Smart Bidding uses conversions and conversion value data in Google Ads to help meet your goals. If you have any issues with conversion tracking, you can use data exclusions to help reduce the impact that these issues may have on Smart Bidding performance.
Learn more about data exclusions.
Best practices for using data exclusions
For best results, review the guidance below when applying data exclusions. While data exclusions can help reduce performance fluctuations associated with bad conversion data, performance fluctuations should still be expected.
- Apply data exclusions as quickly as possible when you identify a conversion data issue.
- Data exclusions created for past dates should see performance fluctuations begin to stabilise after a few days.
- Whenever possible, if you know about a future outage, such as scheduled site maintenance, apply data exclusions proactively. When the data exclusion is set for dates in the future, it will typically take effect within a day.
- Data exclusions aren’t intended to be used frequently or for extended periods of time. Doing so could negatively impact Smart Bidding performance.
- In the event that a week or more of clicks are impacted, performance fluctuations may persist for 1–2 conversion cycles.
- After applying a data exclusion, it’s recommended that you adjust CPA/ROAS targets to achieve desired performance while ensuring budgets are set to acceptable levels.
- Exclusion dates selected will apply to clicks, so be sure to consider your conversion delay and exclude any days of clicks that may have been impacted. It’s best practice to exclude at least 90% of clicks associated with impacted conversion data.
- Data exclusions can be applied at the manager account or sub-manager account level. The start and end times are based on the account's time zone.
- Don't remove a data exclusion after it has been applied.
- Advertisers may wish to backfill the accurate conversion data for their reporting purposes, but you should avoid removing data exclusions as it may cause undesired performance fluctuations. Advertisers should wait a minimum of 5 days before backfilling.
Data exclusions are recommended for a conversion data outage, which includes conversion tracking issues or conversion uploads. Examples of when data exclusions are applicable include:
- Broken conversion tracking for a certain period
- Incorrectly placed conversion tag on a website resulting in inaccurate conversion counts
- temporary inability to upload offline conversion data
It’s generally not recommended to backfill data, even when there was a data outage, as this can have a direct impact on your Search and Shopping bidding performance. In cases where a data exclusion was set during the period, backfilling is possible for reporting purposes but only after waiting 5 days after the data exclusion was applied. In this case, removing the data exclusion is not advised.
