Historically, moving from an upper funnel goal to a lower funnel goal could temporarily affect performance. For the most seamless transition to a lower funnel conversion goal in Search Ads 360, follow the recommendations below.
For example, you might currently use Target CPA and bid to an upper funnel conversion category like Page views. You may now want to bid lower-funnel using the conversion category such as Purchase, Qualified lead, or Converted lead.
Recommended steps
Measure and categorize your lower funnel conversion data.
- Report lower funnel conversion data consistently, ideally daily, when you upload conversions from offline sources.
- Ensure the lower funnel conversion actions you plan to transition to are assigned to one of the following conversion categories in the Search Ads 360 UI:
- Purchases
- Qualified lead
- Converted lead
If you already have a lower funnel conversion action in the wrong conversion category, adjust it using the account optimization or campaign optimization workflow.
Ensure the conversion actions you intend to transition to are set as "Primary". When marking as primary, don’t use them for bid optimization yet at the campaign or account-default level.
Track these conversions for at least 2-3 conversion cycles before you use them for bid optimization. Search ads 360 bid strategies will train on this data in the background to improve the transition experience.
Note: If an advertiser was already tracking a lower funnel conversion action that was not correctly categorized as a Purchase, Qualified lead, or Converted lead, they’ll need to recategorize the action accordingly. They’ll also need to wait 2-3 conversion cycles prior to using the action for bid optimization.
- Always keep conversion delay in mind when evaluating performance as you transition to the lower funnel goal. If you have longer conversion delays, expect a longer ramp up.
When ready, swap the conversion goals so that the Submit lead form event is no longer used for bid optimization and Purchase event is used instead. You can make this swap at the campaign or account-default level while remaining on Target CPA.
Adjust the CPA target to match the lower funnel conversions. This means increasing your CPA target. Directly use the historically achieved CPA during the transition, and closely monitor spend during the transition, adjusting the CPA as needed.
Note: To reduce performance fluctuations, implement a gradual change by adjusting your CPA target over several weeks across multiple iterations. Allow a full conversion delay cycle between each round of adjustments to understand the impact of each incremental change until you reach your desired goal.
- For example, if your historical data has a CPA target of $10 USD, and your new CPA target is $100 USD, gradually increase target over several weeks to avoid performance fluctuations:
- Week 1: Target CPA - $25 USD
- Week 2: Target CPA - $50 USD
- Week 3: Target CPA - $75 USD
- Week 4: Target CPA - $100 USD
Learn how to Change conversion goals and actions used for Search Ads 360.