In 2021, Google launched a feature known as “optimized targeting” for Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns. This feature aims to extend beyond your campaigns’ manually selected audiences to find additional ones you might overlook. Google claims it can discover new customers outside your current audience without increasing bids while still achieving your campaign goals.
While this feature might sound appealing, it may actually place your ads on irrelevant websites, leading to a high number of invalid clicks and poor overall performance.
Navigating this feature
Optimized targeting is automatically enabled at the ad group level when you create a GDN campaign. Unless you deliberately turn it off, your campaigns will use this feature from the beginning.
When testing this feature, several significant issues arise:
Google’s black-box approach
This feature offers minimal insight into its performance compared to your selected audiences. However, you can see its performance compared to manually selected segments by navigating to your GDN campaign → Audiences and reviewing the row labeled “Total: Expansion and Optimized Targeting” at the bottom of the audience segment report.
Budget concerns
In one campaign, optimized targeting consumed 99% of the budget, leaving minimal resources for targeting selected audiences.
Misleading optimization
Rather than enhancing campaign performance, it resulted in invalid click traffic levels surpassing legitimate traffic, wasting budget and distorting performance metrics.
Let’s look at an example
When a client sought to expand their reach using display campaigns, we tested optimized targeting. We monitored performance by comparing campaigns with and without optimized targeting.
Our findings
Campaigns opted into vs. opted out of optimized targeting in the same 30-day period
| Opted into Opt. Targeting | Invalid CTR |
|---|---|
| Yes | 66% |
| No | 26% |
| Difference | -60% |
Campaign before and after opting out of optimized targeting
| Time Period | Impressions | Invalid Clicks | Invalid CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 3,492,348 | 31,461 | 66% |
| After | 3,335,736 | 5,154 | 45% |
| Difference | -4% | -84% | -31% |
With optimized targeting, invalid clicks reached 66%, compared to 26% without it – a 60% difference. After disabling it, invalid clicks fell significantly by 84%, while impressions were stable. Invalid CTR declined from 66% to 45%, a 31% improvement. Despite the client’s primary aim to expand reach, disabling the feature didn’t impact impression volume. It proved effective for enhancing traffic quality and reducing invalid click activity.
The key takeaway is to consider turning off optimized targeting in your display campaigns.
How to tread carefully with this feature
Optimized targeting led to budget disappearances and increased invalid click traffic. Consider these recommendations:
- Closely examine its performance to determine if it delivers value or simply consumes your budget.
- If unnecessary, include a step to disable it during your GDN campaign launch process.
- If you’ve already opted into optimized targeting, analyze your invalid click traffic against the credits received in transaction history. If under-credited, reach out to Google for additional review and potential compensation.
While optimized targeting may appear advantageous, it’s crucial to approach it with caution. It has the potential to drain budgets and drive invalid traffic, potentially outweighing promised benefits. Don’t hesitate to disable it to safeguard your advertising budget from unnecessary spending.
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