS or ERS percent.
  Initially, for future dates, estimates are shown in italics, if they are available. For a current week, a sum of the actual and estimated amounts is shown in italics. For past date segments, actual amounts are shown in non-italics.
  The performance columns are blank if Search Ads 360 can't estimate performance.

It's the 2nd week of September. The "Spend" and performance columns for the 2nd week include actual and estimated amounts.

 

The budget is allocated as follows for each week of a plan that includes a budget bid strategy:

Adjusted target

Week 1 (7 days): $2578

Week 2 (7 days): $5361 -- current week

Week 3 (7 days): $5563

Week 4 (7 days): $5694

Week 5 (1 day): $805

 

Spend

Week 1 (7 days): $2578

Week 2 (7 days): $5300 -- current week. Spend is the actual amount that has been spent, plus estimated spend.

Week 3 (7 days): 

Week 4 (7 days): 

Week 5 (1 day): 

 

Revenue

Week 1 (7 days): $5000

Week 2 (7 days): $9000 -- current week. Revenue (one of the performance factors) is the actual plus estimated revenue for the current week.

Week 3 (7 days): $5000

Week 4 (7 days): $5000

Week 5 (1 day): $5000

 

Set custom allocations

1. Start creating a budget plan.
2. Click Continue until you reach the "View pacing and allocations" step.
3. Optional. Configure the allocation table to show the amounts the way you want them.
   • By default, the allocation table is segmented by week. If you want to view daily allocations, next to "View by", click the arrow  and then click Day.
   • If you start your advertising weeks on a day other than Sunday, next to "Start weeks on", click the arrow  and then click the day that you want.
   • By default, the allocation table displays cumulative amounts. To switch to individual amounts, click the more icon , and then click Show cumulative amounts.
4. To set a different amount for a specific week or day of the plan, enter the amount in the "Custom spend" column.
   Search Ads 360 automatically recalculates future allocations and other amounts.

   If you specify amounts for each day in a week and an amount for the week, the sum for the days must equal the amount for the week.

    

   Search Ads 360 won't change any of your custom allocations
   Be aware that the values in the other columns in the table may automatically update over time to reflect updated information, such as changes to bids, budgets, and adding or removing campaigns from the budget group.

   Learn more about the allocation table.

5. Click Continue.

To return to an earlier step in the budget plan, in the left navigation, click the step. 

 

Next steps

• Optional. Specify other goals only for reporting.
• Review plan settings before saving the plan.