Best Practices for Conversion Optimizer

Here are some best practices to help you get the most out of Conversion Optimizer.

Use the Conversion Optimizer on mature campaigns:
The Conversion Optimizer relies on historical conversion data in order to predict an accurate conversion rate, so the longer a campaign has used conversion tracking, the more data the Conversion Optimizer has available to improve your ROI. For this reason, it's best to modify existing campaigns rather than create a new one.

 Campaigns with low traffic should run conversion tracking even longer before trying the Conversion Optimizer, and your campaign must have received at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days in order to be eligible to enable the feature. We also recommend using campaigns which group together related ads and ad groups with ads that are even more closely related.

Start with the recommended bid:
When you begin using the Conversion Optimizer, it's best to start with the recommended bid to help ensure a smooth transition to your new bidding mode. From this starting point, you can observe your performance and adjust your bid accordingly.

As with CPC bidding, the CPA bid you set is your primary control over how many conversions you'll get and how much you'll pay for them. If you want to increase traffic and conversions, you can raise your maximum CPA bid or try one of the following other options:

• If you're consistently hitting your budget, increase it to allow more visibility for your ads.
• Opt in to the Google Display Network.
• Add more relevant keywords to your ad groups.

If your average CPA is higher than you prefer, you can lower your bid, which will likely decrease both average CPA and the number of conversions. However, if you seem to be receiving fewer conversions using Conversion Optimizer than you did before using it, you should consider whether your maximum CPA bid may be too low.

Using Conversion Optimizer with multiple conversion types and values in a single campaign: The Conversion Optimizer will work with multiple conversion types and values in a single campaign. For example, if your website is set up so that products for sale are mostly on different landing pages, make sure each product and landing page pair has its own ad group and then set a unique maximum CPA bid for each ad group.

Guidelines for making changes to your campaign:
The Conversion Optimizer is able to adapt quickly when changes are made which have minor effects on your campaign's conversion rate. For example, the following are unlikely to have negative effects on your campaign:

• Editing your maximum CPA bid
• Creating a new ad group
• Deleting or adding keywords
• Making small changes to your ads (such as a slight alteration of your ad text)
• Changing the conversion type reported in your tracking code (such as 'Lead' to 'Purchase')

You should be careful, however, not to make changes that will have substantial impact on your conversion rate, such as moving your conversion tracking code or combining five different campaigns into a single one. In this case, you should turn Conversion Optimizer off in the short-term. (Note that sudden changes in your conversion rate may cause the AdWords system to over predict the probability of a conversion and could cause the average CPA to exceed the maximum CPA bid.)

While Conversion Optimizer can adjust to gradual changes in the conversion rate, if your conversion rate alters dramatically from day to day during a seasonal period, we recommend that you monitor performance closely and adjust your bids accordingly.