Use the Ad Group Optimization Guidelines page to override campaign optimization guidelines for a specific ad group. Ad group-level settings also apply to ad display optimization.
About Optimization Guidelines for Ad Groups
These settings define at the ad group level how you want to optimize:
campaigns (when campaign optimization is turned on), and
ads (when ad display optimization is turned on)
The settings only apply to ad groups that have Sponsored Search turned on.
By default, ad groups inherit the optimization guidelines you define for their campaign. This provides a fast way for you to set optimization settings for all of the ad groups in your campaign.
If you want to apply different guidelines to an ad group, use the Ad Group Optimization Guidelines page to set custom values. The values you can customize depend on the:
analytics settings you’ve enabled for optimization, and
optimization type (Business Objective or Conversion Funnel) you established at the campaign level.
Ad display optimization helps find the top-performing ads in your ad group based on the optimization guidelines you provide.When the optimizer determines that an ad performs significantly below other ads in the group, it automatically deactivates the ad so it won’t display. Only your best ads will display, thus improving the overall performance of your ad group.
What happens during ad deactivation
Underperforming ads that you wrote yourself are turned off, but retained with your account. Underperforming ads you created using the Ad Generator are deleted.
Prerequisites for ad display optimization
The ad group must contain more than one ad.
Ad display optimization must be turned on. There are two ways to do this:
- For multiple ad groups at a time; learn how in Campaign Details.
- For a single ad group; learn how in Ad Group Settings and Ad Group General Information.
Ad groups must employ the Sponsored Search tactic; Content Match is not supported.
Initial guidelines for unoptimized campaigns
If campaign optimization is not available for your account, or you are not running campaign optimization, you can still optimize ad display in each ad group. Guidelines initialize to the:
Business Objective optimization type, and the
Business Objective Metric for the event at the deepest level of the conversion funnel that’s supported by your account.
What applies to your account depends on how you’ve configured analytics settings. Here’s how it works:
Table 1.
If analytics are… |
And you’ve selected this analytics setting for optimization… |
The business metric for optimization is this… |
|---|---|---|
Disabled |
— |
Clicks |
Enabled |
Don’t Use Conversion and Revenue Data… |
Clicks |
Enabled |
Allow Conversion Data to be Used… |
Conversions |
Enabled |
Allow Conversion and Revenue Data to be Used… |
Revenue |
Opening the "Ad Group Optimization Guidelines" Page
To open the Ad Group Optimization Guidelines page
In the campaigns list on the Campaigns tab, click the name of a campaign that contains the ad group you are interested in.
Click the name of the ad group. The Ad Group page opens.
Click the Ad Group Settings link. This opens the Ad Group Settings page.
In the Ad Group Optimization Guidelines panel, click Edit.
What you see depends on the optimization type you picked at the campaign level and how you set up optimization for your account.
Customizing Ad Group Optimization Guidelines
To set custom optimization guidelines for a specific ad group
If there is an editable field you want to change, do one of the following:
- To apply the campaign-level value to this ad group, select Use Campaign Setting.
- To customize the setting for this ad group, select the option to specify a custom value, then enter what you want to use.
Repeat step 1 for as many guidelines as you want to customize.
When finished, click Save Changes.
To change default optimization guidelines at the ad group level
Make optimization guidelines changes at the campaign level. These will apply to all ad groups in the campaign. Learn how in Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines.
If you want to change the optimization type
You need to make the change for all of the ad groups in the campaign by changing the optimization type at the campaign level. Learn how in Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines.
To learn more about optimization guidelines, see