Custom Goals

Last update: July 11, 2024

Topics:
DSP Optimization

CREATED FOR:

User

Custom goals define the success events that an advertiser requires to meet its business objectives. 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. You can create custom goals as objectives in Advertising Search, Social, & Commerce. The name of each objective for DSP must be prefixed with “ADSP_”.

Each custom goal (objective) consists of one or more conversion metrics and the relative weights of those metrics. The available conversion metrics include all metrics tracked using the Adobe Advertising conversion pixel and through Adobe Analytics. Only non-mobile weights are considered for DSP custom goals, but they’re used for all ad types.

For example, suppose that three conversion metrics are relevant to a specific package in one of your campaigns: “PDF Download” valued at 20 USD, “Email Signup” valued at 30 USD, and “Order Confirmation” valued at 40 USD. If you want to give weight according to the one-time monetary value of the customer action, then the relative weights of the metrics would be 1, 1.5, and 2.

Once you create a custom goal, you can assign it to a package for reporting and algorithmic optimization using Adobe Sensei.

Weight recommendations are automatically generated for DSP-attributed metrics in objectives, and can apply all weight recommendations with one click. All weight changes to objectives prefixed with “ADSP_” are applied algorithmically in DSP within two days. For more information weight recommendations, see the Optimization Guide chapter on “(Beta) New Objectives,” which is available from within Search, Social, & Commerce.

Create a Custom Goal

To create a custom goal, the DSP account must be linked to a Search, Social, & Commerce account with the same Adobe Experience Cloud organization ID, from within the Search, Social, & Commerce client settings. If your DSP account isn’t linked to a Search, Social, & Commerce account, then contact your Adobe Account Team.

Log in to Advertising Search, Social, & Commerce at (users in North America) https://enterprise-na.efrontier.com or (all other users) https://enterprise-intl.efrontier.com.
Make sure the metrics that you want to include in your goal have been tracked, are available in the product, and include a display name:
1. In the main menu, click Search > Admin > Conversions.
2. Locate the metric, and make sure that Show in UI and Reports is enabled for the metric.
  NOTE
  Analytics custom events follow this naming convention: custom_event_[*event #*]_[*Analytics report suite ID*]. Example: custom_event_16_examplersid
3. If the metric doesn’t have a value in the Display Name column, then click in the cell, enter the display name, and click Apply.
Create the custom goal as an objective:
1. In the main menu, click Search > Optimization > New Objectives Beta.
2. In the toolbar, click .
3. Enter the objective settings, including the associated metrics and their relative numeric weights for non-mobile devices, and then save the objective. Consider the following:
  - For objectives used for Advertising DSP packages, the objective name must be prefixed with “ADSP_” such as “ADSP_Registrations.” The prefix isn’t case-sensitive.
  - Include only metrics that are attributed to DSP. Any metrics attributed to Search, Social, & Commerce or to any other ad network are ignored.
  - At least one metric must have the metric type Goal.
  - DSP uses the non-mobile weights for all ads. Any mobile weights specified are ignored.
  NOTE
  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.

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.

Best Practices for Building a Custom Goal

Custom Goals with a Single Metric

The following examples show how you might configure goals that target a single conversion metric.

Example for a Campaign with the “Highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)” Optimization Goal

If your campaign goal is revenue (Highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)), and revenue from all device types is equally important to you, then include the “Revenue” metric with a non-mobile weight of one (1); the mobile weight is ignored. Select the metric type Goal.

NOTE

A non-mobile weight of one (1) equates to a value of one (1) for each $1 of revenue that’s tracked for display ads on any device. For example, a $250 conversion with a non-mobile weight of one (1) is reported as $250 for conversions. If the conversion metric is assigned a non-mobile weight of 0.5, then the $250 conversion is reported as $125 in Adobe Advertising ($250 Conversion * 0.5 Non-mobile Weight = $125).

Example for a Campaign with the “Lowest Cost per Acquisition (CPA)” Optimization Goal

If your campaign goal is the lowest cost per acquisition (CPA) and it requires only one success event (such as “Application Submit”), then include that one metric and specify the metric type as Goal. The best practice is to set the non-mobile weight as one (1); the mobile weight is ignored.

NOTE

A non-mobile weight of one (1) equates to a value of one (1) for each conversion that’s tracked for display ads on any device. For example, if 10 Application Submit conversions are tracked, then 10 Application Submit conversions are reported. If the conversion metric is assigned a non-mobile weight of 0.5, however, then the 10 conversions are reported as five (5) in Adobe Advertising (10 Conversions * 0.5 Non-mobile Weight = 5).

Custom Goals with Multiple Metrics

There are two scenarios in which you would use multiple metrics in a custom goal:

Your campaign goal has multiple success events. For example, maybe you’re advertising for more than one on-site action (PDF Download, Contact Us, and Email Sign up), and all are actions contribute to your CPA goal. If the objective includes the three separate metrics, each with non-mobile weights of one (1), then the Adobe Sensei algorithm treats each of the metrics and user device types with equal importance. If the different metrics have varying costs or importance, then you adjust their relative weights accordingly.
The single conversion metric in your custom goal isn’t achieving the minimum of 10 conversions per day required for optimized performance. This can occur because of minimal daily package spend or a limited number of natural conversions. Adding additional supporting metrics to the custom goal can help you achieve the 10-conversions-per-day threshold. Ten supporting events can help a package meet the 10/day threshold, even when each of their weights is below one (1). But you may not need to add that many events.

When you add supporting metrics to a custom goal, weight them according to their relative importance to the main success event, and keep in mind the quantity of data points. This allows the Adobe Sensei algorithm to balance multiple metrics and optimize toward your goal.

The following example objective includes three metrics, each with a different non-mobile weight: Application Submit = 1, Application Start = 0.1, and Advertiser Landing Page = 0.01. This means that each Application Submit conversion has the same value to your business as an average of 10 Application Start conversions and 100 Advertiser Landing Page conversions.

If, instead, you weighted Landing Page visits equally to Application Submits, then the naturally higher quantity of landing page visits could overwhelm your goal and skew to landing page visits.

recommendation-more-help