About Multiple Target ROAS bidding

Multiple Target ROAS bidding optimizes your return on ad spend (ROAS) across portfolios and maintains individual performance targets. This approach distributes spend, capitalizes on seasonal trends, and maximizes portfolio performance. You can adjust your ROAS targets and maintain granular control over your groupings. The system shifts spend when you increase or decrease targets and bids. Learn how to Create a Search Ads 360 portfolio bid strategy.

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Benefits

Improved ROAS: Search Ads 360 optimizes across portfolios. It identifies opportunities that deliver better ROAS and preserves individual reporting within each sub-portfolio.
Gain flexible optimization: Specify flexibility for cross-portfolio optimization. Set minimum and maximum ROAS target ranges and capitalize on incremental opportunities.
Adjust targets dynamically: Easily adjust performance targets and react quickly to market changes and seasonal events without portfolio structure changes.

How it works

Multiple Target ROAS bidding groups existing bid strategies into sub-portfolios and allows you to set a target ROAS for each one. Multiple Target ROAS optimizes bids across all sub-portfolios and maximizes overall portfolio ROAS. It adheres to individual sub-portfolio targets and constraints. You can also set optional minimum and maximum ROAS constraints to allow the system to learn and explore more opportunities that are available at the overarching portfolio level.

Note: The baseline ROAS for each sub-portfolio is a soft aggregate target, not a strict guardrail. The system optimizes bids across campaigns to meet this average target. To set strict limits, use a minimum and maximum ROAS range.

Portfolio level

Below are the actions you can take at the overarching portfolio group level:

Select the portfolio's currency.
Enable auction-time bidding (ATB). Use with Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising.
Link existing bid strategies as sub-portfolios. Alternatively, create new sub-portfolios.
Get the average target ROAS. This is the aggregate target calculated across all sub-portfolio targets.

Sub-portfolio level

Below are the actions you can take at the sub-portfolio level:

Specify individual ROAS targets for each sub-portfolio.
Optionally, set a minimum and maximum ROAS target range. This provides flexibility and allows the system to find additional opportunities.
Set minimum and maximum CPC bid limits
Manage campaigns / Add/remove campaigns into your sub-portfolio.
Control bid adjustment settings for Intraday bidding.

Example

Imagine you manage separate portfolios for brand and generic keywords. You want to maximize overall ROAS and maintain distinct targets. With Multiple Target ROAS, you create a portfolio group with both sub-portfolios. You set individual ROAS targets for each, and let the system optimize across both. This distributes spend efficiently and drives more conversions or value.

How to use Multiple Target ROAS bid strategy

Create a Multiple Target ROAS bid strategy

Sign in to your Search Ads 360 account.
Navigate to a sub-manager account.
In the page menu, select Bidding & planning, then Bid strategies.
Select the plus button and choose Multiple Target ROAS.
In the “Name and settings” panel, choose the name and currency for the new bid strategy. The currency will dictate what existing bid strategies you can link to this new bid strategy.
Select Save.
- The Use Google Ads auction-time bidding and Use Microsoft Advertising auction-time bidding options will be automatically selected as they are recommended to improve performance. These settings will also be applied to any sub-portfolios created under this strategy.

Link existing bid strategies

In the page menu, click Bidding & planning, then Bid strategies.
Select Multiple Target ROAS in the reporting table then click Edit bid strategy.
Select Select bid strategy in the “Add bid strategy” panel.
Choose which existing bid strategies you want to link in the “Select a bid strategy” window. Only bid strategies that share the same currency as the Multiple Target ROAS strategy can be selected.
Select a name and choose a baseline ROAS for the linked bid strategy.
- Note: The baseline ROAS is a soft aggregate target for the portfolio, not a strict limit. The system optimizes bids across sub-portfolios to meet this target on average.
You can also select advanced settings like minimum and maximum bidding limits as well as minimum and maximum ROAS.
Select Save.

Edit a Multiple Target ROAS bid strategy

Sign in to your Search Ads 360 account.
Navigate to a manager or sub-manager account.
On the left navigation panel, select Bidding & planning.
Select Bid strategies.
Select Multiple Target ROAS in the reporting table.
Select Settings or Edit bid strategy.
You can change and make adjustments to the bid strategy.
1. If you want to remove a linked bid strategy, select Remove next to the linked bid strategy you want to remove in the “Add bid strategy” panel. Then, select Confirm on the “Remove from (bid strategy name)?” window.
2. If you want to remove auction-time bidding, unselect the checkbox next to “Use Google Ads auction-time bidding”. Then, select Confirm on the “Remove Google Ads auction-time bidding?” window.
Click Save.

Create new portfolio

In the page menu, select Bidding & planning, then Bid strategies.
Select Multiple Target ROAS in the reporting table then click Edit bid strategy.
Select + Bid strategy in the “Add bid strategy” panel.
Select A set of campaigns in the “Create a new sub-portfolio” dropdown.
Select Select campaigns and choose which campaigns to include in the “Select campaigns” window.
Select Select then click Save.

Explore reporting tabs

Multiple Target ROAS provides two reporting views:

Sub-portfolio view: Get performance metrics for each sub-portfolio. This includes actual ROAS, target ROAS, and ranges.
Campaign view: Get campaign-level data within each sub-portfolio. Review how campaigns contribute to overall performance.

You can use the hierarchy view to track the relationship between your nested sub-strategies.

View strategy hierarchy

The hierarchy view provides a visual layout of your bidding components. It shows how your nested sub-portfolios connect to each other within multi-target portfolios. You can also easily update your sub-portfolios using the inline edit, instead of going to each portfolio page.

To use the hierarchy view, you can follow these steps:

Sign in to your Search Ads 360 account.
Navigate to a manager or sub-manager account. Learn how to Switch between account types in Search Ads 360.
On the left navigation panel, select Bidding & planning.
Select Bid strategies.
At the top of the reporting table, toggle the Hierarchy view on.

You can only access the Hierarchy view when your active filters display fewer than 500 total strategies. If you can’t find the view toggle, change your active filter to a lower strategy count.

Set min/max ROAS targets

Define an acceptable ROAS range for each sub-portfolio. This setting provides flexibility for Multiple Target ROAS to optimize across sub-portfolios. It ensures performance stays within your desired range. Consider setting a minimum or maximum range for greater optimization opportunities.

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