In this article, we’ll outline different reasons for Demand Gen campaign fluctuations and changes, why they may lead to changes in campaign performance over time, and how you can use the tools in your Google Ads account to understand what’s driving these changes.
Before you begin
All campaigns have some degree of fluctuation:
Ultimately it is an auction, and as competitors adjust their bids and targeting this can influence your campaign metrics. In this article, our focus is to help you identify the factors that you can control to help your campaign perform to your expectations.
A slightly higher tolerance for fluctuation is recommended with Smart Bidding:
In order for the campaign to learn and work towards reaching peak optimization levels, it has to test different bid levels and inventory sources. Your campaign may experience higher levels of fluctuation when you use Smart Bidding, but you are also likely to see long-term performance benefits.
Google Ads can now help you prepare for higher degrees of variance:
Note that if Google Ads detects variances in your campaign performance data that exceeds certain thresholds, we will surface Explanations in your campaign reporting to give you insights into these shifts. Explanations can help you quickly uncover sources of variance. By default, you’ll have explanations that compare the date range you selected with the previous period of the same length:
- Go to your campaign or ad groups page.
- Hover over values in your data table that are colored in blue with a dotted line.
- You’ll learn how this value has changed since the last period.
- Click View explanation to find what caused the change.
Assess performance based on your bid strategy and optimization goal
Before making conclusions about your campaign performance, it’s important to first consider whether the metrics you are focusing on match the metrics your campaign is optimizing towards.
For example, Target CPA helps you get as many conversions as possible at or below the target cost-per-action (CPA) you set. In reviewing campaign performance for Target CPA campaigns, the primary focus should be on Target CPA noting that the system won’t be optimizing towards other metrics of more secondary importance, such as cost-per-click or Impression volume.
9 common reasons why your performance is fluctuating
1. Recent changes to account or campaign settings
Editing any account or campaign settings, such as bid strategy, budget, conversion goals, audiences, location, language, assets, and ad scheduling can change your performance.
2. Conversion tracking setup and conversion delay
If there’s a sudden drop or increase in global pings or tag fires for a conversion action that your campaign is using for Smart Bidding, this can result in a drop in serving and spending as Google Ads optimizes towards your set conversion action.
3. Bids and bid targets
Your performance may fluctuate if your bids are set without taking into consideration the historical data Google Ads will use to serve your ads.
4. Budget settings
Your campaign may be more likely to have performance fluctuations when its budget is limited.
5. Creative asset coverage and diversity
For your Demand Gen campaign, it’s important to ensure you have a diverse set of assets that can be automatically combined into various ad formats that can serve across all surfaces.
6. Targeting settings and overlaps (Location, Language)
If your campaign is targeting a smaller group of users with very specific location or language settings, it may be more likely to have performance fluctuations. You may have multiple campaigns or ad groups in your account that are eligible to enter overlapping auctions due targeting.
7. Policy and ad review status
Any time you add or make changes to your assets or asset group, they will be re-submitted for policy review. Demand Gen campaigns must comply with all Google Ads policies.
8. Other account issues
Issues with your payments, billing transfers, or other account level issues can impact the performance of your account, and therefore the performance of your campaigns.
9. Auction dynamics
The choices that other advertisers, who are participating in the same auctions as you, make can affect your campaign’s performance.
