Review and adjust Search Ads 360 bid strategy constraints

As part of defining a Search Ads 360 bid strategy, you specify constraints to ensure that the bid strategy operates within the parameters of your existing business practices. For example, one constraint tells the bid strategy the maximum amount you’re comfortable bidding for any item in your portfolio, and another constraint can tell the bid strategy that you want your keywords to maintain a certain position range.

Constraints almost always reduce the efficiency of a bid strategy, so it's important to keep a close eye on the constraints you've specified. If the constraints are too narrow, you may see unsatisfactory performance.

To address any constraints that may be negatively impacting a bid strategy:

1. Navigate to the bid strategy overview:

   1. Navigate to an advertiser.

   2. Click Bid strategies in the left navigation pane.

2. Set the report's time range. The range should:

   • Start at least two weeks after you launched the bid strategy
     If you've already adjusted constraints, be sure that the date range starts at least a few days after you made the adjustments.

   • End today or yesterday

3. View the Bid strategy health column for your bid strategy.

   Your constraints are not significantly limiting performance if the column displays any of the following:

   • --- (The dashes mean that there are no performance issues during the report's time range)

   • Significant spend from new keyword temporary positions

   • Limited by lack of offline conversion upload

4. If you see a different message, such as Limited by max bid:

   1. Click the message.
      Search Ads 360 displays the specific items, such as keywords, that are negatively affected by the constraint. Search Ads 360 also updates the message in the Bid strategy health column to suggest a course of action.

   2. View the new message in the Bid strategy health column. If possible take the recommended course of action.

      For example, if the bid strategy is limited by Max bid, sort the reporting table by the Target bid column. This column shows the bid that Search Ads 360 would have used if there were no constraints. Then, either increase the bid strategy's max bid setting to something that's a little higher than the highest target bid, or override the bid strategy's max bid for the specific keywords that are affected.

5. After you adjust constraints, wait a few days and view the Bid strategy health column for your bid strategy again. Continue making suggested changes until you no longer see messages in this column, or until you've reached the true outer limits of what your business needs can tolerate.