Google Ads portfolio bid strategies are automated bidding tools that allow you to manage bids across multiple campaigns to achieve a single conversion goal. By grouping campaigns together, you can apply a specific bidding strategy to the entire collection rather than adjusting each campaign individually. This feature simplifies account management and ensures that your automated bidding goals remain consistent across your advertising efforts.
What Are Portfolio Bid Strategies?
In the Google Ads interface, a portfolio bid strategy is a shared bidding approach that lives within your Shared Library. When you create one, you define the strategy type—such as Target CPA or Target ROAS—and assign it to any number of your existing campaigns. Instead of setting a separate target for every individual campaign, the portfolio strategy aggregates performance data from all connected campaigns to optimize bids toward the shared goal.
This structure is particularly helpful for advertisers who manage large accounts with dozens or hundreds of campaigns. If you have ten campaigns promoting similar products, using a portfolio strategy allows the system to treat them as one entity. This leads to a faster accumulation of conversion data, which helps the algorithm make more informed bidding decisions. By pooling resources, you reduce the time spent on manual adjustments while maintaining a focus on your target results.
Why Use Portfolio Strategies Instead of Campaign-Level Bidding?
A common pattern is that individual campaigns may lack sufficient conversion volume to hit their targets quickly. When a campaign has very few conversions, Google’s automated bidding algorithms have limited data to learn from, which can result in inconsistent performance. Portfolio bid strategies solve this by combining data from all chosen campaigns. This aggregate volume provides a much clearer picture of performance trends.
Additionally, portfolio strategies offer centralized control. If your business decides to adjust the Target CPA for a product category, you can update the portfolio strategy once, and all associated campaigns will follow the new target. This prevents the error-prone process of updating individual campaign settings one by one. It creates a stable, consistent environment across your account structure.
Which Strategy Types Are Available for Portfolios?
You can use most standard automated bidding strategies within a portfolio. The most frequently used options include Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value. Each of these functions similarly to how they operate at the campaign level, but they apply their logic across the entire group of campaigns assigned to the portfolio.
- Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Set an average cost you are willing to pay for each conversion.
- Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Aim for a specific revenue return for every dollar spent on advertising.
- Maximize Conversions: Focus on getting as many conversions as possible within your total daily budget.
- Maximize Conversion Value: Prioritize higher-value conversions to increase overall revenue.
How Do You Set Up a Portfolio Strategy?
To begin, navigate to the Tools and Settings menu in your Google Ads account. Select the Shared Library section and then click on Bid Strategies. From here, you can click the plus button to create a new portfolio bid strategy. You will need to select the type of bidding, give it a recognizable name, and choose the campaigns you want to include in this group.
Once the strategy is active, the system begins monitoring the performance of all linked campaigns. You can check the status of your strategy in the same Bid Strategies menu. If you ever need to remove a campaign or change your target, you can return to the portfolio settings and modify them directly. This makes the strategy a dynamic tool that grows alongside your account.
What Are the Limitations of This Approach?
While portfolio bid strategies are effective, they are not always the best choice for every situation. If you have campaigns with vastly different goals or performance requirements, grouping them into one portfolio might cause the algorithm to struggle. For example, a search campaign for branded terms typically has a much higher conversion rate than a generic non-branded campaign. Combining them might lead to a compromise that serves neither goal well.
You should also be cautious when mixing campaigns that target different regions or languages. If your marketing objectives vary significantly by location, keep those campaigns in separate portfolios or use individual campaign-level strategies. Maintaining distinct portfolios for distinct product lines or market segments ensures that the algorithm optimizes toward the correct audience and conversion type.
How Alien Road Applies Portfolio Bid Strategies
At Alien Road, we use portfolio strategies to simplify the management of complex client accounts. In a typical engagement, we begin by auditing the conversion data across the client’s account to identify groups of campaigns that share similar business goals. We avoid mixing high-intent, low-volume campaigns with high-volume, lower-intent traffic to ensure the algorithm remains focused on the right signals.
For example, if a client runs a Shopify store selling home goods, we might group all campaigns related to ‘kitchen supplies’ into one portfolio with a shared Target ROAS. We then monitor the performance in the Shared Library over a 30-day period. If the strategy hits the target consistently, we perform small, incremental adjustments to the ROAS goal to push for better performance without triggering a major learning phase.
Best Practices for Monitoring Performance
- Avoid making frequent, large changes to your targets as this forces the system back into a learning phase.
- Check your portfolio strategy performance at least once a week to ensure it is meeting your expectations.
- Review the conversion tracking setup to ensure all campaigns in the portfolio have the same conversion actions configured correctly.
- Look at the ‘Bid Strategy Status’ column to identify if the strategy is currently limited by budget or if it is in a learning state.
- Ensure your account-wide budget settings support the targets you have set for your portfolio.
Where to Start This Week
Start by identifying two or three campaigns in your account that share the same Target CPA or ROAS. Navigate to your Shared Library and create a new portfolio bid strategy that matches the current goals of these campaigns. Assign them to the new strategy and monitor them for two weeks. Avoid changing any other settings during this time to allow the algorithm to adjust. Once you become comfortable with how the portfolio manages these campaigns, you can evaluate whether to add more campaigns to the group or create separate portfolios for other business goals.
Consistency is essential when using automated bidding. By grouping your campaigns correctly, you help the system work more efficiently. Take this step this week to clean up your account management process and let the Google Ads platform handle the heavy lifting of bid adjustments.
Keep reading: Google Advertising · Advertising