The new AI-powered feature in Search Ads 360 can help you detect and solve campaign configuration and performance inconsistencies proactively before performance issues occur.
On this page
- How AI Spotlight works in Search Ads 360
- What type of findings are detected
- How to review the findings generated by AI Spotlight
- When to use AI Spotlight
- Best practices for using AI Spotlight
How AI Spotlight works in Search Ads 360
AI Spotlight analyzes customer campaigns and bid strategies for configuration and performance findings on their account. You can know when your campaigns are configured inconsistently, when user changes caused bid strategy cost shifts, when bid strategy cost changes without a user change, and when there are budget constrained campaigns that outperform the bid strategy target.
What types of findings are detected
The system creates a finding card for the following finding types:
- Campaign configuration finding: Spotlight can help detect any deviations to your new campaign settings based on similar campaigns. To help you decide if you should modify the campaign setting, alternative configurations are provided for that setting while also highlighting similar campaigns that utilize those settings. Types of Campaign configuration findings include:
- Attribution model setting
- Audience setting
- Conversion goal setting
- Device modifier setting
- Language setting
- Informational bid strategy cost findings: When an unexpected cost change occurs and an action is identified as a potential cause, these events are classified as informational findings. To help you assess the impact of changes that you make, each finding will also include related metrics, allowing an easy comparison of performance before and after the cost alteration. The specific changes made are also recorded on the finding, eliminating the need to manually search change history.
- Anomaly bid strategy cost findings: An unexpected cost change, which can’t be mapped to any user changes, classifies the finding as an anomaly bid strategy cost finding. The Spotlight card will include related metrics to understand other important metrics relative to the change in cost and identify the top contributing campaigns.
- Campaign budget opportunity findings: For each bid strategy, a budget opportunity finding may list up to five campaigns with budget constraints that exceed their target performance.
Each listing details the campaign's outperformance, actual performance, target performance, average daily spend, daily budget, and conversions, aiding users in deciding whether to increase their budget. Additionally, if there are underperforming campaigns within the same bid strategy, the Spotlight card will list up to five of these to suggest potential budget reallocation.
How to review the findings generated by AI Spotlight
You can review all findings in Search Ads 360 by following the following steps:
- Accessing the AI Spotlight page: You can navigate to the new AI-powered insights page from the left navigation panel in Search Ads 360, clicking on the AI Spotlight tab.
- Viewing summary cards: In the AI Spotlight page, insights are presented in cards, with one card displayed for the AI Spotlight findings. Each card will display:
- Date of finding
- Finding name
- Type of finding
- Use the filters at the top to narrow down the type of Finding you want to review.
For bid strategy cost findings, you will also find AI Spotlight findings annotated on the bid strategy cost graph.
When to use AI Spotlight
Use AI Spotlight in Search Ads 360 when you need to:
- Detect and solve campaign configuration and performance inconsistencies proactively before performance issues occur.
- Understand when your campaigns are configured inconsistently.
- Identify when user changes caused bid strategy cost shifts.
- Determine when bid strategy cost changes without a user change.
- Find budget constrained campaigns that outperform the bid strategy target.
- Make decisions on modifying a campaign setting, as the system provides alternative configurations and highlights similar campaigns.
- Assess the impact of unexpected cost changes and identify user actions as a potential cause.
- Understand unexpected cost changes that cannot be mapped to any user changes (anomalies).
- Identify budget opportunities for campaigns with budget constraints that exceed their target performance and find potential sources for budget reallocation from underperforming campaigns.
Best practices for using AI Spotlight
Based on the feature's design and goals described, we recommend you consider these best practices:
- Investigate flagged item: Configuration errors can cause undesired spend and prevent you from reaching your goals. Proactively using the detected insights can help resolve these issues before they negatively impact your business.
- Use the detailed views and CTAs: You can expand the cards for settings with anomalies to understand which bid strategies and how many campaigns are affected.
- Be aware of potential false positives: This system compares against your current baseline configuration. Experimental configurations or intentional changes added to a bid strategy may be flagged as anomalies even if they are intentional. Ideally, future versions might filter these out, but for now, review findings to determine if they’re true errors or intentional changes.
- Always verify accuracy: The generated content from AI comes with a disclaimer that it may be inaccurate. Always review the detected anomalies and the suggested expected values to confirm their accuracy based on your campaign management strategy.
By understanding how the feature works and following these practices, you can effectively benefit from the campaign configuration anomaly detection to maintain stable configurations across your campaigns and prevent potential performance issues.