Discover your optimal tROAS bidding setting
Target ROAS, or tROAS, is my go-to bid strategy for ecommerce accounts with campaigns that have at least 50 conversions (preferably in the last 30 days). Side note: if your campaign does not have 50 conversions yet then I’d recommend using max conversions until you reach 50 conversions. But what happens if you’re already using tROAS and your campaign just isn’t doing what you want it to do? Maybe Google isn’t spending all of your budget. Maybe your actual ROAS (aROAS) is a lot lower than your tROAS. Discovering the optimal tROAS setting involves thinking through a variety of factors in order to strike a great balance between maximizing your return on ad spend without sacrificing your impression share.
To start, do a side by side comparison between your aROAS, tROAS, and spend to budget percentage over the last 30-60 days. aROAS and tROAS can be found in your standard set of data. To find spend to budget percentage you’ll have to create a custom column. Here’s how you create and add that custom column:
In your campaign overview, go to Columns > Customize Columns
Click on the blue plus icon to add a custom column
Enter the column name (for example: Spend to Budget %)
Click on text (it’s “visual” by default)
Copy this code, paste it in the code field, and save your column:
Cost.between_dates(report_range_start, report_range_end) / report_days_count()
Once you have these data points, you’ll fall into one of the following scenarios. Apply the recommended action based on your scenario to strike a balance between maximizing your ROAS without leaving revenue on the table due to conservative spend.
Note 1: before adjusting your bids, always use common sense to anticipate the potential impact. These are actions that generally work well.
Note 2: do not adjust your tROAS bids too often and in too large steps. Adjust bids by up to max 20% every 2 weeks. It is often said that every time you adjust your bids, your campaigns enter the learning phase again. This is not the case. You can only expect fluctuations in the first 2 conversion cycles. Filter these conversion cycles out of your reports.