• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 22, 2019

Google’s introduction of Smart Bidding is intended to give advertisers transparency into the factors driving performance and provide insight that informs marketing strategies. This week the company introduced a way to view some of the top bid signals in the bid strategy report.

Marketers can view the signals for campaigns using Target CPA, which sets bids to help get as many conversions as possible at or below the pre-set target cost-per-action (CPA) set, Maximize conversions, which automatically optimize bids and offers auction-time bidding capabilities. Both are for Search.

Support for Target Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and Maximize conversion value are not available today, but will become available soon. Top signals may include device type, location, day of week, time of day, and keywords as well as the remarketing and Customer Match lists.

The report might also include combinations of signals. For instance, it may show that people searching for the keyword “business” in Los Angeles on the weekend are more likely to convert.

The report also includes a Scorecard, a snapshot of metrics specific to the type of bid strategy. For example, a report on Target CPA will show a snapshot of the “Average Target CPA,” “Actual CPA” and “Conversions.” A report on Maximize clicks will show metrics for “Clicks” and “Cost per Click.”

Conversion delay will let marketers better understand how long it takes most users to convert. Google suggests waiting until all conversions are reported before evaluating the performance of the bid strategy.

Finally, the report will allow marketers to evaluate Performance, with up to two metrics over time. Marketers can choose any two columns in the campaign and adjust the time frame to compare data for any date range.