On this page
The short answer
Google gives each campaign's bid strategy a status. Oppy lists the campaigns Google marks as limited by data or misconfigured. It also lists those still learning long after they should have settled.
Why it matters
A strategy that is learning, short of data or set up wrong can't bid as it should. The campaign keeps spending while the bidding has too little to go on.
Learning is normal after a change. When it lasts for weeks, something keeps restarting it, or the campaign gets too few conversions to finish.
How Oppy decides
Oppy reads Google's own bidding status for every enabled campaign. Limited by data and misconfigured are Google's verdicts, reported as they stand with the cause Google gives.
Learning is reported only once it has shown in every audit for twice the account's conversion cycle, between 14 and 42 days. The cycle is the time within which nine in ten of the account's conversions come after the click.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Spend |
| What it reads | Campaigns, their settings and their results |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Reported in the audit with the rows behind it. The decision stays with you. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns and add the Bid strategy type column.
- Look for a learning, limited or misconfigured status beside the bid strategy or in the Status column.
- Hover over the status to read the reason Google gives.
- For a campaign still learning, open the change history to see when it last changed.
What to do about it
For a strategy stuck learning, leave its budget, target, keywords and conversion settings alone for two weeks. Each change starts the learning again. If it still learns after that, it gets too few conversions to finish.
For limited by data, the strategy needs more conversions to learn from. Count a conversion it reaches more often, or join it with a campaign that sells the same thing.
For misconfigured, follow the cause Google gives. A budget shared with campaigns outside the strategy needs a budget of its own. A conversion problem needs the actions it bids on to record again.
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Bids and targets, each with its own page.
- Buying clicks on an account that needs results
- A target set before the bidding has enough to learn from
- A target set a long way from what the account does
- A brand campaign letting Google decide what your own name is worth
- A ROAS target set without knowing the margin
- Portfolio bid strategies nothing is using