Learn how to create Performance Groups and set optimization goals to start optimizing your ads with Adspert.

You have to create at least one Performance Group, assign your advertising campaigns to it, and set a goal. This is the foundation for how Adspert optimizes your campaigns.

We will go through the process step-by-step. Along the way, we will share some additional tips on how you can get the most out of the optimization driven by Adspert’s AI.

You’ll learn how to:

A Performance Group (PG) is a group of campaigns optimized towards a shared optimization goal, like Maximizing Sales or achieving a specific ACoS.

The video also explains the Learning health status, why Maximize Sales is the default goal for new Performance Groups and when ACoS and ROAS goals become available.

Now, let's move on to the Performance Groups and Goals.

Click Control from the main navigation bar and select Performance Groups and Goals from the dropdown.

This is the key page where you manage and view your ads per optimization.

It's where you select the campaigns you want to optimize and set or adjust your optimization goals. Before our AI can start optimizing your ad accounts, you first need to create Performance Groups, assign ad campaigns to them, and set goals. But don't worry, I will show you how to do all of that in just a moment.

But first, let me explain what is a Performance Group. First of all, this is an Adspert term. A Performance Group, also known as PG, is a group of campaigns that are optimized towards a shared optimization goal, like maximizing sales or achieving the specific ACOS.

If you just started using Adspert, setting up your performance group might feel a bit unfamiliar. But don't worry, most users complete this setup in under 10 minutes and you don't need any technical experience to get started.

To keep things clear and effective, just follow two simple principles: 1. pair apples with apples and 2. less is more. Let me explain.

Pairing apples with apples means grouping campaigns that have something in common. That means placing campaigns with similar performance, products, ACoS values, or other metrics into the same performance group.

For example, put campaigns with similar products in one performance group and those with similar ACOS in another.

If your campaigns have little or even no conversions, then I recommend you a slightly different approach. Put campaigns with low number of conversions in one performance group and those with more conversions in another.

Why?

Because Adspert optimizes all campaigns in a PG towards the same goal, so keeping similar campaigns together helps our AI make smarter, faster decisions.

Less is more means you don't need dozens of performance groups to get good results. In fact, most users see better results with fewer, well structured PGs.

As a ballpark, it's better to have ten performance groups than one hundred when you're starting out. And having fewer performance groups is easier to manage and track for both you and Adspert.

One cool tip: If you run campaigns with fixed budgets in different marketplaces, for example, 500€ for Germany and 1000$ for the US, then it's best to create separate performance groups for each. So one for your German campaigns and another PG for your US campaigns. And in that way, each PG stays aligned with its own budget.

And that's basically it.

Stick to those two principles: Similar campaigns, simple structure, and you will be set up for success.

And now that you have learned how to group your campaigns, let's walk through creating your first performance group.

Click Create New Performance Group and follow all the steps: Name, campaign selection, and goals.

First, name your group. Choose something descriptive that helps you stay organized, especially if you are managing campaigns across multiple products or marketplaces. There is also an option to create an empty Performance Group here, but this is really an advanced option that should be used only in special cases and we don't recommend it to the new users. So click save and now select the campaigns you want to optimize.

Scan through the list of available campaigns on the left. You can also use search or filters to narrow down the list. This is really handy if you have a large account or want to focus on specific campaigns.

As a reminder, stick to the apples with apples principle. So select campaigns that share similar conversions, performance, products and so on, so Adspert can optimize them more effectively. And to add a campaign to the Performance group, simply click on it. Selected campaigns appear at the top. To remove a campaign from the selected campaigns, just click it again.

You can also use Select All and Deselect All, which is especially useful after filtering to quickly add or remove campaigns in bulk. When you're happy with your selection, click Save to move on.

The last step is to set an optimization goal for your performance group. For example, adjust daily cost limit for Maximize Sales goal, or by how much you would like to reduce ACoS, and so on. We know this can be tricky. Aim too high and you risk burning cash.

Aim too low and you might miss out on sales. And that's exactly why Adspert gives you two tools to help you choose a goal that makes sense and cuts the guesswork: the Goal Fit Score and Scenarios.

The Goal Fit Score shows you how well your goal fits with your performance group based on factors like budget, history, campaign maturity, trends and so on. So basically, the fuller the circle, the better the fit. Also, the green, yellow or red color tells you how realistic your goal really is. Here on the right from the circle, there are also tips to help you fine tune your goal value.

A good rule of thumb is to avoid changing your goal value by more than 20% at a time. For example, if you want a 40% improvement, rather adjust it in two steps. First, aim for 20% change and wait until the goal is reached. And only then adjust it for the additional 20%.

This helps the AI stay aligned with your campaign's real world performance and leads to more stable, reliable results over time.

Next, the scenarios chart shows how different goals would affect your conversions, ACoS, ROAS, revenue, and other metrics before spending any money.

Please note: if you just started with Adspert and you are creating your first PG, you will not see Scenarios right away.

That's because this feature becomes available after the Learning health status is over. This is 7 days after you have created your performance group. And to show you how Scenarios work, I am now using a more mature Performance Group as an example.

So, setting the right goal is one of the trickiest parts of managing PPC campaigns. Even small changes can have a big impact on performance.

Scenarios helps you test how different goals and values would affect your results before you commit, so you can make smarter, data informed decisions.

And by default, Scenarios chart shows the maximized sales goal and data from the last thirty days.

You can interact with the chart to simulate different goal values and instantly see how they would affect your key performance metrics.

Just click around to explore. This helps you find the most profitable goal for your campaigns before you spend any money. This is really the best part.

But when you create a new Performance Group, the default goal is Maximize Sales with a daily cost limit. This goal is designed to help you get as many sales as possible while keeping your daily costs under control. This is the default because Maximize Sales gives both you and our AI a strong, stable foundation for optimization, especially during the learning status in the first 7 days.

You might be wondering why you can't set an ACoS or ROAS goal just yet. Those unlock automatically once your Performance Group reaches 30 conversions in the last 30 days.

Until then, Maximize Sales works as a built in guardrail to help you protect your budget.

You can't switch goal types during this early phase, but you can adjust the daily cost limit.

And once the 7 day Learning is over and conversions reach the threshold, you will have the option to change your goal type. Just keep in mind that even though you can change your goal type, it doesn't always mean you should.

If you're thinking about changing to ACoS or ROAS, we recommend doing it after your PG has reached at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days. That's when those goals can really deliver.

Last but not least, check the Max Bid. This is your safety net that helps you avoid overspending. Simply set the highest bid you're willing to pay, and Adspert applies it to all campaigns in your performance group.

It's a simple way to set clear boundaries for your bidding. And for even more control, you can also set Campaign Max Bid. This overrides the Performance Group Max Bid even if you move the campaign to another PG.

When you're done, click Save to move on. This here is the last step in creating your Performance Group. Take a moment to review your setup and make sure it aligns with your business objectives.

Then just click Submit and you're done! Within twenty four hours, Adspert will automatically start optimizing your campaigns.

If this is your first Performance Group, you will also get an email confirmation once your optimization starts, so you will know everything is running as it should.

Now we're back at the Performance Groups and Goals page. Here you can see the PG you just created and here you can also keep an eye on its progress exactly like this.