Target CPA (tCPA)

 

Welcome to our Target CPA article! This guide is created to answer any questions you may have about our tCPA feature, which allows you to optimize your campaigns by setting specific cost targets for desired actions. For deeper insights, please refer to our tCPA Best Practices guide (later down in the artcile).

 

What is Target CPA?

tCPA, which stands for Target Cost Per Acquisition, is a vital metric in digital advertising. It represents the average amount you are willing to spend to acquire a new customer or achieve a specific action, such as a sale or sign-up. This feature allows advertisers to set a predefined cost goal, ensuring that their campaigns remain cost-effective and focused on acquiring results. By setting a tCPA, you can better control your advertising budget and optimize your campaigns to achieve the best possible ROI.

 

💡Need to know: Pixel or Postback are required in order to set up a tCPA campaign.

 

Who is a good fit for tCPA?

tCPA is a good fit for various advertisers, including performance advertisers, e-commerce retailers, lead generation companies, app developers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and any campaign with a strong focus on driving specific actions such as purchases or sign-ups.

 

How to set up tCPA

1. Access Ad Management.
2. Create a new campaign.
   • Begin by creating a new campaign with the 'Website Conversions' objective. By selecting this, you are choosing tCPA as your bid type. 
3. Select an event to track within your Ad Set.
   • Click the dropdown under ‘Choose your event to track’ and select ‘Create new event.'
4. In Event Management, click ‘Create event.’
   • Here you will name your event, decide on your event tracking type, and follow the 3-step-process to integrate your Pixel or Postback.
5. Test Pixel or Postback.
   • Before launching your campaign, make sure to use our ‘Go test’ feature at the bottom of the page. Hopefully you will see ‘Test result: successful.’
6. Save and proceed.
   • Once you have successfully tested the tracking implementation and created your event, save the changes, and proceed with setting up your ad.

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tCPA Best Practices:

We’ve already covered the basics of tCPA and how to create a campaign here, so now we'll explore advanced strategies, including tCPA recommendations, targeting tactics, ad creatives, and more, to help you maximize your ad performance and profitability. Many advertisers regard tCPA as the 'magic' for driving conversions on our platform. For peak performance, it's essential to monitor it closely. This article is your key to unlocking that potential.

 

How to set up your tCPA campaign for success

1. Bid true to your business
   • Set your bid at the highest amount you’re willing to pay for a conversion.
2. Daily budget
   • Set your daily budget to be at least 10x your tCPA goal (Target Cost Per Acquisition). For example, if your tCPA goal is $20, allocating a $200 daily budget would be our recommendation. This range allows for optimal performance and gives the algorithm sufficient room to optimize your bids effectively.
3. Ad Set Creation
   • Create 2-3 ad sets and once the cold start is complete, keep the higher performing set and switch off the others.
4. Broad targeting
   • We recommend starting with broad targeting and avoiding layering options at the start of your campaign. Once we have gathered sufficient data from the Cold Start Period, you have two options: to edit your original ad set or launch a new ad set with more specific targeting.
5.  Creatives
   • Experiment with different types of assets, such as videos and images.
   • Consider separating video and image assets into different ad sets.
   • We also suggest separating 9x16 and 16x videos into different ad sets.

 

Understanding the ‘Cold Start Period’

 The Cold Start Period typically is completed within the first 2-5 days of your campaign. During this phase, our system gathers crucial learnings about user behavior, helping identify the most likely converting audience segments for your campaign. You should expect daily fluctuation and when it collects enough data, you will see more stabilized performance. 

 

💡Pro tip: Please be patient during the Cold Start Period and don’t edit your ad set. During this time, you may see fluctuations in data. We encourage you to refer to weekly data for optimization!

 

Can I add targeting options to existing campaigns?

Yes, but it's not recommended to add new targeting options to existing campaigns. Making drastic adjustments to your ad set can taint previous learnings.

 

How to optimize + start scaling campaigns

1. Avoid drastic changes
   • When it comes to ad sets, it’s best to refrain from making sudden and significant changes to prevent shocking the system. To achieve consistent and optimal results with your Target CPA strategy, it is highly recommended to limit changes to your ad set targeting and goal CPA to a maximum of once a day. Frequent adjustments can disrupt the algorithm's learning process and may lead to suboptimal performance.
   • In the event that you do make changes in your ad set, please let the system run for a couple of days before making any other changes. 
2. Leverage our diagnosis tool
   • Access the diagnosis tool under the “Status” column in your ad sets and hover over the icon to read the tips and tricks designed to support you during the Cold Start Period. When the sign says “Learning Phase Complete” that is a good indicator your ad set is ready to scale!
3. Increase budget
   • Gradually increase your budget so as not to shock the system. Our recommendation is increasing your daily budget 20-30% every 2-3 days.
4. Weekly performance 
   • When analyzing your campaign performance, please look at the weekly overview, not daily. This will provide a better understanding of your campaign so you can identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.
5. Use our bid estimation tool
   • Make sure to use our bid estimation tool! You can find this when you edit tCPA ad sets that are labeled as "Learning Phase Complete."
   • The purpose of this tool is to identify ad sets with high growth potential and project the conversion, cost, and impression metrics based on how much you increase your bid rate.

 

 

What’s the difference between Pixel and Postback?

Both Pixel and Postback are essential tracking methods used to record conversion events from your website to Ad Manager. However, there are small differences.

• Pixel: A small code on your website that records when users take specific actions, like making a purchase.
  • Use Pixel for most tracking needs, it’s easy to set up and provides insights into user behavior.

• Postback: Instead of code, it directly sends event data from your website to Ad manager’s server (server to server). 
  • Use Postback when your website journey is more complicated and contains several steps.

 

How can I check that my event is set up correctly?

If a default Pixel or Postback event appears in Event Management, it indicates that your account has received conversion events, which suggests that the setup is correct. You can also use our ‘Go Test’ feature when you’re in the process of creating your event.

 

Can I update the conversion tracking?

Currently, advertisers do not have the option to modify existing tracking events. To make changes, you will need to create a new ad set.

 

Why were my tCPA ads rejected?

tCPA ads are rejected by Ad Support when conversion tracking for your campaign is not set up correctly. To activate conversion tracking, go to ‘Tools,’ access the Event Management tab, and follow the provided instructions.

 

Can I use the same Pixel or Postback for multiple ads?

Yes, you can use the same Pixel or Postback for multiple ads within the same advertising account. Once you have set up the Pixel or Postback correctly on your website, it becomes a universal tracking tool accessible to all the ads within that account.

 

✍️Note that Pixels are unique for each ad account.