Manage custom objectives
Available for DSP accounts that are linked to Search, Social, & Commerce accounts
Objectives define the success events that an advertiser sets to meet its business objectives. Objectives are available for DSP packages as custom goals. Each package that uses the optimization goal “Highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)” or “Lowest Cost per Acquisition (CPA)” must include a custom goal to help achieve the overall optimization goal.
An objective consists of the metrics (properties) to be tracked and optimized, and the relative weights of those metrics. Each objective can include:
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Goal metrics, which represent an advertiser’s primary success metrics. They typically include core business outcomes for a package, such as Revenue, Leads, or Sales. Each objective must have at least one goal metric.
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Optional Assist metrics, which assist, predict, precede, or contribute to driving goal metrics. Examples include engagement metrics, such as Test Drives and Trials.
You can let Adobe AI automatically assign and update weighted assist events to maximize your goal events. If you prefer to assign your own weighted assist metrics, DSP can optionally recommend assist metrics based on past performance data from Adobe Advertising and Adobe Analytics. You can choose whether or not to apply the recommendations.
All changes to objective options are tracked at the field level and are listed in a change log.
- Advertising Search, Social, & Commerce also uses objectives. Each Search, Social, & Commerce portfolio must have an objective so that the optimization capability can create click and revenue models for the portfolio.
- You can use the same objective for multiple DSP packages and/or multiple Search, Social, & Commerce portfolios.
Available metrics
You can include any of the following in your objectives:
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Metrics that Adobe Advertising tracks using the Adobe Advertising conversion tracking pixel.
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(Advertisers with Adobe Analytics for Advertising) Conversion and site engagement metrics synced from Adobe Analytics.
Objective status
The Settings > Custom Objectives view indicates the status of each objective. Values can include:
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Waiting: The objective is in a draft state until recommendations are generated.
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Active: The objective is saved and usable.
Recommendation status
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Not Initiated: No recommendation was requested.
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Generating: Recommendations are being generated.
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Ready: Recommendations are available to apply.
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Error: Recommendations could not be generated.
Create an objective
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In the main menu, click Settings > Custom Objectives.
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In the upper right, click Create.
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Enter the objective settings.
When you choose automated bidding, you can assign properties (metrics) to the objective as “Goal” metrics. For custom bidding, you can assign properties as either “Goal” or weighted “Assist” metrics, but you must include at least one goal metric.
The goal and assist labels don’t affect optimization. Only the weights of the included metrics affect optimization.
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(Objectives with custom bidding; optional) To generate the recommended assist metrics based on past performance data, click Generate in the bottom section. In the Generate Recommendation, click Generate.
Recommended metrics take up to 20 minutes to generate. While the recommendations are being generated, the status of the custom objective is Waiting. Once the recommendations are generated, you can “view and apply the recommended assist events.”
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(If you didn’t generate recommendations) In the upper right, click Save.
In the DSP package settings for packages that use the optimization goal “Highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)” or “Lowest Cost per Acquisition (CPA),” the objective name is now included in the Custom Goals list. When you select the objective as the custom goal for a package, the Conversion Metric list includes all goal metrics for the objective.
Edit an objective
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In the main menu, click Settings > Custom Objectives.
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In the row, click …* > Edit.
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Change any of the objective settings.
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(When recommendations are available; optional) View and optionally apply recommended metrics:
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In the bottom section, click View Recommendations.
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To apply a recommendation, do either of the following:
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Click Apply next to the recommendation.
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Manually adjust the recommendation, and then click Apply next to the recommendation.
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Click Close to close the Recommendations list.
Changes take effect after the objective settings are synced.
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(Objectives with custom bidding; optional) To generate recommended assist metrics based on past performance data, click Generate in the bottom section. In the Generate Recommendation, click Generate.
Recommended metrics take up to 20 minutes to generate. While the recommendations are being generated, the status of the custom objective is Waiting. Once the recommendations are generated, you can “view and apply the recommended assist events.”
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(If you didn’t generate new recommendations) In the upper right, click Save.
View and apply recommended assist events view-apply-recommendations
Objectives with custom bidding
You can view recommendations, and optionally apply them, when the objective status is Active and the Recommendation Status is Ready.
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In the main menu, click Settings > Custom Objectives.
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In the row, click …* > Edit.
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In the bottom section, click View Recommendations.
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(Optional) To apply a recommendation, do either of the following:
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Click Apply next to the recommendation.
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Manually adjust the recommendation, and then click Apply next to the recommendation.
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Click Close to close the Recommendations list.
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In the upper right, click Save.
Changes take effect after the objective settings are synced.
View the change log for a custom objective
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In the main menu, click Settings > Custom Objectives.
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In the row, click …* > Change Log.
Custom objective settings custom-objective-settings
All objective names for Advertising DSP must be prefixed the name with “ADSP_” (not case sensitive), such as “ADSP_Registrations.” Use a name that is easy to identify when you want to assign it to a package.
The objective’s bidding strategy, which determines the types of events that you can configure:
- Automated Bidding: Assign properties (metrics) to the objective as goal metrics. Adobe AI automatically assigns and updates weighted assist events to maximize your goal events using a balanced funnel approach.
- Custom Bidding: Set up your own bidding strategy by assigning properties as either “goal” or weighted “assist” events. Use this advanced option for predefined strategies.
Changing the bidding strategy clears all previously selected metrics.
Notes: Analytics custom events follow this naming convention:
custom_event_[*event #*]_[*Analytics report suite ID*]. Example: custom_event_16_examplersid. Analytics dimensions and segments aren’t available for Adobe Advertising optimization.Tip: For optimum performance, the combined metrics in the custom goal (objective) must total at least ten conversions per day. When they don’t, the best practice is to add additional supporting conversion metrics, such as product pages or application starts, to the objective. See Best Practices for Building a Custom Goal for guidelines.
The name of each conversion metric included in the objective. Do any of the following:
- To add a metric as a goal, click Goal next to the metric name in the Available Metrics column.
- (Custom Bidding strategy only) To add a metric that assists the assigned goal metrics, click Assist next to the metric name in the Available Metrics column. Then enter the numeric weight of the metric relative to other metrics in the objective. The weight must be from 0.001 to 1 and may include decimals. The default weight is 1.
- (Custom Bidding strategy only) To edit the weight of an assist metric, click inside the field and enter the numeric weight of the metric relative to other metrics in the objective. The weight must be greater than zero (0) and may include decimals. The default weight is 1.
- To remove a metric from the objective, hold the cursor over the metric name and click X./li>
Notes:
- Make sure that the different metrics and their weights make sense relatively. For example, you can’t directly compare a count with a dollar amount.
- Large relative changes between the objective weights can cause temporary volatility in performance, so monitor performance after the change.
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