Advertising campaign optimization times

Gonza Pastorino24 November

Most advertising platforms work with a campaign optimization algorithm which, in turn, contains a learning period. What does this mean? That when we create campaigns or make big changes, the algorithm has a time in which it will look for the optimal way to display ads (and, consequently, deliver results). During this phase, you will be able to detect with greater precision which audience is most likely to click on your ad, at what times it should be shown, which are the locations of the people who react the most, etc. 🤓

The learning time will depend on each ad-server and its algorithm. We will talk about the two most used nowadays: Google Ads and Facebook Ads. However, this behavior tends to occur in most of the technologies we use.

What happens on Facebook Ads?

On Facebook, it is required to reach approximately 50 optimization events for the campaign within a 7-day window from the last significant change. What does this mean? The longer it takes to achieve these events, the longer it will take to get past the learning phase.

What happens in Google Ads?

At Google, the sensitivity of learning times is in campaigns with automatic bidding. Therefore, as major changes are made to bids, budgets, or conversion targets, the learning state of these will be triggered. The estimated learning time on this platform is on average 7 days since the last significant change.

An important fact ⚠️ For this learning to take place in a timely manner, we must avoid limiting campaigns by budget.

But how long will it take to obtain conclusive results conclusive results?

As with so many things in life, the answer is it depends. There are several factors that come into play, such as the characteristics of the target audience, the interference of significant dates (Black Friday, Christmas, etc.), the participation of the competition in that channel, among others. However, in general terms, it is expected that you will have conclusive results from your campaigns within 7 to 15 days from implementation. 📅

Although this is the time it will take to yield the first results, it is advisable that campaigns run for longer periods of time, since the longer a campaign is active, the more information the platforms will gather in order to optimize them.

Recommendations for reducing optimization times

🧠 Think before making changes and, if you decide to do so, make sure they are of great value, as you must be willing to go through a new learning period.

📊 Give the algorithm the right signals and enough data as soon as possible.

💸 Allocate sufficient budgets for the learning phase and be patient with the timing of each stage.