On February 4, 2021, we will begin to automatically update all portfolio bid strategies to target cross-environment conversions. Previously, Search Ads 360 allowed portfolio bid strategies to not target cross-environment conversions.
To give advertisers the most complete view of performance and optimize most effectively towards the full value across all devices, biddable conversion sources will be required to include cross-environment conversions.
This change only affects bidding conversion sources. You can still report on conversions without the cross-environment conversions included.
Floodlight columns targeted in a portfolio bid strategy may be updated to ensure cross-environment conversions are included. For more info, see About Floodlight cross-environment conversions.
Things to keep in mind
Advertisers might see a slight increase in spend as a result of including cross-environment conversions. This can happen because when conversions increase, CPA decreases and ROAS increases. Consequently, automated bidding will likely increase bids to achieve the target CPA or ROAS. This will vary depending on the change in conversion rates after the change to optimize to cross-environment conversions.
As with all new or changed conversion goals for a bid strategy, advertisers should expect a period of time when the bid strategy will converge on the target. A learning status card might appear within the first few days of including cross-environment conversions.
Best practices
For auction-time enabled bid strategy portfolios, we recommend that advertisers do not manually update their default conversion goal nor update the bid strategy conversion goal to include cross-environment conversions. Instead, we recommend that you let Search Ads 360 do this automatically starting February 4, 2021.
For intraday bid strategies (that is, not auction-time enabled bid strategies), we recommend that advertisers manually update each conversion goal to include cross-environment conversions. If you don't take action by February 4, 2021, Search Ads 360 will automatically migrate eligible bid strategies after this date.
To migrate intraday bid strategies
- Make a copy of the conversion goal and edit each conversion to include cross-environment conversions.
- (Optional) If you want to minimize the learning period for new conversion goals, create an empty bid strategy targeting the new conversion goal a few days before you transition existing bid strategies to the new goal. This optional step helps the Search Ads 360 bidding models learn without impacting any existing bid strategies.
After migration
After the bid strategies are migrated, we recommend you monitor their performance. Make sure budget caps are unconstrained and adjust targets according to your business objectives.