Are you finding that your PPC campaigns aren't quite hitting the mark despite using automated bidding? There's a powerful tool you can use to help you achieve your goals: Value Rules.

When used appropriately, Value Rules can help you optimise your spend and ensure your budget is directed toward the most valuable conversions. 

If you haven't already, read Hannah's blog here, where she explains value-based bidding (VBB) and why having a robust VBB strategy in place is vital to the success of your PPC campaigns. Building on this foundation, I'm excited to share this handy tool that can fine-tune your PPC campaigns. 

What are Value Rules? 

Value Rules allow you to assign conversion values based on specific conditions, such as audience attributes and other demographics. Instead of treating all conversions equally, Value Rules allow you to prioritise or de-prioritise a conversion from a certain type of user by increasing or decreasing their value according to the criteria you choose. Essentially, it tells Google, "the users with these attributes aren't as valuable to me, so decrease the value of these users", steering Google towards your preferred audience. 

For example: Imagine you run a university and have the aim of getting users to enrol in your university degree courses. You value these leads at £1,000, but you know that users coming from London are much less likely to actually enrol in the courses after becoming a lead. Therefore, you want to value leads from these users based in London at £500. With Value Rules, you could multiply all leads coming from London by 0.5. This would decrease bids for any users coming from this region and allow Google to work hard at getting leads from other, more valuable regions.

As mentioned, you can set up a value rule for the following criteria:

• Location: Adjust values based on geographic locations.
  • Are you seeing poor-quality users come from a certain city? Add a negative value rule!
• Device: Change values depending on whether the conversion comes from a mobile device, desktop, or tablet.
  • Are you seeing a certain device has a very poor conversion rate compared to others? Add a negative value rule!
• Audience: Indicate the type of users that you know are of higher value to your business
  • Have you identified a valuable audience segment that fits your customer persona perfectly? Add a positive value rule!

Benefits of Using Value Rules

Optimised Bidding: Value Rules enable your bidding strategy to be more aligned with your business goals. By assigning higher values to conversions from users that are more valuable to your business, you can optimise your bids to focus on these high-priority users.

Improved ROAS: By tailoring conversion values, you can achieve better ROAS. For instance, if conversions from returning customers are generally more valuable, you can set Value Rules to reflect this.

Better Resource Allocation: Value Rules help in efficiently allocating your advertising budget, ensuring that more funds are directed toward more profitable conversions.

Enhanced Campaign Precision: They allow more granular control, offering precision in targeting and conversion tracking that general settings can't provide.

How to add a Value Rule on Google ads

1. Navigate to Value Rules: Click on the 'Goals' icon (the Trophy) and then under the Conversions column, select 'Value Rules'.
2. Select 'Create conversion value rule"
3. Select the Conversion Goal that your rule will apply to
4. Select the primary condition (the main condition that your conversions must meet for the value rule to apply).
5. Add in a value adjustment. 
   1. Increase by: adding a percentage or flat amount to the conversion value.
   2. Decrease by: subtracting a percentage or a flat amount from the conversion value. 
6. After applying your Value Rules, regularly monitor your campaign’s performance. Make adjustments to the rules as necessary to ensure they are meeting your objectives.

Best Practices for Using Value Rules

Start Small: Begin with a simple rule and expand as you become more comfortable with how it impacts your campaign performance.

Regular Monitoring: Continuously monitor the impact of your Value Rules and adjust as necessary.

Customer Data Utilisation: Leverage CRM data to identify valuable audiences and segments. The more data-driven your approach, the better your Value Rules will perform.

To Sum Up...

Value Rules offer a nuanced way to improve your PPC campaigns by assigning different values to conversions based on essential criteria. By applying these rules, you can ensure a more efficient allocation of your budget, driving higher-value conversions and optimising your overall campaign performance.

As always, we love discussing all things PPC, so don't hesitate to get in touch!

Want to learn more about the world of digital marketing? Check out our other blogs here!