Create a Search Ads 360 plan and a recurring plan.
A plan shows how to allocate spend over a time period. You can optionally include a budget bid strategy to manage spend and bid changes in a plan.
Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a plan:
- A plan's time frame can't overlap with another plan for the same campaign.
- A plan's time frame must end on or after the day the plan is created.
- A plan's time frame must start on or after the day the campaign was created.
- The start date for a plan can be any date after the campaign was created, even past dates.
- For example, you want to create a plan for a campaign that was created on January 5, and today's date is April 30. You can create a performance that starts on or after January 5.
- You can change the time range of the plan as long as the plan has not completed and the new end date is after the change is made.
- You can't create a plan that ends in the past.
- The next plan you create inherits most settings from the previous plan. The target spend (and custom allocations) aren't inherited by the next plan.
- A plan's key metric can't be changed after creating the plan.
2 options for creating plans
You can choose to:
- Create one plan at a time
- Create multiple plans at a time
Regardless of how or where you start the process, Search Ads 360 creates one plan for each campaign that you select. So, if you select 3 campaigns, Search Ads 360 will create 3 plans.
Specify time range, campaigns, and key metric
- Sign in to your Search Ads 360 experience.
- Navigate to a sub-manager account.
- In the left page menu, click Bidding & Planning.
- Click Active plans or All plans in the sub-menu.
- Click the plus button
to create a new plan.
- In the “Date range” section, set the date range your plan will be in effect.
- In the “Key metric” section, select the metric you want to track. You can choose from the following:
- Conversion value (conversion value per spend)
- Conversions (Average Cost/Conversion)
- Click (Average CPC)
- In the “Campaigns” section, choose to use specific campaigns.
- Click Continue.
- If Search Ads 360 is able to provide a forecast based on the campaigns you chose, then the spend amount and values associated with key metrics are automatically populated.
If Search Ads 360 can't provide a forecast, for example, because one or more of the campaigns you chose doesn't have sufficient data, you'll see a message to that effect and you'll need to enter the spend amount and other values yourself. On the "Adjust forecast" page > "Your Plan" panel, enter your spend amount and other values.
If Search Ads 360 is able to provide a forecast, then at this point you have the opportunity to use the forecasting options to see how changes in spend affect the conversions you want to affect. Learn more about Forecasting the results of your plan.
At this point you also have the option to turn on the "Budget bid strategy" option. Learn more About budget bid strategies. - Click Continue.
- On the “Set up plan” page, do the following:
- Use the dropdown in the “Plan schedule” section to choose if you want your plan to recur or not recur. (See Recurring plans below.)
- View (or change) your spend target.
- You can set your reports to be flagged if your spend forecast goes above or below a set percentage, a set amount, or any amount.
- View (or change) your key-metric targets.
- You can set your reports to be flagged if your key-metric forecast goes above or below a set percentage, a set amount, or any amount.
- You can add additional targets, if desired.
- Learn how to Set performance targets in a plan.
- Choose your performance settings:
- Click Set up plan.
- On the “Confirmation” page, click Continue to plan to view your plan.
Recurring plans
On the “Set up plan” page, you can choose to make your plan recur (see step 12 above). How often your plan recurs is based on the date range you choose for your plan (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or custom).
- A plan can't be created after a recurring plan in the same campaign.
- If you choose monthly, your plan can recur Monthly on day 1 or Every 4 weeks on [day of the week the first day of the first month falls on].
- Monthly recurring plans must start on or before the 28th of a month to enable Search Ads 360 to automatically create a plan for each month. Plans can't start on the 31st because some months have only 28-30 days.
- Weekly recurring plans and plans that recur every 7 to 60 days can start on any date of a month.
If your date range overlaps with another plan in your campaign, you’ll see an error message. Click Change to next available period to have your plan recur.