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Welcome to the help center for Search Ads 360, a platform for managing search marketing campaigns.  While the help center is available to the public, access to the Search Ads 360 product is available only to subscribing customers who are signed in. To subscribe or find out more, contact our sales team.

Best practices for setting up Search Ads 360 Smart Bidding strategies

Create a goal for Search Ads 360 to analyze

Start a goal

  1. Navigate to an advertiser.
    Steps for navigating to an advertiser
    1. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

    2. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

    3. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser.

    4. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

    Search Ads 360 displays the advertiser page, which contains data for all of the advertiser’s engine accounts.

  2. In the left navigation panel, click Bid strategies.
  3. Click the Bid strategy opportunities tab.
  4. If this is your first goal to create, click the Create new conversion goal button.
    If you've created other goals, click Select conversion goal Down Arrow to display the list.
  5. Select a conversion goal or click Create new conversion goal
    To view a conversion goal's settings, select the more icon More settings icon.
  6. If chose to create a new conversion goal, complete the steps to use an existing column as a goal or create a new column to use as a goal.

Use an existing column as a goal

  1. Start creating a goal.
  2. In the New conversion goal window, click Select a column.
  3. Under Column, click the arrow ▼, and then select a column.

    Only columns that use the last-click attribution model are listed.
  4. If the column's metric is Conversions, Search Ads 360 will use CPA (cost per action) to track your goal.
    If the column's metric is Revenue, choose either ERS (effective revenue share) or ROAS (return on advertising spend)
    Search Ads 360 will optimize conversions or revenue using the column's metric.

  5. Click Save

    You  can't edit goal reporting columns.

Add a new column to use as a goal

  1. Start creating a goal
  2. In the New conversion goal window, click Create a column.
  3. Enter a name for the column.
    The name of the column is also the name of the conversion goal.
  4. Select Conversions or Revenue.
  5. If you selected Conversions, Search Ads 360 will use CPA (cost per action) to track your goal.

    If you selected Revenue, choose either ERS (effective revenue share) or ROAS (return on advertising spend)
  6. Under Conversion source, click the arrow ▼ to select the type of conversion, and then complete the steps for the type of conversion.

    You can choose some or all Floodlight activities, Google Analytics goals, or formula columns that are compatible with bid strategies.

    • The formula column that used in a conversion goal can include only supported conversion types.
    • For Conversions goals, Search Ads 360 sums together the number of actions or transactions reported by the selected tags.

      In addition, the list of formula columns contains only those formula columns that evaluate to the number of conversions.

    • For Revenue goals, Search Ads 360 sums all revenue reported by the selected tags. This includes revenue calculated by Floodlight instructions that associate revenue with conversions reported by the tags.

      In addition, the list of formula columns contains only those formula columns that evaluate to an amount of revenue.

     

    Floodlight
    1. Optional. Next to Attribution model, click the arrow ▼ to select a different attribution model.

      The last click attribution model is selected by default.

    2. If available, select the Cross-environment conversions check box. 

      If Floodlight tags are the source of the conversions, select the Cross-environment conversions checkbox  to attribute credit for the various types customer interactions that lead to conversions. 

       

    3. Under Select the conversion type, choose one of the available options that is based on a conversions or revenue metric.

      • Conversions KPI

        1. Select the conversion type:
          • Select actions
          • Select transactions
        2. Do any of the following to select tags:
          • Type the name of a Floodlight tag to search for the tag, or in the Floodlight tags list on the left, click the move right arrows >>  next to each Floodlight tag or Floodlight activity group folder that you want to include in the goal. Select a Floodlight activity group folder to select all of the tags in the group.

          • To select all of the Floodlight tags, click Select all.

        3. Do any of the following to remove tags.

          • To remove a Floodlight tag, in the Selected tags list, click the remove icon  in the row. 

          • To remove all of the selected Floodlight tags, in the Selected tags list, click Remove all.  

      • Revenue KPI

        1. Click Select transactions.

        2. Do any of the following to select tags:

          • Type the name of a Floodlight tag to search for the tag, or in the Floodlight tags list on the left, click the move right arrows >>  next to each Floodlight tag or Floodlight activity folder that you want to include in the conversion goal. Select a Floodlight activity group folder to select all of the tags in the group.

          • To select all of the Floodlight tags, click Select all.

        3. Do any of the following to remove tags:

          • To remove a Floodlight tag, in the Selected tags list, click the remove icon  in the row. 

          • To remove all of the selected Floodlight tags, in the Selected tags list, click Remove all.  

    Google Analytics

    Conversions KPI

    Under Select conversion type, choose one of the following:

    • All transactions
    • Selected conversions

      1. Do any of the following to select goals:

        • Type the name of a Google Analytics goal to search for the goal, or in the Google Analytics goals list on the left, click the move right arrows >>  next to each Google Analytics goal or Google Analytics folder that you want to include. Select a Google Analytics folder to select all of the goals in the group.

        • To select all of the Google Analytics goals, click Select all.

      2. Do any of the following to remove goals:

        • To remove a Google Analytics goal, in the Selected goals list, click the remove icon  in the row. 

        • To remove all of the selected Google Analytics goals, in the Selected goals list, click Remove all.  

    Revenue KPI

    Under Select conversion type, choose one of the following:

    • Revenue from all transactions
    • Money from selected goals

      1. Do any of the following to select goals:

        • Type the name of a Google Analytics goal to search for the goal, or in the Google Analytics goals list on the left, click the move right arrows >> next to each Google Analytics goal or Google Analytics folder that you want to include. Select a Google Analytics folder to select all of the goals in the group.

        • To select all of the Google Analytics goals, click Select all.

      2. Do any of the following to remove goals:

        • To remove a Google Analytics goal, in the Selected goals list, click the remove icon  in the row. 

        • To remove all of the selected Google Analytics goals, in the Selected goals list, click Remove all.  

    Formula columns

    Under Select conversion type, click the arrow ▼ to display the list of formula columns, and then select the formula.

    Note that you can use a formula column that sums the number of all Floodlight and Google Analytics conversions. A goal with a conversions KPI can't use a formula column that calculates revenue or number of clicks. A goal with a revenue KPI can't use a formula column that calculates the number of conversions.

    A conversion goal's formula column can't include Google Ads conversions.

    Floodlight activity columns

    Under Select conversion type, click the arrow ▼ to display the list of custom Floodlight activity columns, and then select the custom Floodlight column.
    The list includes Floodlight activity columns that use all types of attribution models.

    Google Analytics columns

    Under Select conversion type, click the arrow ▼ to display the list of custom Google Analytics columns, and then select the Google Analytics column.

     

  7. Click Save.
     

Campaigns analyzed for Search Ads 360 bid strategy benefit

Search Ads 360 begins analyzing campaigns in each of your Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. When Search Ads 360 has finished its analysis, the reporting table in the Bid strategy opportunities tab displays a list of campaigns that would benefit from a bid strategy.

If Search Ads 360 doesn't have any recommendations for the goal, you'll see this message in the reporting table:
No recommendations for the selected goal. Check back in a week.

If you see this message, try any of the following:

  • Select an account from the Account list.
  • Wait a day or two and view the recommendation again. Search Ads 360 generates recommendations daily.

Note also that a campaign will not appear in the recommendations table if any keyword or ad group within the campaign is already being managed by an active or paused bid strategy.

Be sure to remove items from a paused bid strategy if you want the campaigns to be analyzed for bid strategy opportunities.

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