This article explores Google's SA360 Forecasting Tool - and how businesses can use it to gain performance forecasts based on existing account data, in a highly customizable format.
We’ve all been asked those questions; if we were to add £10k to next month’s budget, what would that do to CPA? If we wanted to increase revenue by 25%, what would we need to spend? What would spend look like at a ROAS of 500%? If you’re looking to get a quick & informed answer to these age-old questions or simply get a helping hand with your monthly / quarterly forecasting, then you should seriously consider SA360’s performance plans & forecasting (previously Performance Centre). This easy to use tool can give you performance forecasts based on your existing account data, in a highly customizable format.
And it doesn’t stop at those top line questions. Next time you need to pull back spend, why not generate a quick forecast to see the best campaigns to reduce budgets for while maintaining performance? Deciding how you should optimally split extra spend between campaigns for your upcoming sale? Here you can get data-driven recommendations for those more granular account decisions. Even if you’re just after a second opinion or looking to validate your own calculations, if you’re using SA360 then there’s little reason not to be making the most of the forecasting tool.
Getting Started:
It’s more streamlined than ever to get a forecast in SA360. The first thing you need to do is select the campaigns you want to forecast for, and there’s a few ways to go about it.
Selecting Campaigns:
The quickest way to get started is simply to select the campaigns you want right from the campaigns view. You’ll see a new option in the blue edit bar to “Forecast” - hit this and in a few moments you’ll have your starting forecast ready to be customized and adjusted.
Campaign Groups:
For independent forecasting of recurring campaign sets (like Brand vs. Generic, different categories, or service lines), Campaign Groups offer quick access points for your planning.. You’ll find the Campaign Groups tab in the Bidding & Planning section of the lefthand tool bar, or you can create one by selecting campaigns and using the edit button in the campaign view.
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As you go:
Alternatively, you can dive straight into the Plans tab under Bidding & Planning and add campaigns in as you build the Plan. (You can select all live campaigns if you need one top level forecast!)
Creating Your Forecast
Hit the “+” in the Plans tab to start your forecast; here you’ll put in your parameters such as timeframe, key metrics (Traffic, Conversions (CPA) or Conv. Value (ROAS)) then select your campaigns or campaign group. You’ll be served an initial forecast based on current performance and campaign settings, great for an outlook on expected results. From here there’s a number of ways to start playing around and answering those stakeholder questions, or even seeking out proactive opportunities:
Returns curve & Key metrics:
First off, you’ll see a handy scale of your key metric vs spend plotted in the chart, great for finding that point of diminishing returns. If you want to be more specific, you can manually edit one of the 3 core metrics on the right hand side to get a view of how it affects the other two. If we jump back to those classic questions at the start, this is where we can get those quick & informed answers.
If we were to add £10k to next month’s budget, what would that do to CPA? Go ahead and bump up the forecasted spend by £10k and you can instantly see the effect on conversions & CPA - if you’ve selected those as your key metrics.
If we wanted to increase revenue by 25%, what would we need to spend? Likewise, if looking at conv value as the key metric, you’ll be able to adjust your revenue figure and see what spend level would be recommended to achieve this.
What would spend look like at a ROAS of 500%? Adjust your forecasted efficiency and you’ll get your answer!
Custom CvR:
Need to customize the forecast further? You can input your own custom conversion rate to adjust the expected conversion numbers, great if you know there’s an upcoming sale or expected downturn in demand. However, it's important to know that the system learns from your past data, so seasonality should be accounted for automatically - provided you’ve been live on the platform long enough to have the relevant YoY data.
Campaign View:
Lastly, you can scroll below the graph for a detailed breakdown of the forecast by individual campaign. This section includes a range of metrics and offers granular insights into how spend and conversions are projected to be redistributed.
Here you can get that steer on how to split additional spend by campaign, or where you could pull back to see the least impact on conversions.
Beyond Forecasting
As you may have spotted by now, there’s more to this feature than forecasting alone! Once you’re happy with your forecast, you can save it as a Plan, complete with recommended adjustments to achieve your desired results and custom reporting flags for in-flight notifications if you're under or over pacing. Alternatively, you can turn your plan into a Budget Bid Strategy, letting SA360’s automated bidding optimise towards the forecasted spend & performance. Both of these features deserve their own in-depth overviews, and if you’d like to know more please reach out to searchadtechuk@incubeta.com.
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