Google’s smart bidding strategies choose a host of signals to tell any auction of bids. Google is now starting to display which signals drive output in order to optimize bids more for people or less likely for the conversion.
Doing a good bid strategy in Google Ads will benefit you far toward maximizing time, budget, and eventually improving your investment return (ROI).
What are Top Signals?
The key features of a campaign that impact its efficiency are high indicators. Google can instantly configure these signals in a smart bidding campaign based on whether people are more likely or less likely to switch.
The displayed signals include device type, location, day of the week, time of day, keywords, lists of remarketing and customer match, and probably certain other signals. Combinations of signals such as time and keywords could also be seen. In that technique, red signals are less likely to transform while green signals are more likely to convert.
Top signals are usually used in choosing conversion-based strategies such as Target CPA (cost-per-acquisition) and Optimize Conversions.
Some examples of Top signals can include, but are not restricted to:
- Device Form – the computer a user would most (or least) migrate to for this campaign.
- Locations: Which locations for this campaign have by far the most or the least important audience?
- Weekday – on which day of the week is your campaign likely to drive conversions the most (or the least)?
- Time of Day – at which point of the day is the most (or least) likely to be changed by your campaign?
- Keywords – which are the most or least likely keywords to activate your ad.
Where Are Top Signals Located?
You can see the top signals in the Report on the Bid Strategy. Please remember that this report is for portfolio bid strategies only.
In Google Ads, navigate to Tools > Shared Library > Bid Strategies.
After that, select a portfolio strategy as display below.
To view it from the campaign stage, allow the “ Bid strategy type ” column and click on the link to display the bid strategy report.
Google said that it would display search conversions for Target CPA and Optimize, but you might be able to see top signals for many other strategies. Hence, the above example is only for eCPC.
Why You Should Care About Top Signals?
The more you fully understand your audience in PPC advertising, the more control you have in Google Ads to build a high-performing bid strategy.
You would be likely to make better decisions about your plan if you allow contextual signals into account, and learn about how these signals affect your automated bids.
Remember having a red signal on one of your keywords. This warning could mean that this specific keyword is a bad fit for the related bid strategy. Also, it may be a warning that you need to refine your ad or landing page to maximize conversion possibilities.
Conclusion
Machine learning is now an important part of Google Advertising, which will continue to influence in future years. PPC administrators need to learn to accept it and use the software as best as they can.
You can build a bid strategy with top signals in Google Advertising that is tailored for better results. That said, top signals aren’t permitted to sit back and relax, but you need to monitor the situation and strategies to ensure high-performance.
