When you’ve turned on campaign optimization, these settings guide how the optimizer sets bids and spends your campaign’s monthly budget in a way that best meets your business goals and values. They also define default guidelines at the ad group level; this way, when campaign optimization is turned off or unavailable for your account, you still have default guidelines for ad display optimization.
- Before You Begin—Important Things to Know
- Types of Campaign Optimization
- Opening the "Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines" Page
- Optimizing a Campaign for a Business Objective Target
- Optimizing a Campaign for Conversion Funnel Events
- Specifying Default Guidelines for Ad Display Optimization
- Setting Bid Options
- Setting Budget Allowance
- Setting Importance Levels
- Specifying Conversion and Revenue Preferences
Before You Begin—Important Things to Know
- Campaign optimization automatically helps maximize the effectiveness of your spending based on the guidelines you provide here. The optimizer is designed to adjust bids and other campaign settings in a way that helps meet your specified business values and performance goals, while also factoring in your campaign's historical performance and estimated future performance.
- Campaign optimization only runs with Sponsored Search. You can define optimization guidelines now, but the optimizer will not run until you turn on Sponsored Search for the campaign.
- The optimizer does not support Content Match. When campaign optimization is on, the optimizer automatically turns Content Match off for all ad groups in the optimized campaign.
- When campaign optimization is in progress, you cannot manually alter the match types (Advanced or Standard) that apply to ad groups and keywords in your campaign, unless you turn optimization off. The optimizer is designed to help pick the best match types given your stated performance goals.
- Ad groups default to the campaign settings you define in this page. This provides a fast way to define guidelines for both campaign optimization and ad display optimization within each ad group. Then, depending on the optimization scenario you’ve set up for your account and campaign, you can override selected settings at the ad group level on an individual basis.
- Not every advertiser has campaign optimization enabled for their account. Thus, you might not have access to some of the features described in this Help topic.
Types of Campaign Optimization
For a given campaign, you can optimize your bids and budget expenditure using one of these methods:
- Business Objective. The optimizer tries to reach a performance goal for your campaign without exceeding it. To define the goal, you need to select a metric (like cost-per-click or cost-per-acquisition) and set its target value.
- Conversion Funnel. The optimizer tries to spend the campaign budget based on the priorities you set for events in the conversion funnel (clicks, impressions, conversions, revenue). For example, do you favor ad impressions more than clicks? Or, are conversions of greatest importance to you?
You can also specify other settings that guide how the optimizer tries to meet your goals. For example, you can specify ad placement preferences, bidding constraints, and more.
To help you decide which optimization type to use, consider these scenarios:
| If you want to... | Use this optimization type... | Which allows you to... |
|---|---|---|
| Spend within a fixed budget as effectively as possible based on how you value events in the conversion funnel. | Conversion Funnel | Specify the relative importance of ad conversions, revenue, clicks, and impressions to your business. |
| Spend within a fixed budget while satisfying a specific performance requirement. | Business Objective | Define a specific measure of performance as your campaign goal. |
| Spend as much as possible while satisfying a specific performance requirement. | Business Objective | Define a specific measure of performance as your campaign goal, and an unlimited budget allowance. |
Opening the Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines Page
There are two ways to open the Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines page:
- from the Campaign Settings page, or
- if your account supports campaign optimization, within the workflow to turn on campaign optimization
To open the Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines page on demand
- From the Campaigns tab, click the name of the campaign you’re interested in.
- Click the Campaign Settings link. This opens the Campaign Settings page.
- In the Campaign Optimization Guidelines panel, click Edit.
When you want to turn on campaign optimization (for an account that supports it)
- From the Campaigns tab, click the name of the campaign you want to optimize.
- Under Campaign Performance, click Change to the right of the Campaign Optimization label.
- If you see the Campaign Optimization Settings page, click Next: Budget and Schedule. (If the campaign optimizer is running already, you won’t see this page.)
- If you’re turning on campaign optimization for the first time, select the Yes option under Campaign Optimization, then define your monthly budget.
- Click Next: Set Optimization Guidelines.
Optimizing a Campaign for a Business Objective Target
To optimize a campaign for a business objective target, you need to select one of the following metrics and then set it equal to a target value:
- Impressions, as measured by CPM—Cost per thousand (Mil) impressions
- Clicks, as measured by CPC—Cost per Click
- Conversions, as measured by CPA—Cost per Acquisition
- Revenue, as measured by ROAS—Return on Ad Spend
This is the performance goal the optimizer tries to reach for the campaign. For example, if you select Conversions and set the target to $18, it’s like saying you want to optimize to a performance goal of CPA=$18.
When Conversions and/or Revenue metrics are missing from the selection list
This means either:
- data collection tags are disabled for your account, or
- the analytics settings for optimization exclude one or both of these metrics
If you want to optimize for Conversions or Revenue, you must embed data collection tags in your site’s web pages. These tags track events like conversion and revenue transactions, which the optimizer uses to predict ad performance.
To enable Conversion or Revenue as performance metrics
Set up data collection tags as follows:
- Enable and configure analytics for your account. From the Administration tab, click Analytics.
- Use controls in the Analytics Settings page to copy and configure custom data collection tags, then embed these tags into appropriate pages on your web site.
- From the Optimization Settings tab in the Analytics page, select the appropriate option to either include or exclude conversions or revenue for optimization.
Note: Expect some delay before the conversion and revenue metrics appear. The system needs to acquire adequate data before it can optimize for these metrics.
To optimize for a business objective target
- If your account supports campaign optimization, make sure it is turned on. If not, follow the instructions in Opening the "Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines" Page.
- In the Optimization Type field, select Business Objective.
- Define the optimization goal for your campaign. Choose your goal carefully. Please note that if you change your goal once campaign optimization is in progress, the optimizer needs to adjust to the change. If the change is significant - for example, you make a large change to the target value or you switch to a different metric - it can take an extended period of time for the change to fully affect how your campaign is optimized:
- In the Business Objective Metric field, select the performance measure you want the optimizer to use.
- In the Business Objective Target Value field, set a value that reflects what you want the optimizer to try to reach (but not exceed) for your chosen metric.
- To let the optimizer spend above your campaign monthly budget while also trying to satisfy your campaign optimization goal (specified in step 2), define Budget Allowance:
- To limit the amount of additional budget, select Percentage of Budget from the dropdown, then specify a percentage value where {Monthly Budget + (Monthly Budget * Percentage) = Budget Cap
- To allow for an unlimited budget, select No Limit from the dropdown.
- Otherwise, select None from the dropdown. See Setting Budget Allowance to learn more.
- If you want your ad placed with a given rank or higher, check the Preferred Minimum Position box and enter the value for the lowest rank you want. For example, if you want your ad to appear as one of the top three listings in the results, specify 3.
- Select the Bid Limit Headroom percentage, which defines the amount the optimizer adds to a current bid to set an initial or revised bid limit. Do the following:
- If you’re running campaign optimization for the first time, select 10% or higher. The optimizer needs some amount of headroom to begin optimization.
- If you’ve been running campaign optimization and don’t want to reapply headroom, select Don’t Reapply. Otherwise, select 10% or higher to recalculate bid limits for ad groups and keywords in the campaign.
- Optionally set Campaign Bid Limit. Keywords inherit this value unless their current bids are higher. See Setting Bid Options to learn more.
- Click Save Changes.
Note: We recommend periodically reapplying headroom. This helps the optimizer do a better job allocating the campaign budget in the most efficient way. See Setting Bid Options to learn more.
Optimizing a Campaign for Conversion Funnel Events
The Conversion Funnel method allows you to profile the relative importance of impressions, clicks, conversions, or revenue to your business. You can do so using either of two modes:
- Basic Mode, which allows you to set priorities in the conversion funnel using qualitative importance levels: High, Medium, Low, Not Important. Other settings include preferred ad position in the results, conversion rates, revenue per conversion, and how much you’ll let the optimizer raise bids. Use this mode when you want to model your business priorities in a simple way.
- Advanced Mode, which works like Basic Mode, also lets you set monetary values to establish the importance of events in the conversion funnel. Use this mode when you want to fine tune your business priorities.
To optimize for conversion funnel events using Basic Mode
- If your account supports campaign optimization, make sure it is turned on. If not, follow the instructions in Opening the "Define Campaign Optimization Guidelines" Page.
- In the Optimization Type field, select Conversion Funnel.
- In the Mode field, select Basic.
- For the Customer Seeing Your Ad (impressions) and the Customer Clicking Your Ad (clicks) fields, select a level based on the relative importance of impression and click events to each other (and to conversion events, if relevant). See Setting Importance Levels to learn more.
- If conversions or revenue is important to you, check the Optimize Based On Conversions or Revenue box, then do the following:
- If you're interested in number of conversions rather than revenue, select Conversions; otherwise, select Revenue from Conversions.
- Select an importance level relative to impression and click events.
- Specify how the optimizer should calculate conversion and revenue; see Specifying Conversion and Revenue Preferences.
- If you want your ad placed with a given rank or higher, check the Preferred Minimum Position box and enter the value for the lowest rank you want. For example, if you want your ad to appear as one of the top three listings in the results, specify 3.
- Select the Bid Limit Headroom percentage, which defines the amount the optimizer adds to a current bid to set an initial or revised bid limit. Do the following:
- If you’re running campaign optimization for the first time, select 10% or higher. The optimizer needs some amount of headroom to begin optimization..
- If you’ve been running campaign optimization and don’t want to reapply headroom, select Don’t Reapply. Otherwise, select 10% or higher to recalculate bid limits based on current bids.
Note: We recommend periodically reapplying headroom. This helps the optimizer do a better job allocating the campaign budget in the most efficient way. See Setting Bid Options to learn more.
Optionally set Campaign Bid Limit. Keywords inherit this value unless their current bids are higher. See Setting Bid Options to learn more.
Note: If you specify a campaign bid limit that is below the minimum bid required to keep any of the campaign’s Sponsored Search keywords or Content Match ad groups active, then those keywords and ad groups will remain inactive and their ads will not be displayed.
- Click Save Changes.
To optimize for conversion funnel events using Advanced Mode
- In the Mode field, select Advanced.
- Follow steps 4-8 in the instructions for Basic Mode..
- In addition to qualitative importance levels (High, Medium, Low, Not Important), set a monetary value for relative importance in the following fields:
- Customer Seeing Your Ad (impressions)
- Customer Clicking Your Ad (clicks)
- If selected, either Conversions or Revenue from Conversions.
- Manually enter values of your choosing.
- Or, click Calculate Now to have the optimizer suggest values based on historical performance.
- Click Save Changes.
Specifying Default Guidelines for Ad Display Optimization
Ad display optimization uses the guidelines specified at the ad group level. However, by default, ad groups inherit the guidelines of their campaign. This means you can set ad group optimization guidelines from this page even when your account does not support campaign optimization or when you’ve turned it off.
What’s different when campaign optimization is turned off or disabled
Settings for bid options, budget management, ad position, and advanced conversion/revenue preferences do not apply. Here’s what you can expect given the optimization type you selected at the campaign level:
- Business Objective method —ad groups automatically adopt campaign-level settings; you cannot customize any values at the ad group level
- Conversion Funnel method —you can change the relative importance of funnel events by means of qualitative levels (available in both Basic and Advanced mode) and monetary values (available in Advanced mode only); see Setting Importance Levels to learn more
If conversions and revenue settings are missing
You are not currently tagging your web site or your account’s analytics settings have disabled data collection. See the instructions for exposing conversions and revenue metrics in Optimizing a Campaign for a Business Objective Target .
To learn more about ad display optimization
See Ad Group Optimization Guidelines.
Note: Bid settings apply only when campaign optimization is turned on. If you’re defining default guidelines for ad display optimization for ad groups only (campaign optimization is turned off or unsupported), skip this section.
The Bid Limit Headroom and Campaign Bid Limit settings help you control how the optimizer manages bids. These campaign-level settings provide a fast way for you to set ad group and keyword bid limits.
Bid Limit Headroom provides a way to set bid limits automatically based on current ad group and keyword bids.
Campaign Bid Limit provides a way to set a common bid limit that ad groups and keywords inherit.
Note: If you specify a campaign bid limit that is below the minimum bid required to keep any of the campaign’s Sponsored Search keywords or Content Match ad groups active, then those keywords and ad groups will remain inactive and their ads will not be displayed.
You can also set custom bid limits for individual ad groups and keywords where needed. See Choosing the Campaign Bid Limit value to use which explains which bid limits take precedence when you specify limits at campaign, ad group, and keyword levels.
Choosing the Bid Limit Headroom value to use
Bid Limit Headroom is a setting that specifies the amount the campaign optimizer adds to a current bid to set an initial or revised bid limit. As you raise this value, you allow the optimizer to bid higher on the keywords that perform best given your performance goal. That does not mean the optimizer will always bid higher. In some cases, lower bids produce a more efficient outcome.
The incremental amount equals the specified percentage of the current bid. For example, if you specify a Bid Limit Headroom percentage of 20%, a keyword with a current bid of US$2.00 is given a bid limit of US$2.40.
This calculation takes place for each bid in the campaign whenever you specify and save a headroom percentage.
When… |
Use Bid Limit Headroom this way… |
|---|---|
Turning on campaign optimization for the first time. |
|
Campaign optimization is in progress. |
|
Choosing the Campaign Bid Limit value to use
Campaign Bid Limit is an optional setting that specifies the maximum price you are willing to pay for clicks in your campaign. However, this setting does not affect custom bids greater than the Campaign Bid Limit. It only applies to ad groups and keywords that have a {current bid + Bid Limit Headroom increment} value that's less than the Campaign Bid Limit.
Table 3.
If you want to… |
Do this… |
|---|---|
Let the campaign optimizer adjust all bids with maximum flexibility. |
Set Campaign Bid Limit greater than the value of your {highest bid + Bid Limit Headroom increment}. This way, the Campaign Bid Limit applies to all ad groups and keywords. |
Manage bid limits individually for expensive keywords. |
Set Campaign Bid Limit to a value that's lower than the bids for the set of keywords you want to manage yourself. The optimizer will use your custom bid limits for these. The Campaign Bid Limit will apply to all other keywords with bids below this value. |
Manage bid limits at the ad group and keyword levels. |
Uncheck the Campaign Bid Limit box. This setting will have no effect. You can manage bid limits as you do for unoptimized campaigns. |
Note: The Budget Allowance setting only applies when campaign optimization is turned on and you’ve selected the Business Objective method of optimization. If you’re defining default guidelines for ad display optimization at the ad group level only (campaign optimization is turned off or unsupported), skip this section.
By specifying a budget allowance, you give the campaign optimizer permission to spend more than your monthly budget as long as the campaign meets its performance goal. This does not mean the optimizer will always spend higher. In some campaigns, spending the monthly budget, or spending a higher amount that's still below your budget cap, may produce the best results.
We recommend setting a budget allowance for most campaigns. This improves the campaign optimizer's chance of finding a more efficient way to spend your budget. For best results, consider the following:
- Define a realistic monthly budget together with a budget allowance.
- If you have a fixed spending cap, set your monthly budget slightly lower than the maximum spend, and set budget allowance for the difference.
- Do not set an extremely low monthly budget to allow for a very large budget allowance. This causes the optimizer to start with an unusually low spend rate. Thus, it can take a very long time (sometimes weeks) to adjust spend to a realistic rate.
- Choose your monthly budget carefully. If you make an adjustment to your budget once campaign optimization has started, the optimizer needs to adjust to the change. If the change is significant, it can take an extended period of time for the change to fully affect how your campaign is optimized.
Note: Importance levels apply to campaign (and ad display) optimization using the Conversion Funnel method only. They do not apply to the Business Objective method.
To judge how to specify the importance levels (High, Medium, Low, Not Important) for events in the conversion funnel (impression, click, conversion, revenue):
- Consider the value of having your ad displayed and compare it to the value of having your ad clicked. Which is more important to your business?
- Then, consider the importance of the number of conversions or amount of revenue compared to impressions and clicks.
These settings are relative to each other. For example, if in Basic Mode you set all your preferences to Not Important, the campaign optimizer produces the same result as it would had you defined all preferences as High. Assign priorities keeping this in mind:
- For events you value equally, assign the same importance level.
- When you value events differently, assign different levels accordingly.
To help you decide how to set importance levels, consider these scenarios:
If you want to… |
Consider importance level settings like this… |
|---|---|
Emphasize name recognition (branding). |
|
Generate leads (traffic) to your web site. |
|
Generate a large number of conversions. |
|
Maximize revenue. |
|
Advanced Mode
In addition to the qualitative importance levels provided in Basic Mode, you can use monetary values to quantify relative importance of impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue to your business. This lets you fine tune the campaign by providing the campaign optimizer with a more detailed profile of your business values.
For example, you could specify $0.05, $2.00, and $5.00 as how you value impressions, clicks, and conversions, respectively. Because the optimizer is interested in relative values, this specification:
Impressions |
Clicks |
Conversions |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Relative Value |
$0.05 |
$2.00 |
$5.00 |
Impressions |
Clicks |
Conversions |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Relative Value |
$0.10 |
$4.00 |
$10.00 |
The optimizer will yield the same results for both of these.
You can set monetary values two ways, either manually or automatically.
If you manually set values, think about each event in the conversion funnel this way:
| For this event | Set the value based on… |
|---|---|
| Impression | One of the following:
|
| Click | One of the following:
|
| Conversion | One of the following:
|
| Revenue | The minimum return on ad spend you need for the campaign to be successful. |
If you're not sure what values to start with, consider letting the campaign optimizer initialize values for you based on historical performance of your campaign. In the Tip box, click Calculate Now, then adjust the initial values according to your business values.
Specifying Conversion and Revenue Preferences
Note: Conversion and revenue preferences only apply when campaign optimization is turned on and you’ve selected the Conversion Funnel method of optimization. If you’re defining default guidelines for ad display optimization at the ad group level only (campaign optimization is turned off or unsupported), skip this section.
When you optimize for conversions or revenue, the campaign optimizer needs corresponding conversion and revenue rate information either of these ways:
- Have the rates calculated automatically based on your campaign's historic performance. Use this method whenever you embed data collection tags in your web pages and activate analytics tags for your account.
- Manually enter rates. Use this method when historic data is unavailable (your web pages are not tagged), or when you want to incorporate the effect of things like offline conversions or lifetime value.
To specify conversion preferences
Do one of the following:
- If you've embedded data collection tags in your web pages and want the optimizer to automatically calculate conversion rates, select Use Conversions Recorded by Analytics Tags.
- If you prefer to enter your own conversion rate, select Enter a Conversion Rate to Calculate Conversions, then fill in a percentage value for the Average Conversion Rate.
Important: When you specify a value for Average Conversion Rate, all of your campaign's ad groups inherit this setting. This means all your ad groups will have an identical conversion rate value unless you set custom values for individual ad groups. If any of your ad groups generate conversions at rates different from the campaign default, set custom rates for those specific ad groups. By providing accurate performance characteristics for each ad group in your campaign, the optimizer can do a better job maximizing your return on investment.
To specify revenue preferences
- Set conversion preferences. Follow instructions in To specify conversion preferences.
- Do one of the following:
- If you've embedded data collection tags in your web pages and want the optimizer to automatically calculate revenue rates, select Use Revenue Recorded by Analytics Tags.
- If you prefer to enter your own revenue rate, select Enter Revenue per Conversion to Calculate Revenue, then fill in a monetary value for the Average Revenue per Conversion.
To learn more, see