Google Ads moves campaign goal metric

Google announced it is now moving the campaign goal metric in Google Ads to an easier location to find it. The score is being moved near your optimization score, so it is easier to locate.

Google said it is being moved to make it “easier for you to understand how optimization score prioritizes recommendations.”

What is looks like. Here is a screen shot of the new location for the score:

How is this score calculated. Your campaign goals are determined by your bidding strategy and can be focused on conversions, conversion value, clicks or impression share.

Using a goal eases your decision-making when you create a campaign in Google Ads by guiding you to the specific features designed to help your campaign succeed. When you create a campaign, you can select a goal. The goal you select should align with the main thing you want to get from your campaign, for example, Sales or Website traffic. After selecting a goal, you’ll see relevant, recommended features and settings to help you attain the results that matter most to your business.

Changing your goals. You can update your bidding strategy at any time by clicking change bid strategy.  This will likely impact your campaign goal metric. You can add or remove a goal at any time and, if you want, choose to not use a goal and create your campaign without seeing a goal’s recommendations. To see more information about each goal type and some of the highlighted features each goal recommends, simply place your cursor over a goal.

Top recommendations. Google is also now highlighting the top recommendation for your Google Ads campaign. Google said “this can help you prioritize recommendations that will have the greatest impact on your optimization score and account performance.”

Why we care. These scores and metrics can be useful and sometimes fun to see. But keep in mind, they are no substitute for your true metrics, which should be about the return on investment for your campaign spend and if those ads are converting to real sales.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.