Google is extending the availability of bid and budget simulators to more smart bidding strategies.
Bid simulator for Target ROAS. The bid simulator has been available only for manual and Target CPA bidding. It’s now available for Target ROAS campaigns. The screenshot below shows a bid simulator for Target ROAS portfolio strategy, but you can also see the simulator icon at the ad group level in Target ROAS campaigns that aren’t using a portfolio strategy.
The simulator works the same way it does in manual and Target CPA bidding campaigns. The projected impact of a change is based on your auction data from the past seven days and assumes all other influencers, such as your ads, landing pages, your competitors’ ads and bids, all stayed the same.
Budget simulator for Maximize clicks, Maximize conversions. Both of these bid strategies aim to spend your entire budget in pursuit of maximizing the number of clicks or conversions the campaign can generate on a daily basis. If you’re using these strategies and routinely running out of budget before the end of the day, you may see the budget simulator icon appear in the “Status” column. It shows the projected impact of changing your daily budget. These simulations are also based on your past-seven-day auction data.
Why we care. The simulators can be helpful directional indicators of the potential performance impact from making bid or budget adjustments. As always, keep in mind the projections are based on historical data and actual future performance can (and often does) vary from these projections.
About The Author
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.